In the Lion's Den

Introduction

Lottie Moon:

As she attempted to share the Gospel in Shandong, she was reviled and called a “Foreign Devil.” Usually it was by children!

At times she would have the locals threatening to kill her and destroy her property.

Her own mission board was being pressured to remove her from the field because she was being unfairly called a “radical feminist” by those who disagreed with taking the Gospel to China.

Hudson Taylor:

The government would issue edicts to keep him from being able to move around freely and he would face regular interrogations by the authorities.

During a riot in 1886, Taylor’s home was busted into by a mob and he and his family were physically assaulted for their faith in Christ.

During a rebellion in 1900, he was targeted by persecutor and almost killed. He escaped, but 188 Protestant missionaries and their children did not. They were killed for their faith in that time.

We may hear these stories and think—what bravery! That is fine, we should.

But we should not hear them and think—only special people like Moon and Taylor have that kind of courageous faith.

We should not hear them and think—only special people like Moon and Taylor even receive such persecution.

Instead, we should remember that the Bible says all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted (2 Timothy 3:12)

And we should remember that the persecuted brothers and sisters who have gone before us.

Hudson Taylor did not have an arc reactor in his chest like Iron Man.

Lottie Moon did not enhanced powers from Russian super-serum like Black Widow.

They were just people.

We serve the same Lord as them.

We walk the same path of discipleship as them.

And we will face varying degrees of resistance like they faced, if indeed we live faithfully and godly.

Context/Transition Into Text

Daniel was also not a superhero.

He was just a man.

And here in Daniel 6, he is an older man.

We started with Daniel in chapter 1 as a teenager.

By Daniel 6, he is likely 70-80 years old.

He has lived a life of faith. A life of integrity and godliness.

He has endured the reigns of multiple foreign kings and two different empires in Exile.

But there is no retirement for him.

There is yet another threat.

And Daniel—who is just a man will help us answer some questions we may have about persecution today.

Text—these are the very words of God

Daniel 6 ESV

It pleased Darius to set over the kingdom 120 satraps, to be throughout the whole kingdom; and over them three high officials, of whom Daniel was one, to whom these satraps should give account, so that the king might suffer no loss. Then this Daniel became distinguished above all the other high officials and satraps, because an excellent spirit was in him. And the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom. Then the high officials and the satraps sought to find a ground for complaint against Daniel with regard to the kingdom, but they could find no ground for complaint or any fault, because he was faithful, and no error or fault was found in him. Then these men said, “We shall not find any ground for complaint against this Daniel unless we find it in connection with the law of his God.” Then these high officials and satraps came by agreement to the king and said to him, “O King Darius, live forever! All the high officials of the kingdom, the prefects and the satraps, the counselors and the governors are agreed that the king should establish an ordinance and enforce an injunction, that whoever makes petition to any god or man for thirty days, except to you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions. Now, O king, establish the injunction and sign the document, so that it cannot be changed, according to the law of the Medes and the Persians, which cannot be revoked.” Therefore King Darius signed the document and injunction. When Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open toward Jerusalem. He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he had done previously. Then these men came by agreement and found Daniel making petition and plea before his God. Then they came near and said before the king, concerning the injunction, “O king! Did you not sign an injunction, that anyone who makes petition to any god or man within thirty days except to you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions?” The king answered and said, “The thing stands fast, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be revoked.” Then they answered and said before the king, “Daniel, who is one of the exiles from Judah, pays no attention to you, O king, or the injunction you have signed, but makes his petition three times a day.” 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. Then these men came by agreement to the king and said to the king, “Know, O king, that it is a law of the Medes and Persians that no injunction or ordinance that the king establishes can be changed.” Then the king commanded, and Daniel was brought and cast into the den of lions. The king declared to Daniel, “May your God, whom you serve continually, deliver you!” And a stone was brought and laid on the mouth of the den, and the king sealed it with his own signet and with the signet of his lords, that nothing might be changed concerning Daniel. Then the king went to his palace and spent the night fasting; no diversions were brought to him, and sleep fled from him. Then, at break of day, the king arose and went in haste to the den of lions. As he came near to the den where Daniel was, he cried out in a tone of anguish. The king declared to Daniel, “O Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to deliver you from the lions?” Then Daniel said to the king, “O king, live forever! My God sent his angel and shut the lions’ mouths, and they have not harmed me, because I was found blameless before him; and also before you, O king, I have done no harm.” Then the king was exceedingly glad, and commanded that Daniel be taken up out of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no kind of harm was found on him, because he had trusted in his God. And the king commanded, and those men who had maliciously accused Daniel were brought and cast into the den of lions—they, their children, and their wives. And before they reached the bottom of the den, the lions overpowered them and broke all their bones in pieces. Then King Darius wrote to all the peoples, nations, and languages that dwell in all the earth: “Peace be multiplied to you. I make a decree, that in all my royal dominion people are to tremble and fear before the God of Daniel, for he is the living God, enduring forever; his kingdom shall never be destroyed, and his dominion shall be to the end. He delivers and rescues; he works signs and wonders in heaven and on earth, he who has saved Daniel from the power of the lions.” So this Daniel prospered during the reign of Darius and the reign of Cyrus the Persian.

