Daniel was a wise man (Daniel 1:17,20). He knew how to live for God
though he was a million miles from home, at sea in a foreign land.
How often we feel like that! It is all around us. The newspapers are
full of horror and worry about what is happening in society. Never
mind whether what they say is right - there is the feeling that things
are going wrong. Britain is broke, as some put it. We may live in our
own land but sometimes it feels a pretty strange and unhappy place.
But Daniel coped. He maintained his integrity in the A-Zs of life -
from the food he ate to his political life.
One thing he did was keep on praying when prayer meant the death
penalty. He ended up being thrown to the lions! What kept him strong.
Well, it wasn't the arrow prayer. Arrow prayers (the quick prayer for
help in the middle of a crisis) are powerful and important but by and
large they are not going to be enough to help you when faced with
hungry lions looking for supper. You only get through that with a
lifetime of character built up by trust in God and wise living.
Character and wisdom are very close. Christian character is what we
have learnt through trusting God being put into action. Character is
the arms and legs of wisdom.
Dare to be a Daniel! Dare to be different. Act differently today for
God - and when the ferocious beasts of life (be they lions; the things
we read of in Daniel 7- which immediately follows the story of Daniel
in the lion's den; or the beastly things our world face day by day)
meet us, we shall have the depths to face them, strong in the Lord.
