DANIEL 4:3
How great are his signs, how mighty his wonders! His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion endures from generation to generation.
TO PONDER:
The recent Medibank hacking and releasing of private information about people's personal lives on the web has left many people distraught. When Medibank wouldn't pay the ransom demanded, the hackers just turned up the volume to make sure that the company knew they were serious about their demands and increased the sensitivity of information released. Think of Daniel chapter 4 in the same vein. It's like reading King Nebuchadnezzar's personal diary that details the King's most humiliating experience and hidden secrets of his life. It also shows the lengths to which God will sometimes go to get our attention, and how he sometimes turns up the volume in our life until he gets our undivided attention.
To summarise chapter 4, the King is walking on the roof of the Royal Palace surveying his empire. He had every reason to feel secure, safe and satisfied with what he had achieved. There was not a person on earth who could challenge him. But that night he had a strange dream - an important tree was cut down and that tree turned into a person and then became an animal. In other words, this person would go crazy and lose their mind completely. Daniel 3:22 tells us that Daniel reveals to Nebuchadnezzar that he is that person who will lose his mind for seven years. The King is given 12 months to change his ways, to stop thinking he is God and taking credit for what God has done. But because the King won't listen, God turns up the volume and starts shaking the tree of his world to get his attention. The whole chapter shares the story and the humiliating experience that King Neb had to go through. But it also reveals the grace of God that can change a person't life when we acknowledge the God whose kingdom is above all and endures forever.
So today, spend some time reflecting on your life as we begin this Advent season. Where is God turning up the volume in your life to get your attention? What trials are you experiencing? What uncertainty or difficulty in your life at the current time could be God's way of getting you to listen to him, to acknowledge that he is God in your life? Where is God shaking your tree? Where have you run ahead of God and taken credit for what he has done, what he has provided in your life? They are not easy questions; they can be painful to acknowledge and be honest about. But God's purposes always are to bring you home to his presence where you let God be God in your life. That's where praise begins...that's where hope abounds and where peace is experienced. My prayer is that you experience that today in your life.
PRAYER:
Almighty God, help me recognise when you are speaking to me in your life, and give me ears to hear as painful as it sometimes is, for Lord, I know that you alone are God. Help me live today for your glory. Amen.
The DBP and DBP API are owned by Hosanna/Faith Comes By Hearing. The Bible Content housed in the DBP is owned by Hosanna/Faith Comes By Hearing and its Licensor-Partners.