Like Daniel we are living in exile. As children of God, who know Christ personally, we realise that we are in a foreign land. For if we stand up strong for Christ and His ways we are ridiculed, subject to all kinds of hostile acts both verbally (in a multitude of media today) and physically. However, in the life of Daniel we see someone who knows his Lord intimately and realises that His Lord and His ways come first. He was strong in spirit and he knew where his strength came from. He had no doubt.
The Lord Jesus asks us to take up our cross daily and follow Him. Taking up the cross daily will mean having to face persecution, but as with Daniel, every difficulty we face is heaven’s invitation to trust Him more fully. Jesus was tested in a wilderness with no one there to help Him but His Father in heaven. In some ways Daniel gives us an earlier indication of what Jesus would face, as He refused to bow to the ways of man and indirectly the devil.
The darkness wanted to defeat both Daniel and Jesus. The enemy tried to force them to act on their own strength and to fight for their own way and to deny their God. However, they were not overcome by evil. Those who saw them, mocked, and abused them, yet they didn’t know that their victory was not found on the earth, but in a close and tender relationship with the Father. No matter what they did to them, nothing could keep them from the Father’s love.
So, as children of God, born anew of the Holy Spirit, we are free, unbound, and unbroken by the darkness of the world. We are not defeated, and we will overcome like Daniel and Jesus, because His victory in our lives will prevail. Faith in Christ is the victory that overcomes the world.
The Bible is very clear that we are to enthrone Jesus Christ as Lord of our lives and to follow Him daily, to have Him lead us daily, moment by moment.
If you do not personally know Jesus and want to overcome the difficulties in your life and the darkness of this world, all you have to do is to repent of your sins, confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord of your life and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead and lives today and every day in your heart (Romans 10:9-10). You will then be saved and have the ruler and creator of the universe living in your heart. Then no one or no circumstances will be able to extinguish the flame that has been kindled in our heart.
Like Daniel and like Jesus, when He was on earth, we are called to a constant abiding relationship with Christ – a chance to live the resurrection life with Christ as it was meant to be lived. Again, like Daniel and Jesus we will face adversity as foreigners in this land. But the fact remains, that it takes adversity to produce spiritual maturity. It can’t come any other way.
Jesus said, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
(John 16:33).
Ray Dallin