Surrounded By Enemies, Protected By God

Introduction

Is there anything that could stop you from praising God and serving him the way he desires? The things that get in the way of God vividly we typically turn down. It is the things that are done behind the scenes that go unnoticed. Understand that everyone does not like your praise. Everyone does not like your position, and most importantly everyone does not like your power.

Haters do not care about your humility, they do not care about your love all they care about is sabotaging what God has given to you. Daniel was a man that was gifted by God. His gift and his steadfastness allowed him to rise to a position of stature. We have to remember that everyone is not happy with our success. They aren’t happy with your individual success, they are not happy with your spiritual success, and they want to do everything they can to bring you down to the lion’s den.

Understand Daniel was not just a regular man in this province of Babylon. King Darius had appointed 120 men over the land and three overseers above those 120. Daniel was not only made an overseer but a chief overseer with a large amount of say so over the entire realm.

Nothing Should Stop You From Praising God

For many of us it is not the confrontational stuff that stops us from praising God. It is the covert actions that keep us from being our best for God. What is your first response when people try to sabotage your devotion to God?

Daniel’s first response was praising God in the midst of people trying to sabotage his allegiance to God.

Now when Daniel knew that the document was signed, he entered his house (now in his roof chamber he had windows open toward Jerusalem) and he continued kneeling on his knees three times a day, praying and giving thanks before his God, as he had been doing previously,

The first thing that Daniel did in the midst of the sabotage was praise God. Sometimes you have to look toward your home and praise the God who put you there. Understand that when God puts you someone there is no law, decree, or statute that can put you out of that position.

When people try to hurt you, or do malicious things to you our first response needs to be prayer. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your father who sees in secret will reward you.

People know that pushing buttons that have to deal with God, will always get a rise out of you. We have to stop giving control to people and start giving control to God. As long as we seek approval and validation from people we will never have a peaceful life. It is about responding to adversity with talking to one who can pull you out of the adversity of help you handle the adversity!

Haters are looking for a reason to trip you up. The wicked spies upon the righteous and seeks to kill him.

We can assume that Daniel’s priorities were in order. He had a designated room for prayer, his accusers knew where to find him. Sometimes we can’t deal with people on their level and we have to go up to the upper room about certain folks.

This place of prayer that Daniel went to was defined as the upper room. Have you ever had to go to the upper room about somebody? When decisions get tough we have to go to the upper room!

And when they had entered they went up to the upper roo,..devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus and his brothers. (Matthias chosen to replace Judas).

It takes some upper room prayer to deal with the folks Daniel had to deal with, it took upper room prayer to deal with the effects of the Judas’ of this world.

What People Find You Doing is a Reflection of Who you Are.

They found Daniel making petition and supplication before his God.

Daniel made it clear that this law was not going to get in the way of him praising the One who got him there.

Daniel who is one of the exiles from Judah, pays no attention to you, O king, or to the injunction which you signed, but keeps making his petition three times a day.

It is interesting, when you make some progress and attain some goals people try to bind you to your past. He is no longer an officer or overseer. Now he’s a “exile from Judah”.

Their Position means more than Your Persecution

Now the king had the power to reverse the injunction but his position was more important to him than the persecution Daniel was under.

Keep in mind that the King understood the power of God. Just because people do not defend you in your time of need does not mean they do not know the power of your God.

Your God who you constantly serve will Himself deliver you.

Sometimes God does not allow friends, family, church family to deliver you because he needs you to know that you have to trust him even in the Lion’s Den.

Even when I am in the Lion’s Den, I still trust God because I know I did nothing to end up there. Do not get mad because the people who you want to help can’t, just be thankful that they believe in a God who can.

Sometimes God let’s you witness the fiery furnace to prepare you for the Lion’s Den. See if you can praise him in the midst of the fire, you can praise him in the Lion’s Den. I’m going to praise God until the fire stops and the mouths of the Lion’s shut.

Thank God for the people who checked on me while I was in the Lion’s Den. King Darius checked on Daniel early the next morning, and Daniel states “My God hath sent his angel and hath shut the lions’ mouths.

God will always shut the mouth of the Lion when we are innocent.

Just because you are innocent does not mean you will not suffer for doing right. Daniel suffered for doing right, but the blessing was not only did God shut the mouths of the lion’s but he put it on the heart of the King to give an order to remove the accusers and make a decree that everyone would praise the God that Daniel served.

I want to praise the God that led the Hebrew boys out of the Fiery Furnace, I want to praise the God that shut the mouths of the lions, I want to praise the God that restored Job double that he had before, I want to praise the God that brought Noah out of the flood, I want to praise a God that after the doctor’s said you had cancer, now you are cancer free. I want to praise a God that after your marriage had been on the rocks for longer than you’d like he restored your family. I want to praise a God that sent his son to be a saving grace for me.