Leading Through Challenging Circumstances, Day 45 Seeing Jesus Christ. Read Daniel 7:13-14. Often, I have heard individuals who talk about the fact that Jesus Christ isn’t mentioned in the Old Testament. And while it is true that historically, Jesus Christ did not live on earth during the time frame of the Old Testament, Jesus Christ is God and as God, he exists throughout all time. We see him depicted in many ways in the Old Testament. Today, we see one reference to him. Daniel sees a vision of the Son of Man coming before the Ancient of Days and receiving all glory and honor and power. He will be over…

Leading Through Challenging Circumstances, Day 44 The Ancient of Days. Read Daniel 7:9-12. I’ve always been struck by this name for God: the Ancient of Days. It’s an unusual name that can be challenging to really even understand. When we recognize that God is Creator, we know that he is ancient and old beyond all things. He’s outside of time. He created time itself, so while he is exceedingly ancient, he is also tremendously new. Referencing the Ancient of Days, it’s a reminder of the all expansiveness of God. We cannot measure God. We cannot put God in a box and define him. God has been, currently is, and always…

Leading Through Challenging Circumstances, Day 43 Messages in the midst of darkness. Read Daniel 7:1-8. Starting Daniel chapter 7, we understand that we are not moving directly through time. This chapter happens chronologically, before Daniel ends up in the lions den. It even happens before the handwriting on the wall that we saw earlier in Daniel chapter 5. This chapter takes place during the reign of the king who ultimately saw the hand writing on the wall. That’s an important fact to keep in mind because as we were reading that chapter, we saw just how godless the people had become at that time. That king had no interest in…

Leading Through Challenging Circumstances, Day 42 Share with everyone! Read Daniel 6:25-28. Daniel has been saved. Those who accused him have been punished. The king completely and fully believes in God. The only thing that’s left is to share that message with everyone. The king issues a command and a decree and sends it out to his entire kingdom. He details what God has done and how God has moved through the life of Daniel. When God works and moves in our life, who do we tell? How widely do we share that message? God does tremendous and amazing acts in our life every single day and we have a…

Leading Through Challenging Circumstances, Day 41 The repercussions. Read Daniel 6:23-24. We’ve all had that moment. That moment where someone does something vengeful, or spiteful and really hurts us and makes us angry. We want to see them destroyed. We want revenge. It can be completely natural to feel that way. However, as followers of Jesus Christ, what comes natural shouldn’t be what we focus on. We need what comes from the divine. Daniel didn’t seek the destruction of the people who tried to destroy him. There were consequences to these men who had deceived the king. It wasn’t Daniel, who told the king to destroy them, the king made…

Leading Through Challenging Circumstances, Day 40 I’m innocent. Read Daniel 6:21-22. The night is over and now the king rushes back to find out if Daniel is okay. Daniel knew he had not betrayed the king. The king knew he had not betrayed him. But he had created that law, and even the king had to obey his law. Here we see Daniel letting the king know that he was okay. But more than that, Daniel wants to make sure he knows that the reason he was okay is because he was innocent. God knew that Daniel had not done anything wrong, and as a result God spared Daniel. Our…

Leading Through Challenging Circumstances, Day 49 Did it work? Read Daniel 6:17-20. The first time we ever tried something, there’s always that moment of doubt. Did it really work? Did things do what we thought they were going to do? The king had prayed to God probably for the first time, asking that God would spare Daniel. Now, the moment of truth has come. The king isn’t sure what happened, but needs to know how God answered his prayer. The Bible explains that we come to God by faith, but that faith is never completely developed instantaneously. Faith is developed in stages. We start with relatively small faith wondering if…

Leading Through Challenging Circumstances, Day 48 Frustration. Read Daniel 6:14-16. I’ve heard frustration defined as the realization that there is no one to blame but yourself. When you find yourself in a situation that you don’t like, but that you caused, that can be tremendously frustrating. That is exactly where the king found himself. The king liked Daniel. The king considered Daniel his most trusted adviser. The king was planning to promote Daniel. And now, the king finds himself as the probable cause of Daniel’s destruction. The king realizes he has been deceived by his other advisors who were operating out of jealousy. The king spends all day trying to…

Leading Through Challenging Circumstances, Day 47 The whiners. Read Daniel 6:12-13. Every parent has dealt with the whiny child. This is the child that always is upset about something someone else is getting. They always feel like they have gotten the short end of the stick. They are constantly complaining about what’s going on with everybody else around them, instead of worrying about themselves. These men had set a trap for Daniel and now it was time for them to go and to whine about it to the king. They explained to the king that Daniel was breaking the law. At first glance, it might look like they’re just looking…

Leading Through Challenging Circumstances, Day 46 The trap. Read Daniel 6:11. When I think of setting a trap, I typically think of trying to catch a troublesome rodent, or some other pest. In this case, these men felt Daniel was the pest, and they set a trap to catch him. Once the king put this law into place, the very next thing that they did was go and look and see if Daniel was doing what he always does? Was Daniel praying to God? They went as a group. This was organized and orchestrated and premeditated. They had laid the trap for Daniel, and Daniel had continued to do what…