We read of many great men in the Old Testament. Daniel is no exception. If you have not read the book of Daniel closely it would do you much good to do so. There are many uplifting lessons we can learn from this great man of God. We will look at a couple in this article and then you will clearly see that it is very important that we DON'T FORGET DANIEL!!!
One great thing that impresses me about Daniel is that he was a man of habit. I'm not speaking of bad habits like drinking or smoking. I’m talking about habits which reap spiritual and heavenly benefits. Notice Dan. 6:10. "Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went home, and in his upper room, with his windows open toward Jerusalem, he knelt down on his knees three times that day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as was his custom since early days." Notice the mention of the word custom. It was a habitual thing!
Daniel was a man of good habits. In this society of countless bad habits, we need to become aware of Daniel. When we fill our lives with countless good habits, then, and only then, will we be able to overcome the temptations to develop bad habits. Our lives need to be filled with prayer to our God. 1 Thess. 5:17. Our lives need to be filled with studying God's word. Acts 17:11. Our lives need to be filled with worshipping God. Heb. 10:25. Our lives need to filled with GOOD habits!!! What are your habits like? Consider your life. Examine yourselves, weather you are in the faith. Test yourselves. 2 Cor. 13:5. Too many Christians have developed bad habits over the years, causing them to stray from the truth. This can be avoided if we will develop good habits.
We also learn a great lesson in courage from Daniel. Even in the face of possible destruction in the den of lions Daniel continued to be faithful to God. As those Christians in the first century were being led to their deaths because of their faith in God, they doubtless gained courage from the example of Daniel. 0h how we need courage and backbone. It has been said there was no way those lions could eat Daniel because he was nothing but grit and backbone. He had great courage! We lose heart so easily in our lives. When we are rejected while trying to teach the gospel to our friends we lose courage and quit trying. Lets not lose that courage! Lets remember the courage of Stephen in Acts 7 who was killed for preaching Jesus. Lets remember the apostles in Acts 5:22-32 who had courage to preach Christ even though they were sternly warned not to. We need to quit being spineless and take courage to teach the gospel.
Gal 6:1 says to go to a brother in sin and try to correct him. But too many folks ignore the sin of their brethren because they lack the courage to confront them about their sin. They will lose their souls Eze. 33:8,9. We should love our brethren enough to take courage and rebuke them when they sin. Yes, there are many things we can learn from this great man of faith. So please, DON'T FORGET DANIEL!!!
|
