Daring to be a Daniel-Restart

Greetings.

It has been quite sometime since I've actually written anything dealing with the life I live in the faith.

To start, I am going to share a bit of memorabilia.

It all started 2 years ago, one Wednesday evening at St. Luke Lutheran Church. We, the youth group with a volunteer youth leader; Becky were sitting outside on the wooden benches in the wooded area, gathered.
There, we had shared of our highs and lows of the week, opened in prayer, and jumped right into our Bible study for the evening. (FYI: We had planned previously on what book we wanted to focus in on as a study. We had chosen Hebrews.)

Hebrews. The book of Hebrews. The book that speaks so lively about Faith. I remember us reading through a few chapters, while stopping to discuss it. The chapter that stood out to me, til this day is Hebrews 11. It's titled, "By Faith."

At the time, in chapter 11 I was really surprised at how many generations of God's people had kept the Faith and how the Faith in Christ carries on til this very day, to only go on for generations.
What these past generations of His people did was this;
Hebrews 11:13
"All these people were still living by the faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance."

What does that say about us today? Are we living by the faith to where we aren't fearing what is to come of God, but simply welcoming it from the distance?
We shouldn't fear the gift of Faith because we are given grace by the blood of the Lamb.
(Hebrews 9:14-15) How much more, then will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God! For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance--now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant."

By the faith we have in Christ coming to save us, we are given such grace to live a life serving God, one God who reigns in Spirit, the Son, and as the Father.

Anyways,
having a faith that is active is quite important. We as believers cannot just simply live a life of faith that is not active.
While asleep, no prayer, no spirit within, makes one weak.
To have faith...is so much more than what is often depicted.

Having faith is not only believing in what Christ has done for you, but it is about trusting in the unseen.
That's what most still cannot fathom over and tend to live a life full of 'faith' in something mistaken as a filler. With that, could be anything depending on what that person may use to fill in the gap.

To have faith, like I said is also about trusting in the unseen and we are told that in 2 Corinthians.
"18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." 2 Corinthians 4:18

Christ died so that we may have an eternal faith and life in Him. What people not to be able to fathom with that is the fact it is, indeed, unseen.

Yet,
looking back on this subject from that period of time discussing the faith that Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses...and so forth through out the generations and genealogy.
Whenever looking back, I had never realized just how much of a strong faith that God's people had. Yet, reading through the OT (Old Testament) about the faith His people had then, reading in the NT (New Testament), then examining my life...
I didn't think so much that I could relate to them, but knew we all as His people indeed had faith.

Today,
doing the exact examination it is so clear to me that these people did suffer the same trials, feelings, climaxes and lowest of lows in their faith, too. Not the exact same ways at all, but the experiences that bring on the matter of emotions, the need of confession and absolution, and everything...the same.

We as the people in faith, I cannot help, but wonder...have we lost some form of the faith?
I say this to only make you, the reader, think.
After attending numerous church services, studies, etc, do we actually share the MANY MANY MANY stories of faith from the Old Testament to help us understand we were never alone even through the New Testament, til this day?
How often is it that we just focus on the New Testament, the Gospel, Jesus, and everything?
When do we actually mention the Law and how important it is to have that foundation in our lives in order to live a life according to the Faith that God commanded from us, especially by sending His only Son, our Lord, Jesus in the flesh to TEACH us about living an active life in THE FAITH.
By Him teaching us, yes, that helped us to trust, but when do we mention in our services and lives daily, how much the Old Testament stories we can relate to just as much because of how we tend to trust in God with everything.

We are to trust in God with an entire entity of the faith, but we don't because we don't understand what it actually means to live faithfully to God and trust in Christ; alone.
To trust in the God who is triune.

Faith isn't about just trusting in what has been done for you, but to live it as God instructed in the 10 commandments, with the reminder of Jesus teaching us to Love.
To have faith is to Love.
To have faith is to Believe.
To have faith is to Trust.

To have faith is to share what God commanded of you; the promise and Gospel of Jesus Christ. The root of our faith is in Jesus and the love He had shown for us.


