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Day 241, or August 29. Trust God, you know it makes sense. Our thoughts today come from

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Daniel chapter 6, verse 22. My God sent His angel, and He shut the mouths of the lions.

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They have not hurt me, because I was found innocent in His sight. Nor have I ever done

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any wrong before you, your Majesty.

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And now the big picture surrounding this verse. Daniel continues his ministry of interpreting

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dreams for King Nebuchadnezzar. After several short reigning monarchs, the next king mentioned

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in the Bible is King Belshazzar, who is famous for seeing the writing on the wall that frightens

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the life out of him—literally. Perhaps the most famous narrative we have about Daniel

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is when he was thrown into the lion's den. This was under the king who succeeds Belshazzar.

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He is Darius the Mead, and despite being sixty-two years old when he comes to the throne, he

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shows few signs of maturity as he makes a foolish decree that traps his friend Daniel, a man

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he greatly respects. This results in Daniel's adventure with lions, and his subsequent miraculous

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escape, thanks to God.

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And now to today's action step. Do you ever have times when everyone else's faith appears

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so strong, whilst yours seems almost non-existent? Daniel's faith is outstanding, but whilst

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we may long to share it, this is an appropriate time to remind ourselves that we don't have

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to be spiritual giants for God to use us. People often say to believers, I wish I had

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your faith, as though it's the quality and quantity of faith that strengthens us. The

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Bible teaches clearly that this is not true. Jesus said, If you had faith even as small

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as a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, May you be uprooted and thrown into

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the sea, and it would obey you. Luke 17 verse 6. I'm so grateful for this assurance, as

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my faith is often so thin. However, it's not how much faith we have, it's whom we

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have faith in that counts. We will probably not be tested like Daniel, but even if we

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are, we only need a little faith in our great God.