Daniel Chapter 6. Be a true person of integrity because of your faith in Christ.
Daniel was a true person of integrity driven by his faith in God. 120 men were put in charge of all of King Darius's kingdom. Daniel and two other men were to oversee the 120 men. When they ALL found out that Daniel might be put in charge of all the kingdom, they became very jealous and hateful and devised an evil plan to get rid of Daniel. The problem was, they could find no wrongdoing or corruption in his life. He definitely was a trustworthy man of God.
Because they could find no wrong doing, but knew he was a praying man to God, they devised a plan to trick King Darius into throwing anyone in the Lion's den over the next 30 days if anyone prayed to anyone other than King Darius. The king signed the decree meaning it could not be changed. Then they told the king that Daniel prayed to his own God and therefore must be thrown in the lions den.
King Darius reluctantly had Daniel thrown into the lions den. But before they covered the mouth of the den with a large stone, the king said to Daniel, “May your God whom you serve continually, rescue you!”
After a long sleepless night, at the break of dawn, King Darius hurried to the mouth of the den and yelled to Daniel saying, “Daniel, servant of the Living God, has God whom you serve continually, been able to rescue you from the lions?”
Daniel responded, “May the King live forever!”
King Darius loved and respected Daniel and Daniel's response to the king shows his love and respect for him. Because of Daniel's faithfulness to the Lord, God shut the mouth of the Lion and protected Daniel.
Because of the evil men's scheme to destroy Daniel, King Darius had all the men and their wives and children thrown into the lions den and they were immediately crushed and killed by the Lions.
In our political world today I feel like we see such evil schemes as there is a battle over power in our government.
But what about in our own lives. Twice The King commended Daniel for his continual faithfulness to the Lord.
1) I want to be faithful in my prayer time with God as Daniel was.
2) I want to be faithful in being in the Word.
3) But more than that, I want to be faithful in living out God's Word.
4) If someone is watching me I want them to say they can find no corruption in my life, that I am indeed a man of integrity and trustworthiness.
5) I want to respect my authorities for God has put them over me.
6) And I want to respect God and listen to his laws over any law that calls me to defy my faithfulness to God.
7) I want to stand up for my faith even if it means death!
God, may your grace truly cover me so that I can be faithful even when death looks me in the face.