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Lions' Den Survival Principles 24-Part Series

57 Lions' Den Survival Principles

Lions' Den Survival Principles PART 12 of 24

How to Weather Adversity

"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. Then these men went as a group and found Daniel praying and asking God for help.
—Daniel 6:10-11 (NIV)

In an industry where verbal and legal "credit wars" are waged over whose name is listed first, whose name has bigger letters, and what title is given, it's no mystery that God seldom gets top billing. Surrounded by boxes, she was leaning against the wall weeping. “Ruth,” I said, “What’s wrong?” “After I’ve worked my heart out for 27 years for this network they gave me three days notice.” She had been summarily “downsized.”

Certainly, nobody goes into a media profession for security. Situations can turn quickly. A corporate takeover dumps all the “other company’s” people in the drink. Mercurial company politics suddenly leave a faithful employee “odd man out.” Even the discovery of a devout, Christian faith can result in a competent employee’s suddenly being excluded from the leadership circle.

Daniel got ripped off in a political scheme. His enemies, knowing Daniel’s only point of vulnerability was in matters of his faith (Daniel 6:5) played on the king’s pride and snookered him into decreeing the death penalty to anyone who prayed to someone other than the king himself.

To Daniel, this was more than the imminent possibility of losing his job. It was the legal guarantee of losing his life! The legendary "law of the Medes and the Persians" was now in effect, a law that not even the king could alter or rescind.

Daniel’s response provides a dynamite survival principle when we face adversity: When all hell breaks loose, keep praying prayers of thanksgiving. (Survival Principle 23) Back in his room Daniel continued “giving thanks to his God just as he had done before.”

Giving thanks in adversity, not necessarily for adversity, is a primary hallmark of the person of faith. Giving thanks in the middle of an unresolved catastrophe (1) proves we trust Somebody Bigger than the crisis, (2) proves our mind, heart, and soul are not tied to the phony “securities” (or threats) of the temporal world, and (3) shows we aren’t willing to insult our King by forgetting all the other messes He has pulled us through in the past. A continuing “attitude of gratitude” in our prayers keep us focused above the fray and on the Father.

In Hebrews 13:15 this practice is called offering to God a "sacrifice of praise." When all our senses tell us catastrophe is upon us, praise and thanks seem like "sacrifices," idiotic acts of mindless obedience in the face of certain disaster. In reality, thay are no sacrifice at all. They are key parts of the emotionally and spiritually liberating ceremony that celebrates the imminent victory of our King.

A Hollywood bumper sticker I saw recently said, "DUE TO RECENT CUTBACKS, THE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL HAS BEEN TURNED OFF." For the believer, Jesus Christ is the Light that can never be turned off. This alone is basis for giving thanks.

So, when disaster strikes, get on your knees and give thanks. Then keep giving thanks until things get better, until the mighty deliverence of your God is revealed. Or don’t . . . it’s your peace and faith you’re playing with.

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© 2000-2004 Larry W. Poland, Ph.D., Mastermedia International, Inc.