We live in a time when many people’s lives and faith are being shaken by calamities on the outside and compromise with a negative culture on the inside.
How can I keep from freezing or being swept away by fear, anxiety, and uncertainty?
How do I raise my kids in the world without them becoming part of the world?
How do I share my faith in a world that increasingly belittles my faith?
Times of crisis always bring change. In our habits, emotions, relationships, and perspectives.
The question isn’t if we will change, but whether it will be positive or negative.
Crisis don’t cause right or wrong things in us; they reveal them in us.
The good news is that Jesus is the rock that never rolls. He shows us in His word how we can live unshakeable in a way that we not only survive in chaos, we thrive in chaos. Daniel’s life and book gives us a script on how to live an unshakeable life and thrive no matter what happens to us.
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against the house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.” Matthew 7:24-25 NIV
Daniel was unshakeable and thrived in chaos because he refused to compromise his convictions and chose to stand up for God instead of following the crowd.
Why Daniel took a stand?
1. He didn’t want to defile himself. You can’t know God’s will for your life and be conforming to the world at the same time. Daniel did not want culture to fame him or claim him.
“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will-his good, pleasing, and perfect will.” Romans 12:2 NIV
2. He understood that being faithful to convictions when little things are at stake prepares you to be faithful later on when bigger things are at stake.
3. He did this to hold fast to his identity and to fulfill his greater purpose. We need to have a purpose in our heart that is bigger and more compelling than the meager pleasures the world has to offer. This was not about rules, but about fulfilling a greater purpose.
"By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt., because he was looking ahead to his reward.” Hebrews 11:24-26 NIV
Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul.” I Peter 2:11 KJV
He understood you can’t change the world if you are part of the world.
Three options in relationship to the world
Be part or a member of the world: compromise.
Be a condemner of the world: condemn.
Be a minister to the world: compassion and change.
4. Daniel believed that if he would stand up, God would show-up, use his life and change his world. Courage is about the absolute belief that if we act in faith to stand up for what is right, God will move and do something significant through our lives.
Anywhere there has ever been positive change, someone took a stand!
“When a man’s ways please the Lord, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.” Proverbs 16:7 NKJV
“So that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Philippians 2:15 NIV
“You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt loses its saltiness how can it be made salty again.” Matthew 5:13 NIV
Powerful ways to take a stand for God
1. Pre-decide your convictions. We turn beliefs into convictions when we clarify them and settle them in our heart. A belief is something you would argue for; a conviction is something you would die for. Vague is always negotiable.
2. Stand on the Scripture by knowing it in your heart and declaring it with your mouth. We must not only know the word but use the word to defeat the lies, labels, and litigations of the devil.
People don’t just leave the faith; they follow the lies. How we stand for what we believe will ultimately determine how we behave. Declare decisions and identity! Labels we identify with become scripts that we follow.
“My heart is set on keeping your decrees to the very end… And because I consider all your precepts right, I hate every wrong path.” Psalms 119:112, 128 NIV
3. Have friends to stand with you and lock shields. True faith isn’t private; it is shared faith.
“Whatever you shall bind on earth will be bound in Heaven.” Matthew 18:18a
4. Know that grace always provides a way back to your convictions and God’s blessings. A person justified by Christ is just as if they had never sinned.
“For though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again, but the wicked stumble when calamity strikes.” Proverbs 24:16 NIV