Faith Over Fear

Many of you have read about me.

I know my name has been revered as that of a fearless warrior who stood up for my beliefs and went against an order of kings.

I need you to know I was merely a man who felt fear, but I worshipped a mighty God who proved so faithful.

For those of you who don’t know my story, it all began way back when I was taken from my family.

I was renamed as Belteshazzar, avoided any food that might be defiled, and was placed in a royal Palace.

I didn’t want to eat the royal food.

I wanted to avoid any food that might have been defiled. So I asked if I could eat only water and vegetables for 10 days, as a test to see how I looked compared with the others who ate the King’s food.

I was not alone; three of my friends ate the same food as me.

We came out stronger and wiser than the others. Why? Because God‘s favour was upon us.

God gave me the ability to interpret the king’s dreams, and that gift enabled me to save the lives of many of the king's magicians and seers.

One such dream terrified me, and God gave me its interpretation.

I had to tell the king that he would no longer rule his kingdom and would be driven from human society.

God gave me the strength and the words to explain the meaning of his bizarre dream to the king.

God gave me favour and influence in the palace, and many years passed.

Another king reigned, King Belshazzar. He invited many guests to a great banquet to show off his wealth.

He ordered the gold and silver cups that King Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple in Jerusalem to be brought in so all his wives and concubines could drink from them. They started to worship their idols made out of gold and silver.

As they were partying, suddenly

They saw the fingers of a human hand writing on a wall.

The king turned pale as he saw the fingers form words that he didn’t understand.

His legs gave way as he crumpled to the floor in fear.

He ordered his seers, magicians and fortune tellers to be brought to him to interpret what they saw written on the wall.

He said he would reward the one who could interpret the writing with the honour of being the third highest ruler in his kingdom.

Not one of his men could read what was written.

Despair flooded the king.

The Queen Mother remembered me. And told the king what I had done for his predecessor, how I had God's spirit and knowledge on me.

I was brought into the king's presence. He offered me great wealth and positions of great authority.

This did not move me. I told him he could keep his gifts, but God, through me, would tell him what the words meant.

God flooded me with the words.

The interpretation came quickly.

I reminded him of his predecessor and how he knew of his downfall, and how he hadn’t honoured God, and that he too had not humbled himself but instead brought in the gold cups from the temple and was revering idols, not God.

This is the message that was written: Mene, Mene, Tekel, and Parsin. These words mean: Mene means ‘numbered’—God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end. Tekel means ‘weighed’—you have been weighed on the balances and have not measured up. Parsin means ‘divided’—your kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes and Persians.

That very night the king died, and King Darius took his place.

I had now been in the palace and had served three kings.

King Darius gave me even more responsibilities. I relied on my God for everything. He gave me heavenly wisdom and heavenly solutions. I knew I had to rely on Him for everything.

My palace colleagues were jealous of my position and knew that the only way to trip me up would be to use my walk with God as a weapon.

They got the king to decree that for thirty days everyone had to pray to the king, and anyone found worshipping anything else would be thrown into a pit of lions.

I continued to pray three times a day as had been my custom.

I opened my windows and prayed.

Many of the King's guards went around spying on everyone, and soon they caught me and brought me before the king.

The king was distraught, but he couldn't lose face, so they took me to the pit.

Fear consumed me when I was thrown into a pit of lions for once again worshipping God.

The stench of lions' dung hit my nostrils first. My stomach lurched.

Adrenaline pumped through my body as the lions prowled around me.

I felt their breath on my face.

I thought that this was the way I would die.

I did not fear death as I knew I would be in the presence of my God. I did not want this to be the way I died.

Then the astonishing thing happened. The lions just lay down.

No one could understand why I wasn’t ripped to shreds and eaten.

I lay down and slept peacefully until the King himself woke me the next morning. He opened the door and threw his arms around me in relief.

From that day on, the king made another decree.

This time everyone had to worship not him but my God. He knew only God could shut the lions' mouths.

Throughout my life, I have known hardship and fear.

Through it all, my God has never failed me.

And I know He will never fail

You.

That’s only part of my story. If you wanted to read more, please read my book in the Bible named after me. Daniel!!

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