Chapter 18 teen Daniel
Hold to your faith. Can you do this if faced with life
changes so radical that everyone around you is converting to a new way of
thinking? Daniel, of “lion’s den” fame, was a teen when Jerusalem fell to
Babylon six hundred years before Christ. He was given a new name, plunged into
a new society, and brainwashed to break down his beliefs. Hmm, sounds a little
like going off to college.
Did Daniel hold to his faith? Oh, did he ever. The Bible
tells us that he was without any physical defect, handsome, showing aptitude
for every kind of learning, well informed, quick to understand, and qualified
to serve in the king’s palace. He and his equally gifted friends were to be
trained for three years before entering into the king’s service. First came a
change in diet, but Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food
and wine. He asked the chief official to indulge him in an experiment to see if
he and his friends would look healthier and better nourished if they stuck to
vegetables and water for ten days. It worked and he was allowed to continue his
healthy ways.
Later Daniel distinguished himself among the administrators
who could find no corruption or negligence in his work. They plotted his
downfall by urging the king to write a decree that ordered everyone to pray
only to the king or face being thrown into a den of lions. Daniel again held to
his faith and prayed three times a day to God. He was discovered and, you know
the story, he was sealed into the den. God sent an angel who shut the mouths of
the lions. Is closing their jaws enough? Don’t they have powerful claws? I
think it’s important to note the Bible’s reason why no wound was found on him. It was because Daniel “had trusted in his God”. Daniel held to his faith. Can you hold
to a strong faith in the Lord Almighty?
How did Daniel do it? He stayed with his early religious
training, he prayed several times a day, and he trusted God.
Next Saturday teen Uzziah
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