Thoughts for another day

Nov. 24, 2009

Today's verse: Dn. 14:41. The king shouted with a loud voice, "You are great, O Lord, the God of Daniel, and there is no other besides you! (RSV – Catholic Version)
(Pls. read the above before you read further. Thanks)

The signature tune of any Christian is the glorifying of God through the mouth of a pagan. That is the task we are assigned and that’s what we are supposed to do. Our whole purpose in life is to glorify God and be instruments in bringing about His glory come what may and even in the midst of threats and danger.

In our verse above, we have a perfect example of how a pagan, a non-Jew, glorifies God and how! In the incident, we learn of a man called Daniel who adored God and worshiped Him alone. When questioned about this, Daniel clearly told the king that he didn’t worship idols or things made by hand. His wisdom was a notch above any other in the kingdom and he was held in higher esteem than any friends of the king, therefore he made enemies who instigated the king against him and also provided reason for the king to punish him because Daniel had the audacity to destroy two idolatrous practices which the Babylonians followed that put a dent in their pride and they even termed the king who was a pagan, as a converted Jew for he supported Daniel.

Because of their anger and their hatred for Daniel they forced the king to hand him over so they could fling him into the den of hungry lions. Daniel’s enjoyed God’s favor in this extreme test and not only did God safeguard him from the lions’ jaws but also provided him food. And after his time in the den when the king found him alive, the king believed that the God of Daniel was the only God and made the exclamation as found in our verse. What a thing of pride for any man through whom and because of whom, our God is glorified and what a privilege it is for us to stand for our God in the face of threats and declare Him alone as the LORD God! Try it and you’ll discover that God is in all that you say and do, when you do it to bring glory to His Name.