The story I want to share with you comes from Daniel chapter 1 and it's a story about Daniel's faithfulness. Daniel was put in a situation where each person he was with had to follow specific orders and he remained faithful. I guarantee you can think of a time when you were with a group of people and you had the choice to either do what they were doing or remain faithful and obedient to what God would want you to do. Being faithful and obedient isn't always the most attractive thing either. Attractive in God's eyes yes, but in the eyes of others, no.
The main point of this post is that Daniel was faithful and God showed him favor because of it.
In the beginning of Daniel 1, the King commanded Ashpenaz, his chief eunuch, to bring some of the people of Israel, both of the royal family and of the nobility, youths without blemish, of good appearance and skillful in all wisdom, endowed in knowledge, understanding learning, and competent to stand in the king's palace, and to teach them the literate and language. The king assigned these people a daily portion of the food that the king ate and of the wine that he drank. They were educated for thee years, and at the end of that time they were to stand before the king.
Before all of that, Daniel made a decision that he would not defile himself with the king's food, or with the wine that he drank. He decided that it would be best if he asked the chief to allow him not to defile himself. Because of this decision, God gave Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the chief of the eunuchs. The chief said this to Daniel: "I fear my lord the king, who assigned your food and your drink; for why should he see that you were in worse condition than the youths who are of your own age? So you would endanger my head with the king." In response, Daniel had this to say: "Tests your servants for ten days; let us be given vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then let our appearance and the appearance of the youths who eat the king's food be observed by you, and deal with your servants according to what you see." The chief listened to Daniel and tested them for ten days. At the end of the ten days it was seen that they were better in appearance and fatter in flesh than all the youths who ate the king's food. The steward then took away their food and the wine they were to drink, and gave them vegetables.
As for the four youths, God gave them learning and skill in all literature and wisdom, and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams. At the end of the time, the king commanded that they should be brought in and when they were brought in the king spoke with them. The king spoke to them and observed them. In every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters that were in all his kingdom.
This entire story was a result of faithfulness. Daniel's faithfulness and God's. Daniel stuck to his guns and was going to be different and be faithful to God. He was rewarded and so were the other three. Because of their faithfulness, their wisdom and understanding was tens times better than everyone else who had wisdom and understanding like the magicians and enchanters.
There is so much power in faithfulness. I hope you are motivated by this story and by Daniel's faithfulness. It's okay to be different, it's okay to not do what everyone else is doing, it's okay to be a little weird, it's cool to keep God the number one priority in your life. With the comes obedience and trust in God. Trust His plan for you. The path He wants you to take might not always be the sexy, attractive and easy path. The path He will have you on is difficult, narrow and not attractive sometimes and that is okay!
Be faithful!
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