Surviving The Lions Den

Ever find yourself going through a tribulation, that no matter what you do or how hard you pray, it feels like God just don’t hear you?  Ever find yourself in a place where all you see, are problems and burdens, that are waiting to devour you and you just can’t help but wonder where is God?  Or do you ever find yourself struggling on a daily basis, and your so tired to stand on your own and you ask God, why won’t you help?  It’s almost like being in a dark, damp, den filled with hungry lions that are drooling at the smell of our misery and fear.

Most of the time we forget that God is with us and that He has a plan for us.  Even when we can’t see what it is yet.  And when the world casts us into a den of hungry lions, where we see the King of the Jungle waiting to consume us, we forget who the King of Kings is.  But still, how do we survive The Lions Den, when all we see is darkness, and our problems.

It’s obvious where our story comes from.  Daniel was a righteous man in Gods eyes.  And in chapter 6 we see that he was a man of prayer.  But yet somehow, he was still managed to be thrown in the Lions Den.  Why would God allow such a thing?  That question will be answered later.  But as we look at Daniel’s story the first thing we automatically assume, is that it was Daniels prayers and faith that saved him.  But sometimes that still isn’t enough.  Anyone can have faith that God will save them, but faith alone will not cut it.  Anyone can pray for God to save them, but like faith, prayers alone will not work.

How DID Daniel survive the lions den?  His story is found in Daniel 6:1-28

1. Obviously Faith and Prayer did have a part in it.  You see Daniel loved God and prayed with Him daily.  It gave that personal connection with God.  Something that Christians lack today.  A direct communication with the Almighty.  Even while Daniel suffered a good bit, He didn’t give up on God, he still prayed.
2. In Daniel 6:20 it says “And when he came to the den, he cried with a lamentable voice unto Daniel: and the king spake and said to Daniel, O Daniel, servant of the living God, is thy God, whom thou servest continually, able to deliver thee from the lions?”  This tells us that Daniel didn’t just pray, but he served God continually.  So many Christians think that we can do anything we want to on this earth and still think God will protect us from harm.  But we must serve God in all that we do to survive this lions den.  This includes: Prayer, Bible reading, ministry work, worship Him in spirit and truth, share the gospel, obey His commandments, etc.  And not just on Sunday or twice a week but continually!
3. Daniel 6:22 says “My God hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lions’ mouths, that they have not hurt me: forasmuch as before him innocency was found in me; and also before thee, O king, have I done no hurt.”  Take a look at the bold in that verse.  God found Daniel innocent.  Not of the law that the king made, but of God’s law.  God looked at Daniel and found innocence.  Daniel was without sin, and was a righteous man of God.  This tells us that Daniel was sanctified.  To make our petitions known before the Omnipotent God, we have to wash our sins off of our lives, get rid of the filth that we keep locked up inside of us and be sanctified.  God wants us to be pure and holy.
4. The latter part of that verse says “And also before thee, O King, have i done no hurt.”  Sometimes the people in our lives are the source of our problems.  But instead of retaliation, show them love and longsuffering.  Because the bible tells us in Matthew 25:40 “And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”  So let us make sure that we don’t have quarrel with our neighbors before wondering where God is.
5. The last thing, is found in verse 23.  “Then was the king exceedingly glad for him, and commanded that they should take Daniel up out of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no manner of harm was found upon him, because he believed in his God.“  Ok, let us get the record straight.  This is not the same as having faith that God will deliver you.  Daniel Believed in God.  He knew who God was, and he knew God loved him.  He knew God would not allow him harm because he was innocent.  He didn’t doubt for a second God didn’t hear his prayers.  He didn’t doubt for a minute that God hadn’t left his side.  He knew God was all powerful, He knew, God was with him, even in the darkest place of his life.  But not only that, the bible says he believed in his God.  It was a personal and intimate relationship between a man and his God.  And that is the very thing that Christians forget.  We remember the story of Daniel, how he prayed his way through the lions den and when we apply it to our lives today, we forget to believe in our God.  Our Savior, our Friend, our Father, our Fortress, our Refuge.  You could almost say that believing in God is knowing who He is intimately.

