When I got married, my husband moved me away from the area where I had lived my entire life. I was suddenly immersed in surroundings that were unfamiliar, learning to live with another person and share my personal space. While I loved my husband, the life I had always known was turned upside down, and it was a little unsettling. I had to make new friends, adjust to new family, find new places to shop, and plug into a new church. Everything was new. I was overwhelmed for months. Needless to say, my faith was stretched!

As bad as I had it, my moving experience was nothing compared to what Daniel faced when he was taken captive and forced to settle in a strange country among a strange people. It would have been easy for Daniel to give up when his faith was attacked and he was encouraged to follow new gods. He could have faced less resistance if he had surrendered his values and eaten the king’s food instead of refusing to defile himself. His very identity was stolen from him and his name was changed, yet he refused to assimilate into the king’s culture. Despite the attempts to indoctrinate him, Daniel remained true to God, resting his faith in God’s sovereignty.

How about us? Today’s culture threatens to destroy our faith. It attacks our values and undermines the identity we find in Christ. The world wants us to give up on God. Like Daniel, our faith must rest upon the sovereignty of God if we are going to stay strong. It is only by resting in Him that we can have a confident faith in a crazy world.

How confident is your faith?

Beginning 2016 with Prayer

Pray for Wisdom

God says acquiring wisdom is of “supreme” importance and prayer is one of the keys that unlock it. He promises to give wisdom “generously” for those who “seek” and “search” it. God wants to give us what we need for being successful in our families, in our work, in everything we do “bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God”

Proverbs 4:7,12; James 1:5; Proverbs 2:4; James 1:5; Colossians 1:10; Proverbs 2:6

Seek God for wisdom in your life in any difficult circumstance and daily decision making. He is also glorified in our integrity, honesty, diligence, humility, purity and faithfulness.