When Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open toward Jerusalem. He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he had done previously. (Daniel 6:10) I want to fill you in on the context of this Bible verse. Government officials who reported to Daniel set up Daniel to take a political fall. They got a moment alone and unsupervised before the king and charmed their way into a hellish plot to put Daniel in an awkward spot and ruin his career. In fact, the law that they had constructed condemned Daniel for practicing what he believed in faith– that is to have no other gods before God and worship Him only. When Daniel learned what was going on, he stayed the course. In fact, as we read in today’s Bible passage, he just opened windows and prayed like he usually does. In fact, the Bible says that he gave thanks in his prayer. You’re probably thinking what I’m thinking “what is there to give thanks for?” You were set-up by people that work for you even though you didn’t do anything except succeed. You will probably be thrown to the pits and sentenced to die because you are just doing what you’ve always practiced, the worship of God, and you have nothing to say for it or do about it because nobody can help you. Thank you God?!?! It doesn’t make sense. We can’t even stop long enough to blame ourselves for a crime we blame God for but really was our fault. We’re ridiculous people that way, blaming God for something we did wrong. But Daniel prays, “Thank you God.” This teaches us something about attitude. Our attitudes are horrible at best, when things are good. But when things are bad, how much more deficient are our attitudes? You miss your bus/plane/train and we curse God. Our smartphones drop a phone call and we yell at God. We drop our smartphones into the toilet and it’s God’s divine will. We fail a test and it’s God’s fault we didn’t try. We are in the wrong place at the wrong time and God’s to blame for making that a time we didn’t make a better decision. Whatever it is, we won’t take the blame and it just proves our attitudes are horrible and we’re utterly stupid. Now, what happens when change course and give thanks to God when the world is against us. What would the result be? Where would we end up? How will our circumstances be seen? I don’t think any of us will ever know until we try. Give thanks to God for your bad breaks today and see where your faith takes you.
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