Steadfast, Immovable, Abounding

This is the fourth installment in my series of posts, “People of Prayer”.

The story of Daniel in the lions’ den is one of the most prominent and well-known in the Bible. It is featured in children’s Bible story collections, highlighted by traditional Bible school songs, and known by so many Christians – myself included – for longer than they can remember. And yet, as I read this well-known story once again in preparation for writing this post, I saw so many new lessons and themes that I had never noticed before.

You probably remember the basics of the story—King Darius issued an injunction, stating that any person who prayed to anyone but him would be cast into a lions’ den. Daniel, a servant of the Most High God, continues to pray to Him as before; in return, he is thrown into the lions’ den and is expected to be eaten by dawn. Yet, as Daniel himself said, “‘My God sent His angel and shut the lions’ mouths and they have not harmed me’” (Daniel 6:22). The story is amazing enough if we leave it at that, and many principles and spiritual lessons can be gleaned from Daniel’s experience.

But there’s a much bigger story going on if you dig a little deeper into the context surrounding the passage. Daniel 6:3 says, “Then this Daniel began distinguishing himself among the commissioners and satraps because he possessed an extraordinary spirit, and the king planned to appoint him over the entire kingdom.” Daniel wasn’t a nobody in the kingdom; he was well-liked and respected by the king. But his fellow leaders didn’t feel the same way. They were jealous of Daniel because of his popularity with Darius and decided to do everything in their power to remove him. Verse 5 is so interesting to me: “Then these men said, ‘We will not find any ground of accusation against this Daniel unless we find it against him with regard to the law of his God.’” Try as they might, they could not find any way to accuse Daniel of wrongdoing apart from his faithfulness to the Lord. The situation reminds me of Titus 2:7-8, where Paul says, “In all things show yourself to be an example of good deeds, with purity in doctrine, dignified, sound in speech which is beyond reproach, so that the opponent will be put to shame, having nothing bad to say about us.’” This is a high calling indeed: to live in so pure and holy a manner that accusations are not even possible. I’ve always been struck by the difficulty of living above reproach in a world which reproaches you for doing so.

A few verses later, we see Daniel’s amazing courage and faithfulness to the Lord: “Now when Daniel knew that the document was signed, he entered his house (now in his roof chamber he had windows open toward Jerusalem); and he continued kneeling on his knees three times a day, praying and giving thanks before his God, as he had been doing previously” (vs. 10). This is the kind of love and faithfulness to the Lord that we should each aspire to. But the thing is, most of us have never had to choose between Christ and death (if you have, reach out! I’d love to hear your testimony!). But for those of us who live in the US, perhaps even in the “Bible belt”, we’ve never faced real persecution. While we can still ask what we would do in a hypothetical situation where our life was threatened for praying to God, it’s hard to feel assurance in our hypothetical response. It’s hard to relate to this part of Daniel’s story if we’ve never experienced anything like it.

And that’s why it’s so important to look at the context. Remember what I said about Daniel at the beginning? He wasn’t a nobody. He was the favorite of the king, he was a leader among leaders, he was respected for his character, and “no negligence or corruption was to be found in him” (Daniel 6:4). Sometimes God puts us in positions of worldly leadership to be used as a chosen instrument of His glory. The Lord gave Daniel this worldly title for a reason: He knew the test it would lead to and He knew the impact Daniel could make for the kingdom of God. What we often fail to realize is that leadership and authority are not just blessings the Lord bestows. At the end of the day, they are a means to an end—an end of using our position to reflect the glory of Jesus Christ, the greatest act of servant leadership we are capable of.

I truly believe we have more influence over the people around us than we may ever realize. So the question is, do the people you lead and influence know you as a man or woman of prayer? Prayer and devotion to God was such a prominent part of Daniel’s life that the other leaders immediately knew it was the hill he would die on. But is the same true for us? Or does the world know there are things far more precious to us? Prayer was important enough to Daniel that he risked death to spend time in the Lord’s presence. And yet, how frequently do we skip our times of prayer for no reason at all? Are we willing to use the influence God has given us as a microphone for the truth of the Lord? Don’t cower from being used by the Lord—He put you right here, right now, and wants to work through you to do great things.