So, no, I don’t want to be eaten by a lion.

As I read in Daniel 6 this morning, I had some thoughts.

If I were Daniel and I heard the King's decree saying that anyone who prayed to a god other than the king would be eaten alive by a pack of hungry lions, I might have been tempted to make my a logical plea (*silently*) to the Lord telling Him that I love Him, buuuuut ... CLEARLY this cirucmstance warented me to obey the King, stop publicly serving the Lord and, ahum, not die.

Not Daniel, though. Verse 10 says:

"Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before."

What caught my attention this morning was a simple phrase that the King used twicewhile pushing Daniel through the consequence of the current circumstance:

"your God, whom you serve continually..."

The King used this phrase as he threw Daniel into the pit of lions and again the next morning when he returned to see if there was any chance Daniel was still alive.

My bible crossed referance this phrase with the verse found in 1 Corinthians 15:58 that says this:

"Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain."

Huh. So ... difficult circumstance dosn't give me the right to bow out?!

Funny. Most of the time, I convince myself it does.