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When The King Can't...

July 8, 2009

Daniel 6: 14 – Then the king, when he heard these words, was much distressed and set his mind to deliver Daniel. And he labored till the sun went down to rescue him.

For those of you who know the story of Daniel and the Lion’s Den….you of course know what happens….despite the King’s best efforts, he is unable to escape the repercussions of the law that he himself established and much to his own frustration is forced to throw Daniel to the Lions, despite it being an unjust act.

It is interesting how we construct our own cages. We can work so diligently at putting into place some structure, some law, some rule, some pursuit that we ARE SO CONVINCED is a good thing, and then one day we realize that we just built our own jail.

How many times have I come to a place in my life where I have realized that my current frustration, my current feeling of being utterly trapped…is nothing more than a by-product of my own decisions.

And as King Darius found out…sometimes even the most incredible human powers cannot reverse the circumstances I have found myself in.

But at the risk of sounding somewhat cliche….when even the King can’t save me….God can.

The only solution in Darius’ mind was “STOP DANIEL FROM BEING THROWN TO THE LIONS.”

And yet in this story we can almost hear God saying…“Go ahead…I’m going to save him no matter what you do.”

Because no matter how well I have constructed my own jail…I am no match for the saving power of God.

In and amidst all the lessons that I could learn from this passage this morning, this one stands out: I need to stop relying on my own strategies and plans to save myself from whatever circumstances I face….and allow the God who saves to do what He does.

Because all Darius accomplished was waste a day of work, and lose a night of sleep….God saved Daniel all by himself.

So I guess what I’ve learned this morning is…I am nowhere near as strong as I think I am, and even my best efforts can be just spinning wheels.

But God…is the God…who saves. So maybe I need to just back out of the way, and let Him do His thing.

On My Journey,

Brian <><

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