Lions' Dens Survival Principles > Part 1

How To Weather Adversity

Daniel 2:26-27 (NIV) “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.”

The “sixtyish” woman was standing in the hall of the executive suite of a television network. 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.” What she had depended on for decades was now gone with little thanks and no ceremony.

Certainly nobody goes into a media profession for security. Company and employment situations can change quickly. A corporate takeover dumps most, if not all, the “other company’s” people in the drink. Mercurial company politics suddenly leave a faithful employee “odd person out.” Even the discovery of a devout, Christian faith can result in a competent employee’s sudden exclusion from the leadership circle or eased out of a position of influence . . . as was the case with this woman.

Daniel got ripped off by dirty company politics. 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. It sounded like a good idea to the king in his moment of arrogance . . . that is until he realized that his trusted friend and Number Two Man was going to die in enforcement of the decree.

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. 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 keeps 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, they are no real 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 deliverance of your God is revealed. Or don’t . . . it’s your peace and faith you’re playing with.

—Larry W. Poland, Ph.D.

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