Hebrews teaches us that in the Old Testament we can be reminded of how others may have trusted in Him, while living their lives dedicated to Him, alone.
In the OT, it mentioned of a Savior to come and save the world.
That, God promised AND fulfilled.


In Christ alone, we have faith and can trust in the unseen because it is by His holy works that we are here and enabled to share the Faith.

Share the Faith. Be courageous with your faith, just as Daniel was.
Daniel was not only courageous, but he trust that God had control and would protect him.
Indeed, God had control and protected Daniel. Daniel was faithful to and trusting in God.
He rescued Daniel from Nebuchadnezzar sending him to the den with the lions, despite what Daniel had interpreted from Nebuchadnezzar's dream to be true.
Although, he couldn't believe it.
After what Nebuchadnezzar had seen, he released Daniel and agreed that the God Daniel kept his faith in, was true, faithful to His people, and saves.
With that, we start to learn that God is a faithful God, despite we read and learn that before the book of Daniel.
What stands out about Daniel and his faith before all of the events with the den with lions is...
within the earlier chapters, Daniel would open his window, close the bedroom door, and would get down on his knees three times a day, praying to God.
Then we see again that he prays and gives thanks to God.
Daniel 6:10
"Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before."

Previous generations, Daniel, and others within the New Testament had great faith.
All, endured hardship and times of greatness within the faith. Yet, no matter what the situation was, these people trusted in the unseen because their eyes were set on the promise God made.

In this current generation, times are hard. We ought to be courageous, standing firm with great strength of what we believe.
To have faith that is strong, we must do what our previous believers did; closing a door, opening the window, and praying 3 times a day giving thanks to the God who is faithful.
Opening the window to those to hear our prayers of thanks and concern to the God who loves, sharing that same love and faith in what is so much more than what the Earth has to offer.
Closing the door to the ways that turn us crooked. Keeping a mentality that is focused on what is to come of the Kingdom of God.
That, we can stand firm, sharing the love and faith of Christ Jesus.


To live courageously as Daniel in a life of active and complete faith through Hebrews, is...
what we should be doing.

It's what I should be doing. It's what I want to do.

This is me writing to -you-, sharing my thoughts and faith...saying, if it is what God wants of me, you, us, we ought to obey and give it our all. He gave it all for us.
We should dedicate all that our hearts have to offer to and for Him...to bring Him glory, not ourselves.

The times of faith and understanding what it is to have a life that is OF THE FAITH is hard, but with that we our reminded by Jesus making this statement;
"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."

The moments we are weak in our faith, by trusting, believing, loving, and sharing, we can remember to be all the more glad that it is okay to be weak because we are only made stronger in those areas and altogether, stronger for what is to be faced in the world we live in.

Living a life of Faith, isn't meant to be easy as I mentioned. It's also about knowing what it means to be weakened to only be stronger, putting on the breastplate of love and faith, having hope in the salvation as a helmet (1 Thessalonians 5:8)

Yet,
we are to pray faithfully no matter where we are, so that we may perservere because God also taught us to do so.
In James it is mentioned to pray faithfully and to keep praying no matter what the circumstance is.
Take heart, courage, trust, belief, and faith, it is okay to pray and God wants you to do so.
James 5: 13-19
The Prayer of Faith

"13 Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. 14 Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. 16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.
17 Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. 18 Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.

19 My brothers and sisters, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring that person back, 20 remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of their way will save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins."

Pray for strength, courage, love, and what it means to live a life of faith just as Daniel did.
Live a life as mentioned in Hebrews.
To pray for those who need the faith and are living it, is one of the many blessings we share together because we are given the gift of prayer to help encourage

a believer to live a life, Daring to be a Daniel.

I pray that not only all of you can follow the examples and take something so precious from this entry,
but to know to live a life of faith is so much more and we, as believers, can do it by the love, grace, and strength given to us from our God.



(I know this is probably a jumpy entry. A lot of thoughts, but I hope that you get the jist.)

In the Faith,
-Mak