Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Tues Devo: Restore My Roar, Part 1

Hello,

It has been quite a while since I have done a little series, but I thought I would start one this week. Today I begin a look through some of the events of Daniel’s life. With a nod to Detroit Lions fans, I will call this series “Restore My Roar” (I know Shane has been going through some things in Daniel - but I felt God wanted me to do this)

What intrigues me about Daniel is how many amazing stories of which he is the center. We think about all those big stories, amazing miracles of God – and then we tend to dis-connect ourselves from him. We feel like those things are far beyond what we could be, do, or partake in that it isn’t real to us. This causes us to miss an opportunity. What we will see as we go through Daniel is that it is merely his simple acts of faith and commitment to God that allow God to work miraculously through him.

We start early on. Daniel 1:3-16 –
“Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, the chief of his [d]officials, to bring in some of the sons of Israel, including some of the royal family and of the nobles, youths in whom was no defect, who were good-looking, showing intelligence in every branch of wisdom, endowed with understanding and discerning knowledge, and who had ability for serving in the king’s court; and he ordered him to teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans. The king appointed for them a daily ration from the king’s choice food and from the wine which he drank, and appointed that they should be educated three years, at the end of which they were to enter the king’s personal service. Now among them from the sons of Judah were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. Then the commander of the officials assigned new names to them; and to Daniel he assigned the name Belteshazzar, to Hananiah Shadrach, to Mishael Meshach and to Azariah Abed-nego.
But Daniel made up his mind that he would not defile himself with the king’s choice food or with the wine which he drank; so he sought permission from the commander of the officials that he might not defile himself. Now God granted Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the commander of the officials, and the commander of the officials said to Daniel, “I am afraid of my lord the king, who has appointed your food and your drink; for why should he see your faces looking more haggard than the youths who are your own age? Then you would make me forfeit my head to the king.” But Daniel said to the overseer whom the commander of the officials had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, “Please test your servants for ten days, and let us be given some vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then let our appearance be observed in your presence and the appearance of the youths who are eating the king’s choice food; and deal with your servants according to what you see.”
So he listened to them in this matter and tested them for ten days. At the end of ten days their appearance seemed better and they were fatter than all the youths who had been eating the king’s choice food. So the overseer continued to withhold their choice food and the wine they were to drink, and kept giving them vegetables.”

Daniel was not really given a choice about his diet, he was simply told what to eat. But he saw through that. He understood that whenever something is placed in front of him he needed to compare it against what God wanted – that was the choice. He made the choice to honor God with what he ate, obeying rather than indulging. He chose to allow confrontation for the sake of his relationship with God rather than to quietly do what others asked him to do. From here when pressed, he simply trusted that God knew best. If God said to just each vegetables, then that would be better than the meats and other foods put in front of him. Because of this he and his friends were found physically and mentally superior to others….others who had the same commandment, but did not chose to obey. This sets him up for the things to come, and finds him in a higher position.

Daniel didn’t do anything superhuman here – he just obeyed. He trusted that if he obeyed God would handle things. Do you want to restore your roar? It starts with obedience to God’s commands.

Have a blessed day,

Will


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