“Then Daniel responded with tact and discretion to Arioch, the commander of the king’s guard, who had gone out to execute the wise men of Babylon.
Then Daniel went to his house and told his friends Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah about the matter, urging them to ask the God of heaven for mercy concerning this mystery,
so Daniel and his friends would not be killed with the rest of Babylon’s wise men.
(Daniel's action to seek God is not a righteous one! It's a selfish one. An action brought on by desperate preservation of one's life, in other words a great disaster. Who do you think had the King of Babylon decide to decree such a disaster? The same person who gave the King his dream in the first place...God!!!)
The mystery was then revealed to Daniel in a vision at night, and Daniel praised the God of heaven and declared:
May the name of God be praised forever and ever, for wisdom and power belong to Him.
He changes the times and seasons;
He removes kings and establishes kings.
He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding.
He reveals the deep and hidden things;
He knows what is in the darkness,
and light dwells with Him.
I offer thanks and praise to You,
God of my fathers, because You have given me wisdom and power. And now You have let me know what we asked of You, for You have let us know the king’s mystery."
Daniel 2:14, 17-23
What was God doing here? Was God saving Daniel and his friends from being killed when God was the one who gave the King that dream in the first place knowing it would disturb him and make him issue everyone's death? Clearly not. If God wanted to save Daniel from death God would never have placed the dream in the King's mind. So what was God doing?
I think God had Daniel in His heart to know Him. So He placed the dream inside the King in order for disaster to force Daniel into calling upon Him for help, SO THAT God could walk Daniel through the experience of knowing Him as God. Daniel praises God not for saving their lives, but for giving him the wisdom of experiencing God as being God. The whole of every life will find its security and highest meaning of existence in this one thing: that they know God and are loved by Him.
God takes us through every detail of our day to speak this truth into our hearts. He especially uses our discomforts and disasters to do this, because it is in those situations that we feeble humans will call for help in the last resort of our desperation. However, as you accumulate such experiences the hope is to know God, so that whether in disaster or in peace we confidently praise God for being God. It may take several disasters for someone to get this, but eventually once you do get it, that God is real, that God is good, and that YES God does love you, that's when heaven happens on earth.
Worry is distrust in God's sovereignty and love. Worry spits on the cross that Jesus carried because it's saying "Jesus you died but that doesn't do much for me, I still need this or that!" Really? You need more than Jesus? You need money to pay rent? You need clothes to be warm? You need food to feed your children? You need energy and health to do fun or dutiful things? Worry is doubting that God knows you need these things. Worry is wanting to think God doesn't care about your needs and utmost wellbeing. Worry is thinking that God doesn't love you, no matter what you believe about Jesus dying on a cross. Worry is the wall between you and the grand epic life that God designed for you to have as His heir to His kingdom. It's offensive how much we hate God, but hallelujah God loves us first and by His grace and mercy and love we are transformed and convinced day by day of how great His love really is. But it starts with being honest. If you worry you are thinking God is not good.
"No, I worry but I trust God...it's just hard."
Sigh. It makes me shudder when I hear people say that. It's so self-justifying. Why can't we just be honest. If you worry that means you don't trust God. And it's hard because of many other reasons that reveal your weaknesses and insecurities. So that's that. Be honest. And to be honest I shudder most when I catch myself saying that.
God said that the truth will set you free. Believe that what God says will always come to pass. What you say will not come to pass unless God said it first.
I remember when I began to let go of worrying, it freaked me out. It felt so weird and uncomfortable. I wanted to worry. I hated worrying and how it kept me up at times in the night when I needed rest, but more strange was how I missed the familiarity of it when I began to stop. It felt ....offensive to not worry, weak and disabling, but most of all it felt uncomfortable because it meant that I was believing that God did love me. It meant not knowing a lot. Things became unpredictable and felt very unstable and insecure....my distraction (which was worrying) was now lifted and the truth was scary.
Love is odd if you've never truly experienced it before. It's so contrary to everything else you've ever known and experienced in so much that you question and critique it the moment it starts to penetrate your defenses.
If love freaks you out like it did for me, and like it continues to do for me, know that it is better to be freaked out by love than to be freaked out by death. The truth is that both love and death are scary, but the feeling is not the truth, it's just what we think in a given moment (of experiencing the seeming threat of love or the seeming threat of death). The truth is that one leads to Life and the other to Death.
God is in the details of your honesty. Don't be afraid to let the truth be exposed that leads to love. It would be dumb of us to reject love because it "scared us." But many people do. They hold on to fear and worry and doubt because that is easier than looking at the truth.
Honestly, love scares me. But I would rather remain scared for love than scared to die. Haha.
If I had to choose. Which I do. Oblivion is also a wall to block out the truth. And then God will do something, reveal the hidden things that once scared you, and like Daniel you will praise God for being God. You will know God and what it means to be loved by Him. What it means to have no fear. What it means to be the heir to everything as a royal son or daughter. You will know your value and worth as such. You will know your identity.
That is what God speaks to each of His children in the details of every moment...right now.
He says, "I AM."
(Exodus 3:14)
I urge you, as Daniel did to his friends in the midst of disaster, to wake up and go to God for the answer to the mystery in your heart regarding I AM.
Jmegrey
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