crisis points

Imagine going to see a powerful, temperamental king who has just angrily ordered your death..

That's what Daniel was faced with in Daniel chapter 2. King Nebuchadnezzar was having dreams that nobody was able to interpret and it was starting to drive him crazy. He searched all over Babylon for someone to interpret his dreams and it seemed like nobody could. He even tried having the magicians and the sorcerers take a stab at it.

When Nebuchadnezzar finally hit his breaking point, he issued a degree to have all wise men in Babylon killed. The king sent Arioch, his servant, to look for Daniel. Daniel was the last straw. The king already knew that there was something different about Daniel because of his actions in Daniel chapter 1 when he resolved.

When Arioch found Daniel, he didn't shrink back in fear. However, he confidently believed the God would tell him all that the king wanted to know.

That's the first thing I want to point out in this post. Daniel, and every single wise man's life was on the line in Babylon and he didn't fear. He had confidence in God to tell him everything he needed to know. Imagine handling every crisis point like that.

Calamity and trust seemed to be the name of the game for Daniel. I believe that we should handle our crisis points more like Daniel. Rather than freaking out, imagine being calm, and trusting in God. His trust was deep though. Anybody can say that they trust someone. But Daniel legitimately believed that God was going to help him solve this mystery.

Calamity, trust, and belief.

Something else that sticks out to me about Daniel in the time of this crisis is that he kept his friends in the loop. Before he made any decisions, he wanted to make sure that his three friends were well aware of what was going on.

So Daniel found his three friends and they prayed.

I often think that we try to handle crisis points on our own. We think we can do it without help. We don't want to communicate with anyone what is going on, etc. To be completely honest, I believe that there is a pride factor wrapped up in it as well.

When we find ourselves in tight spots, we need to share our needs with trusted friends who also believe in God's power. Prayer is more effective than panic. Panic confirms your hopelessness, prayer confirms your hope in God. Daniel's trust in God saved himself, his three friends, and all the other wise men of Babylon.

My challenge for you is to ask yourself how you are handling times of crisis in your life. I believe we can learn a lot from Daniel in this passage. He was calm. He trusted God. He believed in God's power. He prayed with his friends. Ask yourself this question and really think about the answer...imagine if we handled all crisis points in this way?