Be Still And Know

Daniel 9.4 NLT “O Lord, you are a great and awesome God! You always fulfil your covenant and keep your promises of unfailing love to those who love you and obey your commands.” God gave Daniel a number of alarming visions. They left him confused and exhausted and he felt sick for many days. The future was full of questions and threats, but things became clearer as he studied the prophecy of Jeremiah and reflected on the past. He acknowledged that everything that had happened had been the result of the unfaithfulness of God’s people. God had loved his people and wonderfully provided for them, but they had consistently disobeyed him and gone their own way. But as he looked at God himself, he recognised that God was the complete opposite of his people. Their consistent unfaithfulness was matched by God’s constant faithfulness. God could always be trusted to keep his word, and that is because it was based upon a covenant. Throughout the whole of the Bible we discover the importance of covenant. It is similar

Daniel 6.10 NLT 'But when Daniel learned that the law had been signed, he went home and knelt down as usual in his upstairs room, with its windows open toward Jerusalem. He prayed three times a day, just as he had always done, giving thanks to his God.' When King Darius took over from King Nebuchadnezzar he found Daniel to be a very effective administrator and so gave him more and more responsibilities. This stirred up the envy of other leaders who were determined to bring Daniel down a peg or two. But they had a problem, because no one could find anything for which to criticise him. He was said to be faithful, always responsible and completely trustworthy (Daniel 6.4). The only way they could trip him up was by introducing a new law which said that no one could pray to anyone other than the King. The King duly passed this law and the penalty for disobeying it would be to be thrown into a den of lions – a horrifying way to die. Daniel was in the habit of praying three times a day and nothing was going to

Daniel 4.27 NLT Daniel said, ‘King Nebuchadnezzar, please accept my advice. Stop sinning and do what is right. Break from your wicked past and be merciful to the poor. Perhaps then you will continue to prosper.’ Daniel was an incredibly courageous person, and here’s the proof! He was talking to one of the most powerful people who has ever walked this earth and giving him some staggeringly bad news. He was telling King Nebuchadnezzar that he was going to be driven away from human society and would live with wild animals where he would eat grass like a cow. This isn’t the sort of encouraging message that you would want to deliver to a powerful despot who was inclined to kill his opponents at a moment’s notice. And Daniel informed him that the king’s life would only improve when he had learnt his lesson. This was an incredibly tough message but Daniel knew that he had to be faithful to God and tell the king the truth. The result was amazing. Nebuchadnezzar suffered in all the ways that were prophesied and en

Daniel 3.25 NLT “Look!” Nebuchadnezzar shouted. “I see four men, unbound, walking around in the fire unharmed! And the fourth looks like a god!” Nebuchadnezzar was an incredibly powerful king and he was used to getting his own way. When Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego defied his command to worship his vast golden statue he was determined that they should suffer, and his fiery furnace seemed like a fairly decisive punishment. In order to ensure their immediate death, he had the furnace heated up seven times hotter than usual. Indeed, it was so hot that it killed the soldiers who threw them into it. Nebuchadnezzar watched the spectacle knowing that they would be burnt to a cinder. But the outcome was completely different from what he had anticipated. Not only were they not burnt, but they weren’t even singed and, more amazingly, he saw that they were accompanied by a fourth person who he assumed must be a god. This was more than enough to change Nebuchadnezzar’s mind and to cause him to worship the God of th

Daniel 3.16-18 NLT Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego declared, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God whom we serve is able to save us. He will rescue us from your power, Your Majesty. But even if he doesn’t, we want to make it clear to you, Your Majesty, that we will never serve your gods or worship the gold statue you have set up.” Living in exile is bound to present many challenges. When Nebuchadnezzar set up his enormous golden statue and demanded that everyone fall down and worship it, these Jewish young men knew that they had to draw a line. They couldn’t possibly obey the King’s law. The consequences couldn’t have been more severe, and they were all thrown into a great furnace. But before they were thrown into it, they had the opportunity to state their position and they pointed out to the King that their God was so mighty that he could save them but, even if he didn’t, they would refuse to worship the gold statue. We also