Sermon Outline

1. How do we prepare for persecution?

2. What should we expect in persecution?

3. What is the result of persecution?

We will walk through the chapter a bit this morning and then seek to answer these questions before we are done.

Verses 1-9

Darius the Mede (v. 1a)

Much like 2 weeks ago, we start today by identifying the ruler who is named at the beginning of the chapter.

Chapter 5 ends with Babylon falling.

Chapter 6 begins with the name Darius the Mede.

Now in terms of getting to the bottom of something, this is probably the heaviest lifting we will do today.

There are two schools of through surrounding the identity of Darius.

And I hate to tell you but all your favorite Bible commentators and preachers are split right down the middle.

So it is hard to determine which way to go.

What we know:

Darius the Mede is not Darius the Great because Darius the Great doesn’t rule until 522 BC. This is 17 years before that date.

So Darius the Mede is a different person than that.

Option 1: Darius the Mede is Cyrus the Great.

In favor of this view is the fact that Cyrus was 62 years old when he began to rule.

Cyrus can be called a Mede because his mother was a Mede.

The Greek Old Testament (the OT that Paul read) sometimes translates Darius as Cyrus.

v. 28 could easily be rendered, “So this Daniel prospered during the of Darius, that is, Cyrus the Persian.”

Darius is a title that means “Great One,” so this would be a way for Cyrus to be referred to as great.

Option 2: Darius the Mede is Gubaru.

Gubaru is not an anime character, but a famous leader who was given the role of “vice-regent” by Cyrus the Great.

In favor of this view is that fact that Gubaru famously installed satraps in the kingdom.

5:31 makes it seem like he received the kingdom from someone else, which could be Cyrus.

And history tells us that Gubaru did indeed operate like an independent monarch for Cyrus.

And yet—there is no historical evidence that Gubaru was even a Mede.

So which is it?

My informed opinion is that I don’t know.

I really don’t.

I lean toward it Darius and Cyrus being the same person, but I can be convinced of either position.

For our purposes this morning, we just need to know that Darius is a man with immense authority in the Medo-Persian empire, whether he is the #1 ruler or the #2.

Jealousy (v. 1b-9)

And either way, there would be a massive responsibility on this man’s shoulders to govern the growing empire after defeating Babylon.

So he sets 120 satraps, which are like governors, over the kingdom and those governors are ruled by three high officials. (1-2)

So it is like 3 Presidents and 120 governors.

And the governors give account to the Presidents.

This set up spread the wealth of authority around and brought the government closer to the people being ruled.

But Daniel, just as he has throughout the book, impresses his boss. (3)

He was set apart by his excellent spirit and this causes Darius to plan on making him the head of the high officials.

In other words, Daniel would be the right hand of the king and all the satraps and the other two high officials would answer to him.

