Faithful till the end!

From when I was a little girl, the story of ' Daniel in the lion's den' has always fascinated me.I've loved it every time when, even as a sunday school teacher, I narrated it to my sunday school kids.Well,last week as I was reading through the book again,I realized there was so much more to the old story that just the lion's den.

Daniel was taken as a captive to Babylon when he was just a teenager (12-16 yrs old).Having decided that he will not be defiled by the king's food ,he was eventually given a very high position in the kingdom.As years went by,the successors of king Nebuchadnezzar ignored Daniel and he was shuffled into some obscure office in the Babylonian bureaucracy.But when king Belshazzar found himself in trouble he called for Daniel.Unfortunately,the next king in power, Darius who loved Daniel,was forced to throw Daniel into the den because of Daniel's convictions about his one,true God.Well,we know what happened next.Do you know how old Daniel was when he was thrown into the lions den? He was atleast 80 years old!!Some even say he could have been a 100 years old!Even at that age, chapter 9 tells us that Daniel studied the scriptures and pleaded for his nation. 

For about eight odd decades, in a pagan land,Daniel  remained faithful to God.Daniel was a man who rose to a position of great power and honor in the secular world but who NEVER compromised on essential biblical principles.Instead,ALL his life,he had an impact on those around him -even the king!It was this godly man to whom God gave the unique opportunity of looking at the world's future.

Regardless of how sheltered our existence has been as children or how often we were taken to Sunday school,there comes a time when we are thrust into a pagan lifestyle that contradicts the Bible. Daniel shows us how to live a life of spiritual integrity in the crush of a secular world.Will we obey God regardless of the consequences?Can God trust us to remain faithful TILL THE END?

Be Still...

That is a beautiful verse that was deeply impressed on my heart lately.For someone like me who likes things done my own way and who wants God to work exactly the way I want Him to, being still and allowing him to work things out is umm...a little tough.How am I supposed to be still when things don't seem to be going my way,or when life seems so unfair and I feel like throwing my fists at God?

Imagine Moses in front of the Red sea.With six hundred thousand people (and that's just the men!) trusting him to lead them to the promised land ,they were being pursued by an Egyptian army with no means of escape and to make matters worse,Moses had to put up with a lot of  ungrateful grumbling and complaining .Despite all this, I am amazed at Moses' faith when he said,"The Lord will fight for you;You need only to be still".A statement of unflinching faith born out of knowing the Ruler of all of nature on an intimate level.Moses could say that because he knew that God was God! And true enough,God did something so amazing that day-a jaw dropping,unfathomable miracle,absolutely phenomenal in all of history.He parted the Red sea so His people could walk through!

Be still and know that I am God.As God's children,this is one of the greatest assurances we have.When at crossroads,faced with an uncertain future,unsure as to whether to turn to the right or the left,can you believe that all we have to do is just shut up,step aside and let God lead us?That means giving Him the control of every single detail of  our lives-our desires,our ambitions,our future...and well,basically EVERYTHING!And guess what? He will lead us perfectly to what he has in store for us.And that calls for a  giant leap of faith!

So next time circumstances seem to swallow you up or when you have no idea of what is happening around you,STAND STILL-not because of a self made confidence,not because you are the most composed person in the face of disaster,not because 'you've seen it all'.Be still  because of what you know about God.And the result? The latter part of the verse says,'I will be exalted among the nations'.God will show up in unexpected ways and in unexpected places and all you have to do is just sit back and watch the show.Oh what a great God I serve!

Picture Perfect!

Yes.That's exactly  the way I like my house kept.Clothes all washed and folded,the bed neatly made and furniture exactly the way they ought to be.Unfortunately, the house is shared with others who don't think the way I do.We live in a fallen world,you see,Lol.My parents come home and shoes,socks and bags are tossed everywhere(my brother used to be an expert at this!),newspaper spread all over the living room just because my Dad doesn't finish reading it in one sitting,and the house turned into a mess(well..atleast by my standards).Then there's my cousin who comes home on weekends and by the time he leaves the house,it would seem like his room has been hit by a tornado.This is when I start my usual whining and complaining.'What's wrong with all of you Ma? Can't you put things back in their proper places?' to which I'd either get a calm reply 'We're too old .When I was your age I kept the house spotless too!' or a louder response-'Papaa!God doesn't care how you keep the house.It's only a clean heart that really matters'(Yeah,right!).My Dad would go on to say something like this-'What on earth are you here for?It's your job to keep the house clean'.Then,there's the classic reply-'You are too proud.You think too much of yourself.It's high time you change yourself and show us some respect'.The hopeless argument would go on till I return to the next round of cleaning minus the whining.So much for trying to keep the house in a perfect shape!

Perfection.Isn't that we all want?We want a perfect house,a perfect car, perfect friends with perfect character.But fact is no one's perfect and I'm not either.Definitely not and even as I'm writing, I've got these feelings of inadequacies battling within me. But you know what? I serve a perfect God who is quite keen on working on my imperfections because as His children,we are called to become like Him,aren't we?We are called to strive towards perfection of character,a course of action that requires perseverance and discipline.In the third chapter of Philippians Paul writes thus:

"Not that I have already attained this—that is, I have not already been perfected—but I strive to lay hold of that for which I also was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have attained this. Instead I am single-minded: forgetting the things behind and reaching out for the things ahead, with this goal in mind, I strive toward the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."

Paul readily admits that he was far from perfection. He even referred to himself as the “chief of sinners” (1 Tim. 1:15). Notice, however, that Paul doesn't give up when he realized that he couldn't attain perfection in this life. He tells us that he was continuing to press forward and that he expected to make progress.God wants us to press forward towards perfection too.No,it's not easy and for God to work on our anger,ego,pride, arrogance and emotional imbalances it takes time.A lot of it in fact.But that also means spending more time with Him, inculcating His qualities in us.So let's allow Him to prune us,to mould us so that we become the kind of person He wants us to be.Let not the cliché 'No one's perfect' become an excuse for spiritual stagnancy.May God give us the grace to be found blameless when He returns!


PS:Before you start imagining my house as a pig sty,let me clarify.Its not that bad.Just that I'm a clean freak or rather used to be one:)