Sun.’s Devo - Take Courage

Read: Daniel 6:1-28; 2 Peter 3:1-18; Psalm 119:129-152; Proverbs 28:21-22 When Darius took over, he divided the nation into 120 provinces. He put them in charge of 3 men, one of them being Daniel. Daniel proved to be so much better in administration than the others that Darius was planning to put Daniel in charge of all of the provinces. The other administrators became so jealous of Daniel they sought to find something them could bring against him. They could find nothing. He was loyal, trustworthy and fair. So, the only things left to trick him with was his religion. He worshipped the Lord three times a day. The evil administrators went to the king with an edict to command everyone in the kingdom to bow down to only the king for the next 30 days. They had him sign it before he could think and left with their plot to end Daniel. They went to Daniel’s house and found him bowing down before God and had him arrested. They took him to the king. The king tried to think of a loop hole that he could save Daniel with but at the end of the day found none. He sentenced Daniel to the lions’ den saying that he prayed that his god would be able to rescue him. The king would not eat or allow his usual entertainment. He prayed all night and very early the next morning ran to the lion’s den and yelled in anguish, “Daniel, servant of the living God! Was your God, whom you serve faithfully, able to rescue you from the lions? Daniel answered that God sent his angel to shut the lion’s mouths. Furthermore, he was innocent in God’s sight and he had done nothing to wrong the king. The king was so overjoyed that he lifted Daniel from the den and had his accusers thrown in to the den. The lions tore them apart before they hit the floor. Then, Darius sent out a decree that people of every race and nation and language throughout the world should tremble with fear over the God that Daniel served. He is the living God who will endure forever and his kingdom would never be destroyed and his rule would never end. Daniel prospered during the reign of Darius the Mede and Cyprus the Persian. Peter warns us of the people that will mock our beliefs that Jesus is coming again. They choose to forget that it was God that created the heavens by his word and brought the earth out from the water and then surrounded it by water. He used this same water to destroy the ancient world with a flood but it will be destroyed the last time with fire. God is on his holy week where a day is equal to a thousand years. God has all of his works carefully calculated and he is following his plan. When Jesus does come back to judge the earth it will catch those that are left off-guard. The heavens will explode with a great noise and the earth will melt in heat. It seems like this will never happen because God’s patience is waiting for others to repent. We must stay spiritually awake and not allow ourselves to be carried away by deception and error. Lord, may we have no fear of what man can do to us. They can take our natural body but only You can save our soul. May we be courageous like Daniel.