As I mentioned last time we've just started a series at church looking at the first half of Daniel. One of the things that Daniel wants us to see is that God is working behind the scenes - all the way through Daniel he writes that things happen because of God. So even if Nebuchadnezzar thinks it is his power and might and military strength that has led to the successful invasion of Judah - it actually only happened because 'God delivered...'
When we experience bad days do we have the eyes of faith to see God working out his plans? To recognise the presence of God - even when it looks like he's no where around.
Daniel and his three friends were the best of the best. If anyone was going to be able to make a go of it in Babylon it was going to be them. They looked good. They were charming. They were intelligent. They had everything going for them. But at no point in the story do they allow this to go to their heads. They remain humble. They remember that everything that they have, and everything that they are able to do is down to God. God has given Daniel the supernatural ability to interpret dreams, but their other gifts and abilities and talents also come from God - and they never forget this. When things go well and they are praised - they reflect that praise to God.
On the good days do we give thanks to God - or do we sometimes fall into the trap of patting ourselves on the back and thinking that it is all about us. Do we start to rely on our own abilities and strengths, rather than continuing to look to God?
But most of us, most of the time will not have good days or bad days - they will just be typical, normal, mundane, boring, routine days. We do the same things we do everyday. We get up at the same time, we eat the same thing for breakfast, we take the same journey to work. And after a day in the office we return home, and watch the same TV and then we go to bed - in order to start it all over again the next day!
And I suppose one question for us is: do we have the eyes of faith to see God at work in the ordinary, in the mundane, in the routine? Are we looking for God? Are we waiting for him to show up? Do we see his handiwork in the spider's web on our walk to work?
God is there - on the good days, on the bad days and on the boring days. Another question might be - if God is there, can you have a boring day...