It is when we Pray, have faith, serve God and others, be found innocent and believe in God while having a relationship with him, that we are saved from the Dark days of our lives.  That we are saved from The Lions Den.

Psalms 23:4  “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me…”  

Daniel 6:27    “He delivereth and rescueth, and He worketh signs and wonders in heaven and in earth, who hath delivered Daniel from the power of the lions.”

Arrows in a Quiver

• Time to touch up on a very picky subject.  Sinners and Christians alike for some reason think that having children is a blessing until you have over 2 or 3.  Then they are a burden.  Some believe that having just 1 can be a burden.  But they are all wrong.  No where in the bible does it say anything bad about children.  As a matter of fact, the bible tells you to have children.  Take a few close looks at the scripture.

“Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.   As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth.  Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.  Psalms 127 : 3-5”  

Interesting.  Children aren’t a burden.

• They are a heritage of the Lord.  This does not say heritage of you.  It is a heritage of God, which means You didn’t make that baby for yourself.  GOD wanted you to be blessed with that baby.  God gave you a heritage.  You inherited this baby that God has given you.  Its not a burden, its a privilege.

• They are the fruit of the womb.  What is fruit?  Something sweet.  Something that is pleasureful.  A luxury even.  A life given substance.  God called them fruit because their not just some parasite.  They are something of far more worth.

• They are a reward.  Self-explanatory.  I shouldn’t have to say any more.  But if that was the case there would be no need for this post.  They are a reward.  I want you to remember that next time you are at home and you have bad thoughts about your own children or other peoples children.

These 3 things describe children as God sees them.  But instead of accepting God’s gift and blessings in the form of a small baby, we give them away or worse, we kill them.

  Hosea 9:11 says “As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly way like a bird, from the birth, and from the womb, and from the conception.”  and vs 14 says “Give them, O Lord: what wilt thou give? give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.”  

There are a few things to point out here…

1. That children are such a wonderful blessing that God actually closed the womb, as punishment.
2. This proves that God controls conception and birth.
3. Most importantly God refers to the conception of children as Glory.

And in Luke 1:36 we see that a woman who was barren and in her “old age”, that God opened her womb to conceive and give birth.  And with Mary who had never been with a man, God planted HIS seed inside of her, so that she conceived and gave birth.

In Gensis 4:1 the bible says “And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord.”  Interesting how we see that it took three things to create the child.  It took the seed that God created to fertilize an egg that God also created, and likewise it took God to guide the process.

Psalms 139:13-14 the bible says “For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb.  I will praise thee: for I am fearfully wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.”

Another translation says “You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body
      and knit me together in my mother’s womb.
 Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!
      Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.”

It is plain to see here that it is God who controls the conception, the growing child, and the birth.

And if you search through the gospels of God’s word you will see that Jesus tells us time and time again that those that curse children will be punished.  And those that bless children will be blessed.

I will conclude on this thought, if you believe that everything has a purpose, that everybody has a purpose, then why do you try to hit the abort button on God’s plan for your children?  Wether it is by birth control, by getting a vasectomy, or getting your tubes tied, or worse, planning the abortion, you are destroying not only human life which is against God’s law, “Thou shalt not kill.” but also rejecting the Lords blessing on your life.  Someone once asked why hasn’t there been a cure for Cancer, or Aids, or World hunger?  And someone answered, because you continue to abort them.

The main excuse I hear today is, “Don’t bring a child in this world with the way it is today.”  So let me ask you a question?  If in March of 1918 someone went up to a woman and said “The world is going to go to chaos.  Crime rates will rise, wars will break loose, there will be a great depression, and a terrorist attack that kills many.  There will be earthquakes and tsunamis and hurricanes will greatly increase in severity.  The economy will plunder and jobs will be scarce.  People will live in poverty from not getting enough income and drug use and alcoholism will be everywhere and homosexuality will not only increase but be the “cool thing to do.  You should kill that baby so it won’t have to live through it, or not have any children for that reason, then that woman would have killed Billy Graham.”  Even if you feel like you never amounted to nothing, it doesn’t mean that your child can’t grow up to be the next deliverer of God’s Children.

 Who are we to play God in decided which life should live?  And how dare we try to Abort God’s plan.