Daily Verse: Daniel 2:18

He urged them to plead for mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery, so that he and his friends might not be executed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.
 

 

To provide some background for the text above: The king during this time had a dream that troubled him and he requested all the “wise men” of his kingdom to come forward and interpret the dream for him. But he wouldn’t tell the wise men what the dream was about…he expected them to somehow know the dream and interpret it correctly. Everyone he asked threw up their hands saying the request was impossible, yet the king did not back down. He wanted results…and threatened that if he did not get the results in the manner that he was requesting then he would simply execute all the “wise men” that he had called upon. Daniel was one of those wise men along with the three other friends that he is urging to pray to God for help. The interesting part about the text above is that Daniel leaned on prayer as the source of rescue. There was no mention of Daniel and his friends attempting to devise a scheme to fool the king or come up with an escape attempt to avoid being executed. No, they simply went to prayer, acknowledging that this was such an extraordinary situation that prayer was the only hope left. Do we operate in the same manner in our own lives? Do we go to God in prayer, trusting that his help is THE one source of rescue and relief that we need? I think far too often we fail to include God in our struggles each day as we rely more on our own wits and abilities to find a solution. As the story continues above, Daniel was given insight into the king’s dream through a vision delivered to him by God. Had Daniel not included God, would he have come up with the key to the king’s dream? Probably not. Or look at Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego…had they not included God in their challenge would they have been able to stand in the furnace and not be burned to ashes? Nope. There is great value in including God in our daily lives and the struggles that we must endure. Big or small, it doesn’t matter…God wants to be a part of it all. May we reach out to him in prayer each day, trusting that he will be a part of the battle and he will lead us to victory! To God be the glory!