Dare to be a Daniel

So the king gave the order, and they brought Daniel and threw him into the lions’ den. The king said to Daniel, “May your God, whom you serve continually, rescue you!” - Daniel 6:166

Ask any kid about Daniel and they will say, oh the man who was fed to the lions but God protected him. The first full book of the bible I ever read was the book of Daniel and I still get shivers whenever I read that book.  The example Daniel gave us is possibly the best one in the bible, with the exception of Jesus.

Everybody remembers the story that this verse refers to, and remembers the outcome of the story.  God delivered Daniel and what an amazing delivery it was.  But hindsight is 20/20 and before God delivered him, Daniel did not have a guarantee of being rescued. And to me the most important fact of this story should be that God may not save us and should not be the reason we follow God. There are no conditions on God's love and so we should not set conditions on following Him.

Would we be so courageous?  Will we in the face the possibility of being violently killed to stand up and choose God. When we are standing in the fork of the road and one direction is following God and the other is worshiping an idol with the understanding that if you follow God you will be put to death, which would you choose? 

If you look at Daniel, he could have easily prayed to God privately and said, "I will pray to you quietly Lord and if it appears that I am worshiping the idol, I'm not really. And it allow me to live  to do Your work God." But that is our small minds trying to justify our fears.

Remember the outcome of Daniel being so faithful, remember how the story unfolded. It didn't just stop with God rescuing Daniel, the story didn't end there. Right after Daniel was saved, the King was so grateful that he took those who accused Daniel and threw the into the lions den. Then (and this is important) made a decree "I issue a decree that in every part of my kingdom people must fear and reverence the God of Daniel." So if Daniel had gone against God's will and just pretended to follow the law against God then the outcome would have not been to God's full plan. 

And I know some of you are saying, "that's fine but we live in america and we are in the modern day so no one is going to Kill me if i warship outwardly God" Although that is true, we should be on our knees every day that we live in this great country where we are free to worship. Below is a picture of a man by the name of Khmu Christian “Boun” who spent 12 years and eight months in prison in Southeast Asia for his faith. And many more like him are killed for their faith.

click here to read his incredible story

Lord thank you for the amazing example of Daniel. I pray that you help me to be like him, let me be as brave as him and follow your word Lord, so that your plan can be executed perfectly. Thank you for letting me worship in the United States where I don't fear persecution. In Jesus name, Amen.