Daniel 2:23 – Walking in His Promises

“To You, O God of my fathers, I give thanks and praise, For You have given me wisdom and power; Even now You have made known to me what we requested of You, For You have made known to us the king’s matter.” 

Daniel 2:23 (NASB)

The times we’re currently living in are turbulent… to say the least. In my 25 years of life, I’ve never seen anything like this. And even my grandparents in their 70+ years of life, haven’t either. As a nation and as a world, we’re currently encountering uncharted waters and completely undiscovered territories. Life feels out of control, right? But really… has life ever been in our control? That is the greater question here. And thankfully, I have an answer for you! A glimpse of it can be found in the scripture we’re focusing on today, Daniel 2:23. But first, I want to share the couple of verses before verse 23 to give the bigger picture and more perspective on Daniel’s prayer.

“Let the name of God be blessed forever and ever, For wisdom and power belong to Him. It is He who changes the times and the epochs; He removes kings and establishes kings; He gives wisdom to wise men and knowledge to men of understanding. It is He who reveals the profound and hidden things; He knows what is in the darkness and the light dwells with Him. To you, O God of my fathers, I give thanks and praise, for You have given me the wisdom and power; even now you have made known to me what we requested of you, for You have made known to us the king’s matter.”

Daniel 2:20-23 (NASB)

I’ve talked before about praising God in the waiting and how it can completely transform your mindset and perspective. To live with a heart of gratitude and praise for Jesus, even when we’re unsure of what the future holds can be incredibly impactful. When we live in fear, many other emotions tend to come along as a sort of package deal. Irritability, anxiety, sadness, anger. Do any of these feel familiar? When you don’t know what’s going to happen, when you’re afraid of what the future holds, you definitely aren’t feeling hopeful, positive, empowered, or happy. But we were created by a God that knows all things – from beginning to end, from end back to the beginning. The ins and outs, the twists and turns, all of what life brings. And don’t forget, our God loves us. So what can we do to allow our faith to be our anchor in these massively overwhelming waves of life? 

Now, I don’t know about you… but for me, I know I need more Godly wisdom and I could always use a little more of God’s power (strength) too. And I want to talk about one of my biggest distractions and weaknesses in life – social media. More often than I’d like to admit, I lean on social media as my backbone in life. Sounds sort of ridiculous (or very ridiculous)… but hear me out! As a 25 year old, I connect with my friends and family, share my favorite life moments, find fun entertainment and laughter, and receive most of my worldly news via… you guessed it, social media! And working in marketing, a lot of my job is wrapped up in social media too! I rely on it so much. So much that I can forget it isn’t necessarily always the truth. A lot of times, it can be far off from the truth and a place filled with fear and negativity – two things I do not want or need in my life.

If you can relate in any way to this, I have something special to tell you… there is only one source of truth in this world. It’s not the President, it’s not your parents, and it’s definitely not the news. It’s the Bible. The Bible is our one and only source of truth. The Bible is meant to be our backbone in life. If we want more Godly wisdom, strength, and power… we have to turn to the book that will fill us with it. If we want to understand God’s plan and the depths of His love for us, we have to spend time in His word, praying, praising, and ultimately being present in our faith.

A lot of us (myself included), are pretty freaked out about the current state of our world. But have we asked God to give us peace? Have we asked Him to give us a sound heart and mind? How much time have we spent scrolling through social media when we could be praising our King? What about watching the news in comparison to reading Scripture? If any of these things strike a chord in you, you are not alone! They do for me too! And I’m not here to make us feel bad about our human tendencies, I’m here to bring hope and encouragement for us to all Walk in His Promises together. And I think you’ll enjoy what’s next…

In Daniel 2, the king had dreams that troubled his spirit and robbed him of sleep. He was anxious to understand these dreams. The king was desperate for an interpretation of what these dreams meant. Sound familiar? The king demanded that the people interpret his dream, and if they couldn’t, then he would destroy them all. And when Daniel was faced with this, He ran straight to God. And what did God do? He revealed the mystery to Daniel in a night vision. Daniel was filled with the wisdom and power of God! Isn’t that amazing? God made known to Daniel the kings matter because Daniel knew exactly who his source of truth was.

So this week, when life gets noisy and we hear… well, hearsay, remember who your source of wisdom, truth, and power is. It’s not Facebook or CNN, it’s not your neighbor or your boss. It’s your F A I T H ! Jesus, God, the Bible. You name it! I’m going to challenge myself to take my worries, concerns, and questions to God. The next time I feel overwhelmed, I’m going to pray, praise, or prop open my Bible. And I challenge you to try this out too! We’re all in this together. So what are you waiting for? Let’s continue to Walk in His Promises!

— Madeline