This causes the other leaders to become jealous of Daniel’s ascendency and they decide to hatch a plot against him. (4)

But they know that they won’t catch him in any sort of compromise of integrity as he serves Darius. (5)

So they seek to use his integrity as a way to ensnare him.

They can’t criticize him vocation, so they will try and trap him by his devotion to the Most High God.

They know Daniel won’t choose loyalty over Darius over his ultimate loyalty to God and they are going to use that against him.

So in verses 6-7, they make a proposal to Darius.

He should establish a 30 day law that no one can make petition to any god or any man, except to Darius.

If someone violates it, they will go down to the Lion’s Den.

They want Darius to agree right away because there was a rule in the Medo-Persian Empire that royal laws could not be revoked. (8)

What the King has spoken is final.

They know there will be no getting around this for Daniel, once the King signs on the dotted line.

And that is exactly what he does in v.9.

He signs on the dotted line. He makes the injunction official.

We know he will regret this. So why does he do it in the first place.

He does it because he has been duped by flattery.

They butter him up and lead him into a foolish, rash decision.

The Lead up to the Lions (v. 10-17)

Daniel’s response to all of this is to do what has been his habit all along. (10)

He goes into his upper chambers and gets down in front of windows facing Jerusalem and he prays three times a day.

He faces Jerusalem because he remembers Solomon’s words in 1 Kings 8:48-50

1 Kings 8:48–50 ESV

if they repent with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their enemies, who carried them captive, and pray to you toward their land, which you gave to their fathers, the city that you have chosen, and the house that I have built for your name, then hear in heaven your dwelling place their prayer and their plea, and maintain their cause and forgive your people who have sinned against you, and all their transgressions that they have committed against you, and grant them compassion in the sight of those who carried them captive, that they may have compassion on them

He gives thanks to God (v. 11) and he pleas before God and makes petition (v. 12).

We can assume that his pleas would have included a plea for the compassion promised in 1 Kings 8—that God would end the Exile.

And that until He does, He would grant them compassion in the eyes of their captors.

Perhaps he is even petitioning God to not allows this current threat to destroy him.

But that is not what is going to happen.

He is told on in v. 13 and the king is reminded of his royal injunction that cannot be repealed.

Darius spends the whole day trying to come up with a way out, but he’s got no wiggle room. (14)

See—this injunction made it so that Darius becomes the mediator for everyone between heaven and earth.

No god can be prayed to unless the one praying goes through Darius.

Daniel knows it would be blasphemous to pray that way, so he refuses and prays directly to the Lord.

He could have prayed privately, but that would have been cowardly in these circumstances.

There is nothing wrong with secret prayer, but in this case, it would have been done to save his own skin.

Daniel didn’t even want the appearance of compliance.

So as a result, he will go to the Lion’s Den, just as the 30 day edict stated.

The conspirators come at sunset and remind the king of the unrepealable law and the king reluctantly tosses Daniel in the Den to die. (15)

The last thing Daniel hears is the King declaring to Daniel that he hopes the God he serves so faithfully will rescue him (16)

The den is closed over with a stone and the king’s signet and the signet of his lords are pressed into it to show that Daniel’s fate in the den cannot be reversed (17).

Deliverance and Aftermath (v. 18-28)

Then Darius goes to bed and he isn’t sleeping a wink. He doesn’t even eat. (18)

And as soon as the sun comes up, he gets up and runs to the den and calls out for Daniel, asking if his god delivered him. (19-20)

And he learns that amazingly, the only true God, the Most High, has done just that.

Daniel says that God sent hsi angels and shut the mouths of the lions (21-22)

He hasn’t been harmed at all.

And this is due to his blamelessness.

The very thing that the conspirators wanted to use against Daniel is ultimately what delivers him.

The king gets Daniel out of the den and it is confirmed that no harm was done to him (23).

This is not the case for the men who entrapped Daniel. (24)

They are now thrown into the lion’s den.

Darius even throws their families in, which is horrifying.

And they don’t even hit the ground before the lions crush them and kill them.

