I have been loving the recent series we have been walking through together as a church. Daniel and his friends faced countless obstacles maintaining their identity in the midst of their exile and captivity. So what allowed them to maintain who God called them to be? I believe it could be summed up in one word… ‘Faithfulness’!
The beginning of Daniel’s exile was framed by what Daniel decided his posture would look like as he faced temptations to cave to the culture around him. Daniel 1:8 says, “But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king’s food, or with the wine that he drank. Therefore he asked the chief of the eunuchs to allow him not to defile himself.” Rather than figuring out how to survive in an upside down world as he went, Daniel simply committed himself to honor God in everything that he said and did before the heat was turned up in the culture.
This is key! If we wait to see how things turn out for ourselves in a world that is constantly shifting and decaying, it can be easy to make our own faithfulness conditional. But if we decide to believe that God is faithful and has always been faithful, then our own faithfulness is not dependent on our circumstances, but reflects the God we follow. This is so important because in our upside down world we will always face ever-changing circumstances and things that potentially could throw us off track.
Daniel’s struggle in the the upside down world that he found himself came intentionally because of the role others played in his life. Daniel 6:4 said, “Then the high officials and the satraps sought to find a ground for complaint against Daniel with regard to the kingdom, but they could find no ground for complaint or any fault, because he was faithful, and no error or fault was found in him.” Again we see that Daniel not only endured and survived in Babylon, but THRIVED because he committed to faithfulness in God.
So here is the challenge…
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- What are the ways that you see God as faithful in your life?
- What are the ways you will commit to be faithful to God today?
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