Annie
Scriptures: Psalm 145:10-13 Daniel 7:18;27 Daniel 2 John 17:14-19
“Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations.”
We began our challenge for this year, to delve deeper into our relationship with God, by exploring how God has formed, known and loved us from beyond the beginning of time itself. This has to be the foundation that we need in order to learn how to enjoy “Kingdom Living”.
There are so many examples of folk in our Bible who have learned how to live in God’s Kingdom while living their earthly lives, but one who has been on my mind so much is a young man who lived most of his life as a captive, albeit with a position of high authority, in a foreign land. Daniel was taken as a captive into Babylon, the very place where God had destroyed the tower of Babel and caused the confusion of languages. This was a place of idolatry, of hedonistic living and despotic rule, a place where to be a believer in the One True God was a very dangerous choice. So, how did Daniel keep his faith and lifestyle uncontaminated by his surroundings?
When we look at Daniel’s life, we see a young man who knew with such certainty that there was nothing in his life that was accidental, or coincidental. Daniel didn’t look at himself as the centre of his earthly life, he saw that it was God who had allowed him to be placed in Babylon, and that it was God who protected and cared for him in all he did. His faith in the One True God was founded upon the promises that God had made to His people, that He would be with them wherever they were, that He would always go before them. Daniel knew that his identity lay within who God had created him to be, and that God’s smile upon him was all that he needed for fulfilment, joy and peace.
With this as his foundation, Daniel made a conscious choice to keep himself separate from the way of life that surrounded him. His choice was the epitome of what, so many centuries later, Jesus would tell His disciples. As followers of God, we are all not of this world just as Jesus was, but we are sent into it. God had sent Daniel into Babylon for a specific purpose, to be His witness, and Daniel recognised this. Daniel did not choose to lock himself away, to live a physically solitary life, what he chose meant intentionally keeping himself pure from all of the evil in the Babylonian society while still living amongst it. When we look at his choice to not eat the rich food of Babylon, we can see that this is but an outward sign of the inward rejection of the spiritual and moral deprivation that existed in that world.
It would have been so easy for Daniel to have fallen into despair at the animosity and treachery he faced as he carried out the duties of his role in the Babylonian royal household. Instead, Daniel chose to trust each and every situation to God, knowing that his God was weaving the tapestry of his life with intricacy and care, and that not one stitch was out of place. Daniel saw that God, in all His power and protection, was the centre of all, that it was God’s Kingdom that would outlive all others, and that he could live in that Kingdom in the midst of all that was happening on Earth.
Because Daniel kept himself spiritually separate from the world, God allowed Daniel to work in the lives of three kings of Babylon, to be His witness to these heathen rulers, speaking God’s truth into their lives. Daniel’s righteous Kingdom living, with his utter trust in God, even led to the lives of the king’s magicians and wise men being spared (Daniel 2). I have heard it said that, in Daniel’s understanding, God was always the hero in Daniel’s life, the central figure throughout all the years that Daniel lived in Babylon, the only One who he should look to for wisdom and guidance, the only One whose approval mattered.
Perhaps this is what Kingdom living boils down to; we can live in the Kingdom of God right now. We do this by making a fervent, diligent choice to seek God in and through all, to thankfully accept that we are where God wants us to be, and that He has our back, our front, every part of our being. And, so importantly, that we are sincere and honest in the choice we make to go, always go, wherever He leads us.
Prayer: Abba Father, in Your mercy and love, strengthen our resolve to keep ourselves separate from the temptations that this world presents to draw us away from You. Let us always remember that we begin by remembering that we are not of this world, and that where You send us, You have already prepared the way and are leading us. In Jesus Name we pray, Amen.