Kristi Burchfiel

Leading Through Challenging Circumstances, Day 58 Alone. Read Daniel 10:7-9. Daniel was in a unique situation. He was traveling during the middle of the day near the river and saw a vision approach him. His companions didn’t see the vision, but they heard the commotion and were afraid. It says that Daniel found himself alone. When we are in leadership positions, there will be times when we will feel completely alone. We may have people around us, but ultimately, there are times when leadership has to make decisions alone. Thankfully, while Daniel may have felt alone in that moment, he was not truly alone. God was still with him. And…

Leading Through Challenging Circumstances, Day 57 The unexpected visitor. Read Daniel 10:1-6. It’s amazing how we can get accustomed to the routine. We find comfort in the expected. As leaders, that’s no different. We like being able to find comfort in doing the same thing over and over and over again. Daniel had heard and received visions from God in the past. However, that had always been at night, while he was sleeping. This time, he is fully awake and standing outside by the river. All of a sudden, he sees a vision. The people he is with don’t see the actual vision themselves, but they understand something is going…

Leading Through Challenging Circumstances, Day 56 Insight comes from the Lord. Read Daniel 9:20-27. Have you ever desperately needed or wanted insight and understanding and just couldn’t get it. There are always those things that come up that baffle us completely, and that we don’t understand. It may even be things where there’s a simple solution and we just can’t quite seem to find it. Daniel was sitting in a similar situation. He had been praying and was seeking an answer to the Lord and just didn’t know how God was going to work things out. Daniel didn’t know what to do with it. It was completely beyond his understanding,…

Leading Through Challenging Circumstances, Day 55 Why do we ask God for things? Read Daniel 9:14-19. So often, we come to God and we make requests. Our prayer time is full of the things that we want to see God do in our lives. This can be anything from healing sicknesses, helping out people, or any number of requests that we come to God with. Why do we come to God with our prayer requests? It has to be for more reasons than just because we know we should. Daniel explains here that the whole reason he is praying is not because he knows that he is worthy. He is…

Leasing Through Challenging Circumstances, Day 54 He told them so. Read Daniel 9:9-14. Most people don’t like hearing, “I told you so.” The idea that someone gave us an advance warning of what would happen that we didn’t pay attention to, and now our experiences and the consequences of really difficult to deal with. Daniel points out that that is exactly what has happened with the children of Israel. God told them what would happen if they didn’t obey. God had them write it down. God made everything very, very clear, and still they did not obey him. As a result, now they are experiencing all of the negative consequences…

Leading Through Challenging Circumstances, Day 53 Corporate repentance. Read Daniel 9:4-8. While we may have a difficult time with the idea of repentance, the concept of corporate repentance is even more foreign to most of us. We struggle to take accountability and responsibility for our own wrongdoings, let alone being willing to collectively come together and admit our wrongdoing as a group. For an individualistic culture, like the United States where I am, this can be an especially difficult concept to grasp. In some other cultures, where they are more community minded and focused, this is still difficult, but maybe not as foreign of a concept. This prayer and Daniel’s…

Leading Through Challenging Circumstances, Day 52 Saying you’re sorry. Read Daniel 9:1-3. So one really likes saying they’re sorry. We do it and we tell other people to do it because we know that’s what we’re supposed to do. But, the actual, genuine act of repentance, and telling that feeling to others, is not something that we lean toward or get excited about doing. True leaders understand power of repentance. They can genuinely and legitimately express their sorrow and repentance for things that they have done wrong. That is a powerful leadership characteristic and trait. While we all know that no one is perfect, we all like to pretend that…

Leading Through Challenging Circumstances, Day 51 Worn out. Read Daniel 8:26-27. Have you ever felt worn out doing the work that God has for you? Yep, me too! I feel like there are so many times when I look at the work that God has for me and I think it looks overwhelming. Then once I’ve gone through and done the work, then I am amazed at how God has picked me up and led me through and sustained me during the work. Then afterwards, I am always astounded at how exhausted I am! I had the opportunity to go on two different mission trips this summer and while I…

Leading Through Challenging Circumstances, Day 50 A sneak peak. Read Daniel 8:17-25. Gabriel has promised to tell Daniel what the vision means. Daniel is nervous, worried, and scared and yet God has indicated that Daniel needs to know this information. Gabriel begins to share, but he gives him this verse first, so that way Daniel realizes these are about things that are going to come about in the future. These are not necessarily things that are going to happen soon. Most of us like getting a sneak peek into the future. We like that process of understanding all that is going to happen. We feel like it gives us a…

Leading Through Challenging Circumstances, Day 49 The dramatic reveal. Read Daniel 8:13-16. I’ve seen several types of shows where, during the course of the show, a massive change or update has been made to something. At the very end, there’s this big, dramatic reveal, where they show the people all the work that’s been done. Everyone gets really excited. It’s about the incredible transformation that has happened. For Daniel, this is a similar situation in that there’s going to be a big reveal. Daniel has been terrified by what he has seen. He doesn’t know what to make of the information that he has received, or the vision that he…