Faithfulness In The Hard Places

For the past six weekends we’ve been looking at a few Old Testament Characters.  Their lives revealed God is purposeful even when we cannot see it.  God uses ordinary people to accomplish his extra-ordinary plan in surprising ways.

We’ve discovered that everyone of them was challenged and tested.  They learned the nature of temptation and perhaps also their own points of personal weakness; they discovered the faithfulness of God and His ability to keep them in the trial.  Of course they were exposed to this reality: There is no other way to know whether or not God keeps His promises than to experience His reliability in the trial, task, and triumph.

This coming Sunday we complete our series on the Classic Characters. Daniel is our last of the classics. He abounds in illustrations of someone who’s life had an effect on the advancement of the kingdom of God because of his faithfulness.  He was taken far away from his comfort (Jerusalem) and situated  in a hard and unromantic place.  There was nothing romantic for Daniel in Babylon; his heart was in Jerusalem. Yet his witness in that hard place had a lasting impact on the lives of others. Even hundreds of years later.

All too frequently we take a different view of our challenges and unpleasant situations. We tend to see them as isolated nightmares, interruptions, and unfortunate circumstances.  God however see them from a different perspective. They are important and connected punctuation marks in the biography of grace He is writing in our lives.

It is not who you are or where you are that ultimately matters in the kingdom of God. It is what you are.  Faithfulness, not reputation or situation is what counts in God’s kingdom.