Daniel 2.47 The king said to Daniel, “Truly, your God is the greatest of gods, the Lord over kings, a revealer of mysteries, for you have been able to reveal this secret.” This was quite a turnaround! One moment Daniel was being threatened with death and now, having revealed the meaning of his dream, King Nebuchadnezzar makes him ruler of the province of Babylon. At the same time, he showers him with expensive gifts and declares that Daniel’s God is the greatest God of all. Given that Daniel was a foreigner from a land far away that had been defeated by the Babylonians this was a truly revolutionary change. However, Nebuchadnezzar’s acknowledgement that Daniel’s God was the one true God did nothing to change his behaviour and shortly afterwards we find him setting up an enormous golden statue which he expected the people to worship. There is no question that King Nebuchadnezzar was deeply impressed by all that Daniel had done. And there is no reason to doubt that he was genuinely in awe of the power and w

Daniel 2.44 NLT 'During the reigns of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed or conquered. It will crush all these kingdoms into nothingness, and it will stand forever.' Daniel had the seemingly impossible task of not only interpreting King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream but actually telling the King what he had dreamt. Amazingly he did exactly that and told the powerful King of Babylon that there were going to be four kingdoms, all of which gave an impression of strength, but which would all fall. However, at the same time, God was establishing his own kingdom which would last for ever. Through the years, people have wanted to identify the four kingdoms. There have been lots of candidates, but that is not the point of the dream. The point is that when God establishes his kingdom, it will endure. That is to say, history is in God’s hands. Through the centuries there have been a succession of powerful kingdoms. At the time they gave the impression of being all-powerful. T

Daniel 2.23 NLT “I thank and praise you, God of my ancestors, for you have given me wisdom and strength. You have told me what we asked of you and revealed to us what the king demanded.” Daniel had been given what looks to me like an impossible job. Not only did he have to tell King Nebuchadnezzar the interpretation of his dream, but he had also been told to inform the King what he had dreamt about in the first place! The King’s highly trained wise men complained, not unreasonably, that the job was impossible, and they were threatened with death as a result. But Daniel knew that he was in touch with the source of all wisdom, God himself. And so he prayed. You wouldn’t blame Daniel if he had prayed a desperate prayer screaming at God to do the impossible and save him from certain death. But he didn’t. His prayer was one of worship and adoration. He acknowledged that God was the source of all wisdom and power and that, ultimately, everything that happened in the world was in the Lord’s hands. He was, theref

Daniel 1.17 NLT 'God gave Daniel the special ability to interpret the meanings of visions and dreams.' The book of Daniel transports us to the time when Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Babylon, invaded Judah and took thousands of its residents into exile. This happened in the 6th Century BC. God had clearly prophesied that this would happen if the people failed to obey him, and Babylon’s victory was complete and humiliating. To be dragged hundreds of miles away to a completely unfamiliar place and culture represented Judah’s total failure. But King Nebuchadnezzar recognised that amidst the exiles were some very gifted young men. He chose four of them, who were strong, healthy and good-looking, and trained them up for service in the royal palace. They were Daniel and his three friends – who we know best by their adopted Babylonian names Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. The four exiles clearly fitted into their new life really well. We are told that they had an unusual aptitude for understanding every aspect of

Proverbs 25.12 NLT 'To one who listens, valid criticism is like a gold earring or other gold jewellery.' Johannes Kepler, the German astronomer, said, “I much prefer the sharpest criticism of a single intelligent man to the thoughtless approval of the masses.” All I can say is, “Good for Johannes Kepler!” but I suspect we all really enjoy people saying nice things about us. Sharp criticism might be very good for us, but that doesn’t mean that it is easy to hear, even if it is as valuable as gold. There are two challenges here. Firstly, how can we become better at sharing valid criticism with others? Every time I have received helpful criticism it is because it has been embedded within encouragement. It has been clear that the person offering the criticism was trying to help and only wanted to make me stronger and better able to use my gifts. It has often been said that if you need to offer criticism, 80 per cent of what you say should be encouragement. This isn’t a clever political ploy but a way of e

