For the few months, God has been laying into me about one thing: trust. “Trust me”, He says, when I tell Him I’m worried about how much money I’ve raised for my incoming mission trip. Deadlines are fast approaching and I’m worried I won’t meet them. “Trust me”, He says, when I tell him I’m worried about how this will affect my career. Not many people will hire someone who tells them they will be leaving the country in 6 months, and when I get back I’ll have been out of school for two years and still have no engineering experience. I’m sure employers won’t like that either. Still His standing answer to my worries, to my doubts, and to my fears is…….
Trust me.
Trust the heart that I have given you.
Trust in My plan.
About three weeks ago, a couple friends of mine asked if I’d like to join them in studying the book of Daniel, a chapter each week. I’d been struggling to get into the Word, so I figured it was a good opportunity to study.
I thought I knew the basics of Daniel’s story: he was taken from Jerusalem after it was sacked by king Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and trained to serve at his palace; and at some point he gets thrown into the Lions den where God save’s him. I found there was a bit more to it than that though; who knew? ¯_(?)_/¯
Daniel interpreted Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of Babylon’s future; Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego (taken along with Daniel) were thrown in a furnace so hot it killed the men who got close enough to throw them in, but they walked away without even smelling like smoke; Daniel interpreted another of Nebuchadnezzar’s dreams, warning the king he would be humbled with the mind of a wild animal for seven years (pretty much acting like a cow ??), after which he praised God for His glory and justice. Nebuchadnezzar’s successor was scared to death by a floating hand writing a message on the wall that only Daniel could read (floating hands have REALLY bad handwriting). Technically, the message didn’t kill him, but the Persians and Medes took care of that when they invaded a few hours later, as the message said would happen.
Now we come to chapter 6, which really blew my mind, and it’s what Daniel is famous for. Yup, not being cat food. The next king of Babylon, a Mede named Darius, split the empire into 120 pieces with a man in charge of each, and he picked Daniel and two others to supervise those men. But Daniel quickly proved himself better than any other man under Darius’s command and so the king planned to put him over the entire kingdom. This made Daniel a LOT of enemies. The other administrators and high officers began looking for faults in Daniel that they could exploit, but they could find nothing! And so, they decided that the only way to bring him down was to use his faith. They tricked the king into signing an irrevocable decree stating that anyone who prays to anything other than the king for the next 30 days would be killed.
“But when Daniel learned that the law had been signed, he went home and knelt down as usual in his upstairs room, with its windows open toward Jerusalem. He prayed three times a day, just as he had always done, giving thanks to his God.”
??Daniel? ?6:10? ?
He didn’t even close the window?! He wasn’t trying to hide what he was doing. He didn’t even change his routine in any way. He wasn’t oblivious to the situation, he KNEW he was being targeted. He knew they would check on him to see if he would pray as he always did. He prayed anyway! He put his life on the line in order to connect with God, to ask for His help. The others immediately ran to the king and told him what they had seen. Daniel was pretty much the kings favorite, his most trustworthy and faithful servant, and they were saying he must be thrown into the lion’s den. They reminded the king of his irrevocable decree, which even the king himself could not overrule. Darius cursed them for forcing his hand , but he then gave the order for Daniel to be thrown in. The king himself new there was only one way Daniel would live through the night.
“The king said to him, “May your God, whom you serve so faithfully, rescue you.””
??Daniel? ?6:16?
The king didn’t sleep all night and rushed straight to the lions den early the next morning. He called out to Daniel to see if he lived, and Daniel proclaimed that the Lord had sent an angel to shut the lions mouths and protect him! With delight, the king had him taken out and threw Daniels accusers in instead. Honestly, they should have seen that coming whether Daniel lived or not.
I came away from this story in awe of Daniel.
Would I be willing to risk everything on a prayer? Would I leave the window open, unafraid of the worldly consequences and more afraid of what would happen if I did not seek my Father? Daniel had some serious trust in God. “Oh, Death penalty for prayer? (¬¯? ??¯) Let me go pray about that real quick”, because my God is bigger than that. He is bigger than my circumstance, He is bigger than my issues, and he is even bigger than my own doubt and disbelief.
I would have prayed, I’m confident of that. But would I have prayed out loud? Would I have left the window open? Would I have done it exactly as they expected me to, knowing I could be killed for it, but having enough trust in my Father to see me through it? Would you?
Lord, give me a desperation for your presence like Daniel had, so that in the most dire of circumstances my first thought would be to seek you above all else; that I wouldn’t worry about the worldly consequences, but that I would love you as recklessly as you love me.
I pray the same for you. Hopefully If you have never read through the book of Daniel yourself, I really encourage you to give it a look, because things only get crazier after chapter 6, believe me!
Thank you for reading! I wanted to share my heart and where I’m at to those who have supported me in my fundraising for the World Race, as well those who are considering doing so. If you’d like to know more about that, check out my first post ——> HERE <——. Let me know your thoughts down in the comments, God bless!
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