Dare to Be a Daniel

Emotional Pain is an ugly monster, and a very tough one. Imagine a predator or anything scary ..We need to know how to defeat it, kill the fear and tell ourselves we are stronger than it. We need a strong functional tactic to conquer it. Determination and a strong will, is one key to make it vanish, life experiences is another  but it is through scripture and my love of Christ is my ultimate fear remedy.

Mr. Baker taught mathematics at my High School for many years. Before giving us a test, he would put things in perspective for us by admonishing us with these words:

"Today I am giving two examinations: one in trigonometry, and the other in honesty. I hope you will pass them both. But, if you must fail one, fail trigonometry. There are many good people in the world that cannot pass trigonometry, but there are no good people in the world that cannot pass the examination of honesty."

It doesn’t take long to realize that the really important tests in life come long after school is out. Many times the tests are painful. And sometimes they are like pop exams—they take us by surprise!

That’s why the apostle Peter wrote: “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering as though something strange were happening to you” (1 Peter 4:12).

Referring to trials, the apostle Peter also said, “These [trials] have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed” (1 Peter 1:7).I realized early the unusual potential of teaching spiritual truths through appropriate songs. My favorite was

 “Dare to Be a Daniel” it goes like this:

Dare to be a Daniel;
dare to stand alone!
Dare to have a purpose firm!
Dare to make it known.

 In my study of Daniel I was surprised to find that he now finds himself facing what is probably the greatest test of his life. In Daniel 6:1-16a , he was now serving under a new king named Darius. Like the many kings before him, king Darius soon came to recognize Daniel’s great wisdom and personal integrity. Daniel, who was now approaching 90 years of age, became king Darius’ trusted friend. So Darius chose Daniel to be one of only three administrators who governed his kingdom.

Daniel so excelled at his position that the king decided to put him solely in charge of the whole government. That didn’t go over too well with the other cabinet members and high officials. In their jealousy, they tried to discredit Daniel by conducting an exhaustive background search in order to dig up some dirt from his past. That plan failed. Daniel was too much of a man of integrity.

They then decided that the only way they could trap Daniel was somehow to use his religious convictions against him. So they contrived a devious, yet ingenious, plan. The officials appealed to the king’s pride by challenging him to issue a royal decree, one that could not be altered, that would result in the execution of anyone in the kingdom who would pray to any god but to him.

The king’s pride trapped him. So he issued an unchangeable decree that said the lions’ den was for anyone who would not worship him alone. Little did the king know that, in issuing such an unchangeable decree, he was endangering the very life of his trusted friend Daniel?

As expected, it took Daniel’s peers no time at all to find him guilty of praying to his God. Daniel was then convicted of violating the king’s decree and ordered to be thrown into the lions’ den—all apart from the king’s desire. But they had Daniel—and Darius!—on a legal technicality.

So Daniel was now facing his greatest test yet! In this test I want you to see two very important truths that are meant by God to help you through the tests that you will inevitably face in life.
First, God’s tests are often designed to confront you with the reality of your own human limitations.
Humanly speaking, Daniel’s situation was without hope. Verse 16 tells us that he had just been thrown into the lions’ den.

There were three limiting factors that made for a humanly impossible situation here. The first limiting factor was the law of that day (referred to in verse 15 as the law of the Medes and Persians.) This law dictated that a king’s decree could never be revoked—not even by the king himself.
The second limiting factor was the stone referred to in verse 17. This large stone was placed over the mouth of the den to ensure that there was no physical way for Daniel to escape. The third limiting factor facing Daniel was the placement of the royal seals on the secured den. Verse 17 tells us that “the king sealed it with his own signet ring and with the rings of his nobles, so that Daniel’s situation might not be changed.” The king and his nobles took moist clay and sealed it over the stone, pressing their signet rings into the clay so that if someone did try to save Daniel, they would first have to break the seals, which would have brought upon them the decree of their own execution.

Now you don’t have to be in a literal lions’ den or have a friend tossed in one to be confronted with the reality of your own limitations apart from God’s help.

I know that some of us at times feel like we are facing some personal impossibility, and are on the verge of giving up. Some are under-employed concerns today about your children. For some of you it’s an ongoing financial problem. For others it’s relational. You’ve almost given up on your marriage. In spite of all you have done, things just are not improving. They seem to be getting worse.  For some it’s a health problem or a recurring sin or addiction that you wonder if you will ever be able to conquer. No matter what you do, there just seems to be no way out. No hope for change.

The truth is that it is the most spiritually productive place you could ever be! You see, God brings you into the lions’ den because he loves you. He does so because he knows that it is only when you come to the end of yourself that you will ever be able to taste the joys of truly knowing his presence and power in your life. It is only in dying to yourself that you can come alive to God. The Lord takes great pleasure in taking the most difficult situations in life—those that seem humanly impossible to us—and using those impossibilities as a way of increasing our faith in his unlimited capability. Throughout the Scriptures we learn that temptations and trials of life are to be responded to, not by running from them, or trying to avoid them, or trying to meet them in the power of our own abilities, but by drawing near to God in faith.

The life of Daniel is really a model and an example of how God’s people can live in difficult conditions and come through victoriously. Even as the Jewish people were living in Babylonian captivity, so Christians today are pilgrims and sojourners in a foreign culture. We, like Daniel, must exercise our faith in God’s purposes and leading for our lives. We too must resolve in advance that we will not be defiled by the world. And whether our God delivers us or not from the lions’ den, we will remain faithful to him.

God Bless You And this Ministry!