Proverbs 24.26 NLT 'An honest answer is like a kiss of friendship.' Like most of us, I am sure, I was brought up with the saying that honesty is the best policy. But what they didn’t tell me was that it’s often the most difficult policy. It’s often easier to keep the truth to yourself and not to share it because it might not be well received. Indeed, the hearer might be deeply offended by the truth. And so we can easily end up playing a kindly and courteous game of deceit. We say what other people want to hear and never dare to go anywhere near the sharp edges of truth. Whenever someone asks us how we are, we have to decide what level of truth to share. The customary answer “Fine” often reveals nothing at all and is simply used as a polite way of avoiding conversation. However, it would be gruesomely inappropriate to share everything about your life and feelings with everyone, all the time. What is vital is that there is a time and a place where we can be entirely honest. Life is full of thrills and spill

Proverbs 24.16 NLT 'The godly may trip seven times, but they will get up again. But one disaster is enough to overthrow the wicked.' The big question is not whether we experience failure, but what we do with it when it happens. The writer is clear that the person who knows God has resilience. We may get knocked back many times, but each time we are able to bounce back because we know that God is the one who inspires and strengthens us. He says that we may trip seven times but almost certainly he is using the number to represent an unlimited number of times. Nelson Mandela said, “Do not judge me by my successes, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.” The reason that a godly person is resilient is because their confidence is in God and not in circumstances. This is most powerfully described by Habakkuk who declared, “Even though the fig trees have no blossoms, and there are no grapes on the vines; even though the olive crop fails, and the fields lie empty and barren; even though the

Proverbs 23.29-30 NLT 'Who has anguish? Who has sorrow? Who is always fighting? Who is always complaining? Who has unnecessary bruises? Who has bloodshot eyes? It is the one who spends long hours in the taverns, trying out new drinks.' The abuse of alcohol is clearly not a new problem. These verses reveal a deep understanding of a challenge which continues to test our society. In the UK more than 8,000 people die from alcohol-related illnesses every year. Hospital admissions for alcohol-related conditions have risen by about 40 percent over the past ten years. Alcohol abuse is estimated to cost our society more than 20 billion pounds annually. Clearly this is a huge challenge, and it is amazing to see these proverbs, written so long ago, addressing the same issue with such power. Some people might think of the writer of Proverbs as being a kill joy, but his purpose was exactly the opposite. His intention was to kill misery, because he could see that alcohol could so easily ruin people’s lives. In the foll

Proverbs 23.17-18 NLT 'Don’t envy sinners, but always continue to fear the Lord. You will be rewarded for this; your hope will not be disappointed.' Here the writer tells us that we shouldn’t envy sinners, but the tenth commandment is much wider than that. It tells us that we shouldn’t envy at all. The last commandment tells us that we shouldn’t covet our neighbour’s house, wife, servant, ox, donkey or anything else that they own. We may admire and appreciate everything about our neighbour’s life but, when it turns to envy, the rot has set in. Envy is a potential problem for all of us because it has the ability to creep up on us slowly and subtly. It doesn’t announce itself with a fanfare, but slowly worms its way into our thinking. We see our neighbour’s beautiful house, lovely family and fabulous garden and start to wish that all those things were ours. After a while, we start to resent the fact that our neighbour has all those things and, through no fault of our own, we don’t. Surely we deserve just as

Proverbs 22.13 NLT The lazy person claims, “There’s a lion out there! If I go outside, I might be killed!” I love this wonderful book of Proverbs. There is so much blunt truth, and here the writer laughs his socks off at the lazy person who has always got an excuse for doing nothing. On this particular day he fears that there may be a lion outside, and is concerned that he may get killed. He considers that he’s got the perfect excuse for staying at home and doing nothing. The writer of these Proverbs spends a lot of time reflecting on lazy people, because he was so fearful of the disease of laziness. He saw that it led to poverty and distress, and was keen for everyone to focus their attention on ants, who were the exact opposite. In Proverbs 6.6 he wrote, “Take a lesson from the ants, you lazybones. Learn from their ways and become wise!” Ants are always busy and effective in their work, and we can all learn from them. I’m not accusing you of laziness – I’ll leave you to reflect on the issue. Although I’