And then we have the chapter ending much the same way that chapter 3 did.

Chapter 3 begins with a royal edict that restricts the worship of Yahweh.

Chapter 6 begins with a royal edict restricting prayer to Yahweh.

Chapter 3 ends with Nebuchadnezzar making a decree that no ill is to be spoken of the Most High in the whole kingdom.

Chapter 6 ends with an announcement from Darius that people tremble and fear before the Lord.

Daniel 6:26–27 ESV

for he is the living God, enduring forever; his kingdom shall never be destroyed, and his dominion shall be to the end. He delivers and rescues; he works signs and wonders in heaven and on earth, he who has saved Daniel from the power of the lions.”

Then, much like at the end of chapter 5 and all the other chapters of Daniel, Daniel prospers during the reign of Darius. (28)

And that is it for the historical narrative of Daniel.

As we shift to chapters 7-12, we are shifting into apocalyptic vision mode.

We go from holding the line to seeing the visions.

Defining Persecution

But before we leave Daniel 6, I certainly want us to stop and return to our questions about persecution.

But first, let’s just remind ourselves what persecution is.

Jesus’ words help us with this.

Matthew 5:10 ESV

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

This is a general statement about persecution.

When we are persecuted for the sake of righteousness in any way, we can count ourselves blessed as those who have a hand on the kingdom of heaven by the grace of God.

Sometimes this persecution can come in the form of being reviled (mocked) and having false utterances and accusations against you because of your identity as a disciple of Christ.

Matthew 5:11 ESV

“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.

This would be like Lottie Moon being called a “Foreign Devil” and a “radical feminist” by her opponents at home and abroad.

But sometimes, it can rise above that and there is physical persecution, which Jesus talks about in Matthew 10:21-23

Matthew 10:21–22 ESV

Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

This would be like what Hudson Taylor and his family experienced with a mob busted through their doors and beat them viciously.

And as I mentioned earlier, Paul says this to us:

2 Timothy 3:12–13 ESV

Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

Or as John Flavel put it:

Whosoever resolves to live holy must never expect to live quietly.

So then, let us return to our questions this morning and answer them based on what we see in Daniel 6.

First of all:

1. How do we prepare for persecution?

While we never know when persecution may come, we can certainly prepare for it.

And in Daniel 6 we see a couple of things that we should do.

A. We must resolve to be faithful to God in all things.

If we want to know how Daniel can be so unmoved with the threat of death bearing down on him as a senior adult prophet, we need to go back to the teenage years.

Daniel 1:5 ESV

The king assigned them a daily portion of the food that the king ate, and of the wine that he drank. They were to be educated for three years, and at the end of that time they were to stand before the king.

And do you remember what the Word says next:

Daniel 1:8 ESV

But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king’s food, or with the wine that he drank. Therefore he asked the chief of the eunuchs to allow him not to defile himself.

Long before Daniel stood courageously before Darius’ den, he stood courageously against Nebuchadnezzar’s diet.

Some may have thought, “Just eat the king’s food, what does it really matter? Save yourself the trouble.”

That would have been particularly tempting to Daniel when he was nothing but a prisoner in a strange land.

But that food was likely dedicated to false gods.

Daniel was not going to defile himself with idolatry, no matter what it may cost him.

A diet is seemingly a small thing, but for Daniel, this was a matter of integrity and devotion to God.

This is typically the way spiritual courage seems to work in the Bible.

While God can give any of His people a rush of bravery in a moment, more often than not, those who stand bravely have been resolved in the big and small to honor the Lord.

Before David slayed Goliath, he fought predators as a shepherd in the field.

Before Stephen stood faithfully before the Sanhedrin, he served the tables of widows and protected the flock of God from a racial divide over food distribution.

Every moment that we live by faith and the Word of God, we are stacking up a character of integrity and a life of blamelessness.

And that character and blameless life will help us choose what is right when the stakes become higher.

The courage to live for the Lord in the smaller things will lead us to have courage to live for the Lord in the bigger things.

