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Lions' Den Survival Principles 24-Part Series

57 Lions' Den Survival Principles

Lions' Den Survival Principles PART 15 of 24

Discovering the Power of Praise Over Problems

"Then Daniel praised the God of heaven and said, ‘Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever; wisdom and power are his. He changes times and seasons; he sets up kings and deposes them. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning. He reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what lies in darkness and light dwells with him.”
—Daniel 2:19b-22 (NIV)

As a person who has been accused of being “terminally positive,” I’m not given to fits of rage, depression, or hopelessness. Consequently, creeping coldness in my relationship with Jesus Christ is recognizable not by the presence of the negative so much as by the absence of the positive. I simply lose my attitude of praise.

Daniel—like all mightily-used servants of God—was marked by a spirit of praise that was independent of circumstances. This praise passage, only partially quoted above, was uttered when Daniel, his friends, and all the other spiritual advisors in the land were on death row! Nebuchadnezzar had made an absolutely impossible and unreasonable demand of all this spiritual advisors—not only interpret a dream but tell him in detail what the dream was before interpreting it. When the phony advisors fudged, he ordered them all slaughtered.

The other advisors panicked, cried “Foul!” and desperately sought to manipulate the king to change his decision. Not Daniel. He mobilized prayer and, in faith, asked for time to allow His God to work.

Daniel knew this: When all hell breaks loose, don’t fight it; call on heaven to handle it. In the long run, heaven can always handle hell! (Survival Principle 30)

At the darkest hour in the lives of his compatriots, Daniel was composing a praise song (it’s written in poetry!). Sure, God had just given him a revelation of the mystery, but Daniel had yet to present the information to the King, and the sword still hung over his head. Nebuchadnezzar was hardly a man who backed down from his demands even when they were met! Nonetheless, Daniel praised his God.
Daniel had mastered Survival Principle 31: In a crisis, one word from the Lord is better than ten thousand from anyone else.

So he praised. Did he ever praise! He praised God’s name, His wisdom, His power, His sovereignty, His generous sharing of His insights, His omniscience, His light-filled character. Daniel knew that the circumstances were such that he couldn’t control them, so he might as well glorify the One who could.

A last lesson is this: Praise is the agent that stills the tempest in the heart of believers when God chooses not to still the tempest around them. (Survival Principle 32)

Going through hell? Call on heaven, listen for a word from God, and generate a song of praise. It surely beats the alternative.

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