In Daniel 6, Daniel is given a prominent place in the Babylonian government. The other officials don’t like this. So, these men went to the king and had him sign a decree that no one could pray to anyone except for the king himself for the next thirty days. They didn’t even bother to make it a permanent decree. They knew that Daniel would go to God and pray to Him within the next thirty days. There wasn’t a doubt in their mind that they couldn’t trap him in such a short time frame. A question to be asking yourself right now is, would that thirty day trap work on you?
Now naturally, this troubled Daniel. He knew that He would have to break this decree in order to spend time with God. Well I feel like Daniel makes the smartest decision and doesn’t try to figure it out on his own, but he goes to his room with the windows open and prays. He gives thanks to God, despite this decree (6:10). He goes to God and isn’t complaining, or saying “sorry God see you in thirty days.” He is giving God thanks, despite this dangerous decree being issued.
This of course results in him being thrown into the lion’s den and then being saved because God shows up in an awesome miracle by shutting the mouths of the lions. I think we sometimes forget that we get to see the end of the story. Daniel didn’t, he was living it. In Daniel 3, three of Daniel’s friends are thrown into a fiery furnace because they refuse to worship false idols. Before being thrown into this furnace, they state that God has the power to save them, but even if He chooses not to, they will still refuse to worship false idols (3:17-18). I feel like Daniel had this same mindset. He knows God could save him, that God had the power to, but whether God did or didn’t save him, he wasn’t going to spend thirty days apart from God.
There are two important questions about your character to ask yourself in comparison to Daniel. The first, is whether or not your relationship with Christ is evident to everyone around you. Do the people around you know that you spend time with God? Which you have to be doing in order for them to know that. The second question is what do you do when you face hardships? Daniel went straight to God and gave Him thanks. I know thanks aren’t my typical go to when I’m dealing with something hard. Daniel is a great character in the Bible that we can observe and learn from.
My challenge for you, and even for myself, is to make sure to spend some time with God every single day. Not one tiny sliver of the day we can squeeze Him into, but to cut something else out to make sure that God gets our first fruits. To spend time thanking Him every single day, even if there are hardships going on in our lives. To spend time with God so that we can learn His perfect character, and that way we can best portray it in our own lives.