Prospering in hard times

It is always interesting to get back to the word and see what God has to say about any situation that we encounter in life. This morning during my devotion I was particularly impacted by the book of Daniel as I saw similarities to every day situations that I had not seen there before. I must say the book of Daniel was largely a mystery to me before God revealed some things. In chapter 1 we are introduced to Daniel and his friends, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. They had been taken into captivity far away from home and everything they held dear. They had been removed from their families and probably they had lost some loved ones to war before being captured. They were in a strange land with strange customs and a strange language. This was a difficult situation. However it must have been comforting somewhat since at least they were together as friends in the same predicament. Daniel was successful in his life and as such, we have a lot to learn from his experiences. I will outline points that stand out to me as we see how Daniel prospered in hard times. I guess since we are in a recession that should be my blueprint for prospering in a recession.

1. Make up your mind where you stand. Daniel made up his mind that he would not compromise by eating the king's dainties. As a christian it is important to make up your mind beforehand where you stand as far as the word of God is concerned. Are you walking by the word or not? If not I have realised in my own life that you will shock yourself and it will be very easy to get swept of course. I have made up my mind to be faithful to God. I want to walk by faith and not by sight in this recession. I want to be a person of integrity.

2. Treat people well. The bible tells us of people that found favor before those that mattered. Daniel found favor before Melzar, the captain of the eunuchs who was in charge of the welfare of the young men under training in Babylon. There is simply no way you can find favor before people that you do not treat well. Arrogance and disrespect kill favor. I pray that God will help me to treat people well. I want to but alas I fail. God wants us to treat people well even when they do not deserve it. It is easy to do it when people are nice and kind but what of when they are rude and mean and arrogant etc? This is important even in the work place, the boss the colleagues  and the clients and also at home with our loved ones.

3. Negotiate your position. Daniel took his request to the responsible authority. He did not want to eat the food from the king's portion based on religious grounds. He wanted to be faithful to God. He had already made up his mind that he would not eat the food and drink the wine. The ground work had already been made by treating the responsible authority well. Daniel could approach the responsible authority because of his relationship with the captain of the eunuchs. When Daniel made his position known, Melzar expressed his fears over an arrangement where Daniel and his friends would not eat of the king's food as stipulated. His fears were legitimate since to him their not sticking to the stipulated diet could have made them look worse than the others and therefore put his life in danger. It is particularly noteworthy that Daniel did not beg Melzar but rather made a deal with him. Now for a person like me , I tend to be too frank and that has caused me to fail in negotiating my position. When I discovered this I realised that most of my failures to get people on my side is a direct result of failing to negotiate. God help me!

4. Put your trust in God (Have faith in God). Daniel had faith in God. He understood that God would not let them down. He asked Melzar to allow them to give it a try.'Give us the pulses and water and check us out after 10 days'! Melzar must have thought, 'oh well, Daniel is a nice guy and he wants me to test this suggestion. Well, let me give him a chance to prove himself. After all, I have nothing to lose. If after 10 days the deal does not work, I have a chance to put them back on the king's diet before I get into trouble'. Ultimately God showed himself faithful to the faithful young men. The bible tells us that at the end of the trial period, Daniel and his friends were a perfect picture of good health. Melzar's fears were put to rest and Daniel and his friends did not compromise. At the end of the whole training period the young men excelled ten times better than all the who is who in the Babylonian empire. God prospered them even in hard times for their faithfulness to him.

I suppose if Daniel had been arrogant and rude he would not have been able to strike a deal with the captain of the eunuchs. Interestingly we do not hear of the other Hebrew young men who probably just settled back and went with the flow. 'Well, we are far away from home and life is tough here, who cares about keeping the law! At least we are among the select few eating of the best food and best wine in the land!'  It is easy to go with the flow but it is far more exciting to go along with God on your side! I do not like the mediocre kind of life. I want to soar like an eagle. God did not create me to scratch the ground with the chicken! I hope you are not settling in to go with the flow. I hope you join me in the walk of faith, trusting God so that together we can prosper in hard times.