Daniel (Book of Daniel)
When I think about how I struggle with various things or how situations that are unfavorable come into my life, and how easily I get down about it, I need to remember these two men from the Bible. Joseph and Daniel.
Joseph was loved by his father, Jacob, and his brothers hated him because of that, and they sold him into slavery. So Joseph went to Egypt and God was with him. Whatever he did, the Lord made sure he succeeded. While everyone around him forgot about him, God did not.
Bad situations kept presenting themselves to Joseph due to his good morals and character. He refused his master's wife, several times, who kept trying to lure him. Then she lied about Joseph and had him thrown into prison. But Joseph was put in charge of the prison by the keeper. Then he interpreted dreams for several people and his interpretations came to pass, so when Pharaoh had dreams that no necromancer could decipher they brought in Joseph because someone had heard about his ability. The first thing Joseph does is give all glory to God, saying that his ability to interpret the dream is not his own ability, but through God. So Joseph interprets the dream about 7 years of plenty followed by 7 years of famine, and Pharaoh appoints him to be one of the leaders just below himself.
Daniel was captured, taken from his home as a young man, to Babylon and forced to learn their culture and beliefs. They wanted to wipe his slate clean and cast Daniel into the mold of a high ranking Babylonian. Yet Daniel remained faithful to God, not bowing down to worship anything that Babylonian law set into place. He faced death many times because he refused to lower his integrity and morals. He was devoted to God, no matter what.
I wrote more about Daniel here.
So seriously, what do we have to complain about? Why do we doubt and lose hope of good things to come from bad situations? These two people inspire me because of their willingness to keep going without a trace of complaining or thoughts of downgrading their devotion to God. All the while, they kept their integrity and did not give into temptations or baits that were thrown at them.
They took the hard road again and again, and were not afraid of the consequences. Any fear they had was given to the God, and He remembered them through everything.
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