Choises

I see a question being asked throughout the Scriptures. It began in the garden and continues throughout every generation. How this question in answered determines much about how we live our lives. The question was first posed by God's enemy to Eve and yet I think everyone who has ever lived has had to decide how to answer it. The question is, "Does God really have your best interest at heart and can you trust Him?"

When God delivered the children of Israel from Egypt with a mighty hand and an out stretched arm there was a problem. The problem was they didn't really trust Him. They were delivered from slavery and promised a land of their own but on the way to that Promised Land they had to go through a wilderness. In the wilderness they murmured and complained, they murmured and complained because they didn't really believe that God had their best interest at heart nor did they believe that they could trust Him.

Daniel was in captivity. His enemies were looking for a fault in him a way to bring a complaint against him to the king and the only thing they could find was his devotion to God. They appealed to the king's pride that if anyone made a petition to a god or man other than the king for thirty days his would be thrown into the lions den. But Daniel believed that God had his best interest at heart and he believed that he could trust him so he continued to go to his upper chamber and kneel and pray with thanksgiving towards Jerusalem. He was praying towards Jerusalem even though it had been destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, his prayers were marked by thanksgiving and not by murmuring and complaining because he was trusting in what he believed about God and not what he was experiencing.

I asked my friend to choose one word to describe Daniel after a short pause she said, "Steadfast." I thought about that and then I thought about James 1:1-4. "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trails of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing." Daniel was firmly loyal and constant in his belief that God is good and he could trust Him. His unshakable faith caused him to offer prayers of thanksgiving just as the children of Israels doubt of God's goodness caused them to murmur and complain when their faith was tested.

Father, Your word is filled with stories of how You have shown Yourself faithful in the lives of Your people. Long ago I learned that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Thank You for letting me see Your faithfulness in the lives of others but thank You also that when I face trails I am also being invited to see You faithfulness first hand in my own life.