Saying no to the king’s food and seeing how God blesses faithfulness will help us stand firm at the mouth of the lion’s den.

Furthermore, our blamelessness draws the eye of our God who loves blamelessness.

In v. 22, Daniel says that he was not harmed because he was found “blameless before” the Lord.

By grace God chooses to not remember the sin we have committed against Him once He has forgiven us.

And by grace, God does remember our faithfulness and at times will even reward us for it in our time of need.

B. We must be people of prayer and faith.

We saw Daniel’s incredible trust in God when he responds to the royal rule by going up to his chamber and doing what he had been presumably doing throughout his time in Exile.

He is bowing down toward Jerusalem and giving thanks to God and making pleas and petitions.

Before Daniel ever sees a lion or a pit, he is expressing a trust toward God through his prayers.

After all, this is really what prayer is.

It is a demonstration of our trust in God.

When we praise Him in prayer, we are saying that we trust what the Word says about Him is true.

When we petition Him in prayer, we are saying that we trust what the Word says about His provision.

When we plead with Him in prayer, we are saying that we trust what the Word says about His character.

And conversely, when we don’t pray it is a demonstration of a lack of trust in God.

This is ultimately what prayerlessness amounts to—us declaring we can live life on our own.

But then, when the hammer drops, we drop to our knees. Too many wait to pray until they are in the heat of a trial.

This is like a baseball player waiting to learn how to slide until he is stealing 2nd.

Baseball players are taught how to slide very young and they continue to practice it, so that when they are coming to the crucial moment of beating the tag, they know what to do.

Likewise, one of the very first things we should make a habit of and commit ourselves to is the practice of prayer.

We saw this from Daniel back in chapter 2.

When he learned that Nebuchadnezzar was going to kill all of the wise men if there was not an interpreter of his dream, he got on his knees with his friends and he sought the Lord.

He is just continuing his developed and determined habit here.

And again, notice in v. 23, as the text describes Daniel’s rescue, the Bible tells us that Daniel had suffered no harm because he had trusted in His God.

This was a trust demonstrated by his faithful prayer life.

2. What should we expect in persecution?

Again, we can answer this question in a couple of ways from our study of chapter 6.

A. We may have to disobey government to obey God.

This deserves its own sermon, so I won’t be able to do a deep dive here.

But the reality is that there are times in which the state will ask things of us that we cannot adhere to because of our superior commitment to the Lord.

In Mark 12, Jesus is asked a question by the Pharisees and Herodians in order to trap him.

They ask, “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not? Should we pay them or not?”

Their hope is that he would be trapped because if He says, “Pay them,” he will lose favor with the Jews who have disdain for the Romans.

If He says, “Don’t pay them,” they can run to Rome and call Him an insurrectionist and have the Romans hunt Him down.”

But Jesus responds by grabbing a coin with Caesar’s inscription on it and He says:

Mark 12:17 ESV

“Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

In order to understand Jesus’ words, we have to understand that the Bible views government as a steward put in place by God to promote good and deter evil.

So we pay taxes to them so that they can do this.

We submit to their rules and regulations, seeing they are put in place by God.

We owe these things to Caesar and are happy to be submissive, as long as the law of the land doesn’t come into conflict with the Law of the Lord.

When the obeying the law of the land will cause us to transgress God’s law, we give to God what is God’s which is our whole lives.

Even if it is at the risk of our own flesh and blood, we give God the ultimate obedience because He is the ultimate Master.

The government is his stewarding tool for good.

When the civil government rebels against the God who gives them their authority and asks His people to sin, we have to resist.

Evil, Gospel-opposing governments are represented by the Beast of Revelation 13.

So often, persecution is coming about because the Beast is being used by the enemy to make war on the church.

When this is the case, we must resist the Beast and stay faithful to the Lamb.

We certainly see Daniel doing this as he prays, regardless of the royal rule.

B. We may be unfairly schemed against and accused.

Jesus tells us that this is the nature of persecution in the Beatitudes.

We saw it in Matthew 5:11—we may all sorts of evil uttered against us falsely.

When this happens, it hurts.

