Dare to be a Daniel?

 The last few Sundays I have been in Jonah and Daniel and let me tell you something, anyone who says the Bible is dry dusty and irrelevant, has not been reading the same Bible I have.

Joinah has whales, Supernatural weather, men who have honor and some who have none (and he was the "hero") a city wide awakening and repentance (down to the very animals).

Daniel has espionage, faith, destruction of  a nation,  greed, pride, court intrigue, palace political maneuvering and miracles on a grand scale.

There is not a single bit of dryness.

However, tomorrow culminates in the historical part of Daniel and I have wrote on this before but I want to touch on it again in a more focused point than I will tomorrow.

Dan 6:10  Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house; and his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime.

When I started out in Daniel a few weeks ago I brought up the catchphrase dare to be a Daniel. As we have gone through the book of Daniel it is painfully obvious that being a Daniel is hard. Daniel and Shadrach, Meshack, and Abednego purposed in their hearts at an early age to be true to God, nad for the rest of their lives they stayed true.

At 12 to 18 they stood fast in a foreign and hostile palace, they stood against the word of the king of the known world, when no one else did, and they did this at a very young age. They stood fast for decades, and God blessed them with wisdom, keenness of thought, and a testimony that has endured for 3000 years.

Dare to be a Daniel? Too often we take that to be a momentary thing, for Daniel it was a lifetime of service, a life of testimony, a known reputation for being God's man. Not just at the lion's den.

Dan 6:5  Then said these men, We shall not find any occasion against this Daniel, except we find it against him concerning the law of his God. 

They could find no fault in Daniel to accuse him with so they had to make his faithfulness to his God a crime. 

That is how they tried to trip hiim up. This is how faithful and true he was, they knew KNEW he would not waver, they knew he would do as he did always.

And sure enough under the threat of death he did exactly what he did when no threat was present.

Perhaps most important he made no big show either before or after, he just did what was right. No fanfare, no belligerence, no "look at me" just pure true and faithful.

Dare to be a Daniel? Do what is right, day in day out. In peace, in war. Stay true to God, and do not wear it on your sleeve, be God's man or woman but do it because He is God, not because you are you.

Daniel is a study in humility, in faith, in steadfastness, and in the God of this Universe who does what He Wills.