Then Daniel spoke to the king, “O king, live forever! My God sent His angel and shut the lion’s mouths and they have not harmed me, inasmuch as I was found innocent before Him; and also toward you, O king, I have committed no crime.”  Daniel 6:21-22 NASB

The story of Daniel in the lion’s den is a popular one in the Bible. You may have heard it since you were a child. But the complete book of Daniel is one that gives some powerful life lessons. Daniel is taken into captivity but throughout the book, we see God’s hand of protection on him. To sum up this book in a few short words, Daniel remains faithful to God and God remains faithful to Daniel. This book also contains the story of Daniel’s friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and their escape from the fiery furnace without even the smell of smoke on them(chapter 3).

Now as I read the book of Daniel, what impresses me is that prayer is his first response to any situation. He remained faithful and he prayed. In chapter one, they wanted Daniel to eat food that was not good for him, but he refused to defile himself. He found favor with God because of this. Now for those of you that know my love of Cheetos and brownies, you know that this could be a blog all by itself, but I will just stop here on that subject.

Now in chapter 2 it gets tricky. The king wants a dream interpreted, but the kicker is he refuses to tell them what the dream was. When the wise men could not interpret the dream without knowing what it was about, the king orders that they all be put to death.

Now this is where I would start ranting and raving about what a no-good so and so that king was and I would be telling my friends how he was totally unfair and just plain crazy.  In chapter 2, Daniel does go to his friends to inform them of what is going on, but instead of having a king bashing party, they prayed. In verse 18 it tells us that they gathered so that they might request compassion from the God of heaven. God then revealed the dream and its interpretation to Daniel in a vision and they praised God.

When Daniels friends refuse to worship idols they are thrown into the furnace. Now when the king confronted them, they didn’t cuss at him and call him names, they simply said that their God would deliver them and even if he didn’t they would not worship these man made idols.

Now Daniel and his friends found favor with the king and of course this made the other higher ups jealous and they were causing trouble for them.  When they knew that Daniel prayed on his rooftop each day, they tricked the king into signing an order that no one can pray to God, but only to the king. The punishment for violating this was being thrown into the lion’s den. Daniel did not stomp his feet and throw himself a little fit, he simply went up on his roof and prayed as he had been doing. Of course, because he did this, the king ordered that he be picked up and thrown into the lion’s den. It doesn’t tell us that Daniel became angry at the king or those that tricked him into signing the order. Daniel just kept on doing what Daniel did, he prayed.

In chapters 7-9 Daniel is given visions of the end times which distresses him to the point of physical illness (8:27). But he continues to pray (9:20-21). As he prays in exhaustion, Gabriel is sent to explain these visions and to comfort him and strengthen him (9:22-23), (10:10-21).

Daniel faced many difficult times, he was taken into captivity and brought like a slave or a prisoner into a foreign land. He was threatened with death due to the inability of someone else to interpret the king’s dream. He was thrown into the lion’s den for worshiping God. Daniel had a lot to complain about. But instead he prayed. And through all this, he triumphed with God’s help.

Are you facing difficult times? Is your go to response to criticize others and be angry with them. I mean usually our problems are the fault of someone else, right? Or is your go to response prayer? Are you fighting on your knees?

When times get hard, we have options. In law enforcement we call it fight or flight. An offender will exhibit signs through body language when they are going to be non-compliant and will indicate if they are considering whether to fight or flee. As Christians we have the option of walking away, arguing and criticizing others, or praying for God’s help and guidance.

I am trying to take a page out of Daniel’s playbook. When life gives me lemons instead of cursing the lemons, I try to ask God to help me make lemonade. I firmly believe that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Philippians 4:13). I also believe that nothing is impossible with God (Matthew 19:26). There have been many days in the last few months when I felt defeated and unsure of what the future will hold. I still have no idea what the future will hold, but I know that God is right there with me. I know that he gives his angels order concerning me to protect me in all my ways (Psalm 91:11).  Most importantly I know that when prayer is my go to response, God will work it all out. I will not only survive, I will thrive.

Have a great day!