Reb Rev's Blog

“But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king’s food, or with the wine that he drank. Therefore he asked the chief of the eunuchs to allow him not to defile himself.” – Daniel 1:8

Temptation. Everyone has, and everyone will, face it. What will you do when that time comes? We often hear folks say, “Well, I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.” Or, “It depends what it is. How should I know till that time comes?”

Daniel and his friends didn’t take that approach. They faced a variety of temptations and challenges, yet they never gave in to any of those.

The key to their resolve is found in this verse, and others like it throughout the book of Daniel. He resolved he was not going to give in from the beginning. He didn’t wait to see what was on the menu. He didn’t wait to see what others would do. He didn’t look for excuses. He didn’t take a poll of popular opinion.

He resolved. He made up his mind before the temptation came. His friends did the same thing. Even if it cost them their lives – they were not going to do what they knew was not right.

The same thing will work for us – if we exercise that same type of resolve.

My prayer this week is you will resolve to the right thing, the right way, at the right time – all the time, by the strength God gives for each day.

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” – Matthew 7:24

I recently went for a run on fresh asphalt. Maybe it’s just me, but if I must run on asphalt, I prefer it be new. And this was. New, fresh, asphalt. It was a beautiful thing – as asphalt goes.

But, I got to a particular spot and it was all cracked and crumbling. It seems they had had a tremendous amount of rain and the ground had washed out from under that section of road. Even though the paving was a couple inches thick, it just wouldn’t hold together with nothing of substance under it.

This was Jesus’ point in the parable of the builders. One built on rock and one built on sand. The problem wasn’t the quality of the structure, it was the substance of the foundation.

The world offers us many “foundations” today. But only one, God’s Word, has and will stand the tests of time.

My prayer this week is you will be comforted during the storm of life by knowing your foundation won’t wash away.