Epic Showdown

This post was originally published on the GT Blog

When I first sat down to write this blog post, I carefully crafted a lovely essay talking about how God showed up for Daniel in an epic showdown at the lion’s den, how God has showed up for us in epic showdowns before, and how he wants to do that for you too. It was a great feel-good story written to uplift and spur hope within you. Blah blah blah.

But as I read and re-read the account of Daniel and the lions den, something kept nagging at me…stay with me here…

In Daniel 6, right before he was about to be thrown into the lions den, the king (who did not want this to happen) said to Daniel, “May your God, whom you serve continually, rescue you!” Hmm….

And then when the king comes back to check on Daniel in the morning and finds him completely unharmed, Daniel says in verse 22, “My God sent His angel, and he shut the mouths of the lions. They have not hurt me, because I was found innocent in his sight.”
And if that’s not enough, in verse 23 it says, “When Daniel was lifted from the den, no wound was found on him, because he had trusted in his God.”

This all got my wheels turning. Seriously. If you look closely you could probably see smoke coming out of my ears right now.

As much as I don’t want to admit it, there it is; this correlation between serving God continually, being found innocent, trusting in God, and having Him show up big in our lives because of it. I’d love to comfort you with a story of how God will defend you in an epic showdown going on in your life and all you have to do is believe Him for it.

But that’s not what I see here.

I see Daniel, who was taken from all that he knew in Jerusalem and thrown into Babylon. It was culture shock for sure. And to be honest, I highly doubt the cultural climate in Babylon was a whole lot different than our cultural climate right now. Sin ran rampant and no one really batted an eye at it. Daniel could have chosen to blend in with the culture that surrounded him and no one would have blamed him. To not do so could have ended in his death. But instead Daniel chose to continually serve, honor, and trust his God despite all that surrounded him. He chose to look different than those around him and trust God with the ramifications of that.

Goodness me. Let that soak in for a minute.

Fortunately for those of us blessed enough to live in the U.S., our lives are not on the line here. So then what are we so afraid of?? Why do we seem so unable to take a stand for God in even the small things in our lives?

Instead we choose to watch that movie.
Listen to that music.
Engage in that conversation that’s going nowhere good.
Tell that dirty joke.
Read that popular pornographic book.
Go on that website.
Tear someone else down in an attempt to make ourselves look better.
Skip church because we just. can’t. even.

I could go on and on. I’m sure you could too. And please hear me, I’m not trying to shame anyone here. I’m just as guilty in some of these areas as you are.

Sometimes it’s easier to stop swimming upstream and let the culture-current take us where it will. But here’s what I know about that current- it will take us farther than we ever thought we’d go, keep us longer than we ever thought we’d stay, and cost us more than we ever thought we’d pay.

The truth I can’t get away from in the story of Daniel and the lions den is this: the love of God is unconditional, but His blessings are not.

Ouch.

I said it.

Are you mad at me?

Daniel radically lived his life for the Lord. He knew he didn’t need to fear when being thrown in the lions den because he had a relationship with God that was so tight that nothing could cause him to doubt. He and God had history together. And that history came from time spent with Him. Continually serving, obeying, trusting. When we are walking upright with the Lord we can expect His blessings in our lives. Please note I did NOT say walking perfectly with the Lord. But when we’re not, when we choose to coast along with the cultural current, God will often times lift His hand of blessings; never to shame us- shame is not from God, but in an effort to get our attention and draw us back to Him.

It’s always about Him.

So here’s the good news in all this… God’s mercies are new every morning. Praise God for that because some days I feel like I’ve used them all up by noon! He loves us even when we screw up and if we’re faithful to bring that moment of failure to Him, He’ll be faithful to forgive it and show us a new way to live. And if you do that over and over again, pretty soon you’ll find yourself having to do it less and less. You’ll find yourself walking hand in hand with your Savior in His ways every day and the blessings and favor of God will flow yet again. God is so good isn’t He? He will never leave us without a way out of temptation (1Cor. 10:13).

So can we try this? What if we as the body of Christ decided that it wasn’t so bad to look different than everyone else? What if we decided that being called the “Jesus Freak” wasn’t the worst thing in the world, and was maybe even a great thing? What if we decided to boldly live as a modern day Daniel in our modern day Babylon? I can tell you this- our lives would be radically changed. Our families would be radically changed. Our church would be radically changed. And maybe even our world would be radically changed. And we wouldn’t have to fear the lions.

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READ //

1 Corinthians 10:13
Daniel 6
Luke 9:26
2 Timothy 4:7

JOURNAL PROMPT & DISCUSSION QUESTIONS //

Do you find it difficult to be in this world and not of it?
In what areas of this do you struggle the most?
What is one thing you can do differently this week to live like a modern day Daniel?

PRAYER FOCUS //

Dear Lord, we love you and we so long to please you. It’s getting harder and harder to stand for you in the culture we live in. Lord, keep us strong. Help us to live boldly for you. Give us ears to hear you and a heart that longs to do your will. Help us to fight the good fight, finish the race, and keep the faith.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.