It is hard to do the right thing and when people misunderstand you or purposely twist your words, it is painful.

When people assume the worst about you and vocalize it, it is hard.

And most of all, when people speak horribly about your God and your Savior, it is HARD.

I just have a simple admonition for you, church.

Do not grow bitter about it.

Do not seek to retaliate.

You may have opportunity to defend yourself, like Paul does multiple times in Acts, but realize you don’t always get the opportunity.

These things may feel like curses on your back, but remember what Jesus has said— “Blessed are YOU when these things happen on account of Christ.”

If you are slandered and schemed against because of faithfulness to Christ, you are bearing a blessed Cross right in the middle of God’s plan.

Trust in Jesus’ words and look for the blessings of being identified with His name in persecution.

Don’t despair.

3. What is the result of persecution?

A. We are sanctified.

Though Daniel is an old man and a faithful man, it doesn’t mean that he was done learning.

The Scriptures don’t give us insight into lessons he took from all that he had experienced in his life, but we can be sure that God was teaching with the heat of every crucible.

All we have to do is look to a faithful man in the New Testament to understand.

Listen to Paul after the Lord says “no,” to his petitions to remove the thorn in his flesh that had been plaguing him.

2 Corinthians 12:9–10 ESV

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

What is God teaching Paul?

That His grace is sufficient for him and his power is made perfect in weakness.

Paul has been a Christians for 20 years and done the most amazing things for God and suffered greatly.

And yet, the man is still being taught.

And he learns his lesson through suffering:

“I will boast...of my weaknesses...so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

“I am content with my weaknesses...for when I am weak, then I am strong.”

Just as gold is purified through fire, so we are purified through the fire of persecution.

B. God is glorified.

God gets glory from our persecution.

We see this in Daniel 6.

Daniel’s faithfulness results in yet another pagan king ascribing words of reverence to the Most High God.

Furthermore, Daniel is prospering at the end of the passage.

This is very similar to the way Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego are faithful in Daniel 3 and by the end of the text, they are given exalted places in the province of Babylon.

These examples show us how often, the world’s attempts to bring God down from His throne and His people down into the grave, result in great reversals where God’s enemies are shamed, while God’s glory is magnified and His people experience victory.

Hebrews 11:33–34 ESV

who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.

Hebrews talks about this sort of victory through faithfulness in adversity in Hebrews 11.

And yet, we have to remember that it is not always this way.

Sometimes lion’s mouths are stopped.

But sometimes, it is a different result.

Hebrews 11:35–37 ESV

Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated—

Sometimes Stephen dies.

Sometimes you are skinned alive like Bartholomew.

Sometimes you are sawn in two like Isaiah.

But whatever happens, know that God will get His glory through His suffering church.

William Gurnall said that the church is like a lawn of grass.

You can mow it down, but it will only grow back thicker.

And as we have seen throughout Daniel, as God’s people continue to prosper in adversity, it shows that God is ultimate and He is the true King of all the earth, whose will not be thwarted.

And His church will not be stopped, whether it is through living or dying.

Conclusion

As we close up this portion of Daniel, I understand that it can be hard once we leave here and we aren’t all together and we are facing the heat of the world in smaller groups or on our own.

You may be tired of persecution you receive in your workplace.

You may be tired of persecution you receive from friends who don’t believe.

You may be tired of persecution in your own family.

You may grow weary of simply hearing about your brothers and sisters suffering around the world.

Do not lose heart.

I want to remind you that someone better than Daniel also was laid in a pit with a sealed tomb covering the opening.

And He stopped the mouths of the lion of death. The lion of sin. The lion that is Satan.

And He proved Himself to be the superior Lion Himself.

The Lion of Judah.

The Son of Man—the Son of God.

He has died for you.

And He has resurrected.

What then can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus?

Paul asks, “Is it famine or nakedness or sword?”

No—

Romans 8:37 ESV

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

And we are more than conquerors in Him who was raised.

It was true for Lottie and Hudson.

It is true for you, Christian.

Take heart.