Proverbs 22.3 NLT 'A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions. The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences.' This proverb, like so many of them, is just sheer good sense. It’s the kind of statement that could easily be turned into a good fridge magnet! At one level it is screamingly obvious, but we all know how incredibly easy it is to act the part of the simpleton and to hurtle through life blindly without doing the necessary research. We live in a world that is full of potential risks and dangers and so it is sensible to come up with careful plans. This fridge magnet approach to wisdom is really helpful, so long as we put each one alongside other wise sayings. For example, Proverbs 16.3: “Commit your actions to the Lord, and your plans will succeed.” It’s good to plan but, as we do so, we need to commit the whole process into God’s hands. Jesus spoke about the importance of planning. He challenged people to follow him, but he didn’t want them to make this enormous step without

Proverbs 21.26 NLT 'Some people are always greedy for more, but the godly love to give!' Longing for more money and possessions is a terrible disease, but our materialistic society is built on the assumption that that is how we should all live. Long ago, the Greek philosopher Epicurus wrote, “Nothing is enough to the man for whom enough is too little.” And yet the place of true peace and contentment is where you know you have enough, and can stop working to find more. The apostle Paul said that he had “learned how to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything.” (Philippians 4.11-12). God’s desire for us is that our focus should never be upon seeking to acquire more, but to become better at giving. I love seeing generosity and I hope that I am always learning from the example of other people. I have a friend who always carries a significant number of bank notes with him. And the explanation he gave me was this, “You never know when the Lord might give you the o

1 Peter 5.8-9 NLT 'Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. Stand firm against him, and be strong in your faith.' I have visited Africa on a number of occasions and have gone on several safaris. The fun of safaris is that you never know what you are going to see. They are not at all like safari parks in this country where you are guaranteed to see a wide range of animals. On a safari in Africa there are some days when you will see very little, if anything, and so you need to be on the lookout all the time. On just one occasion I went on a walking safari. Our guide had a gun with him because of the possibility of danger and, as you can imagine, we were incredibly vigilant as we walked together. In the event, nothing dangerous happened and I live to tell the tale. Peter was acutely conscious of the dangers that confronted the early church. He knew from painful personal experience that the Church was threatened by the authorit

1 Peter 5.7 NLT 'Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.' Whether they are large or small, we all carry various cares and concerns. They may be focused on health issues for ourselves or those who are close to us. We may be concerned about the future, money, or what is happening in the world today. It is impossible to avoid a whole range of concerns, so the question isn’t whether we’ve got any, but what we do with them. If we hug them to ourselves, the likelihood is that they will turn into anxiety and end up dominating our lives. Peter encourages us to take decisive action by handing our worries and cares to God. The crucial statement that Peter makes is that God cares for us, and that takes us to the heart of the gospel. God could have stayed at a distance. He didn’t have to enter into relationship with us, but he chose to do so. In the Old Testament we see his care for the people of Israel, even though they frequently rebelled against him. This is poignantly described in the prop

1 Peter 5.5 NLT All of you, dress yourselves in humility as you relate to one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Some years ago I was privileged to attend a conference at St George’s Chapel, Windsor. We were given the task of identifying the most important personal qualities that were needed for strategic leadership. My small group included a chief constable, a general from the British Army, a managing director of a major engineering firm, a high-flying civil servant and a finance director of a large organisation. I was the only church leader. After many hours of fascinating conversation, the group decided that, without a shadow of doubt, the first quality that was needed was humility. Their point, which I gladly supported, was that a humble person was good at being flexible. They were very willing to admit when they had made a mistake and were eager to welcome other people’s ideas. Humility doesn’t often get a good press and I was amazed and delighted that this hugely com