In Daniel 10, Daniel is overwhelmed by a vision of things that are still to come. He doesn’t know how God’s plan will unfold, and neither do we always understand what God is doing in the middle of our own difficult seasons. But God gives Daniel a powerful word: “Do not fear, greatly beloved. You are safe. Be strong and courageous.” Today we reflect on the truth that whatever we are experiencing right now is not the end of God’s story. We may not always feel safe, understand the circumstances, or see what God is doing, but we can trust that God is at work. We are beloved, we are held, and our strength comes from God.
Join us for our daily reflections. In 10 short minutes, we’ll dig a little deeper into Scripture and help us better understand God’s Word.
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Good morning, friends. I hope you’re doing well on this Wednesday morning.
As we continue our time in Daniel, today we’re in chapter 10. We have three more chapters and three more days, which means we’re going to finish Daniel this week.
And we’re now getting into the parts of Daniel that I mentioned earlier are a little more challenging to understand. These chapters deal with prophecies about the end of time, but they also deal with things that are going to unfold in the years after Daniel’s life.
And whenever we’re dealing with prophecy—and especially with apocalyptic literature—it’s important to remember that we are not the first audience.
That’s always a key thing to remember with books like this. Daniel wasn’t written first for us to understand. We can learn from it. We can understand things from it. There is much that we can gain from it. But to understand it fully, we need to put ourselves in the shoes of the first audience.
So let’s read Daniel 10.
Daniel receives this vision, and once again, he is overwhelmed by what he sees. He’s frightened. His strength leaves him. He falls to the ground. At one point he says, essentially, “I don’t even have the strength to speak.”
And then there’s this beautiful word from the angel:
“Do not fear, greatly beloved. You are safe. Be strong and courageous.”
I love that.
Because we see Daniel repeatedly throughout this book receive these visions, and his response is very human. He is scared. He is intimidated. He is weakened by what he sees. And over and over again, God gives him the strength to bear what he has been shown and to understand what he needs to understand.
Daniel is being given a vision concerning his people. Israel is still in exile. They’ve lost so much. They are living in a difficult season, and Daniel is being told that there are still things to come.
Now, one of the interesting things about reading the Bible is that we always read it looking backward.
We know how the story turns out.
We know that Daniel and his people aren’t going to remain in captivity forever. We know that they will eventually return to the promised land. We know that, ultimately, a Messiah will come.
We know where history is going.
Daniel doesn’t.
Daniel is living this in real time.
And I think that’s important for us to remember.
Because sometimes we read Scripture knowing how everything turned out, and we forget what it must have felt like to be the people actually living through those moments.
Daniel doesn’t know everything that is going to happen. He knows that there is something greater to come. He knows that God has a plan. But he doesn’t know how all of it is going to unfold.
And I think there’s something really important for us in that.
What we are experiencing right now is not the end of the story God is telling.
Whatever you’re experiencing today, this is not necessarily the final chapter.
And that can be hard to remember when we’re in the middle of something difficult.
When we’re in a season of uncertainty, when we’re anxious, when we don’t know what’s going to happen next, it’s easy to look at the circumstances around us and think, “How is this ever going to change?”
That’s where Daniel is.
“How is this going to work? We’re in captivity. We’re a long way from home. How are these things going to play out?”
And then God says:
“Do not fear, greatly beloved. You are safe. Be strong and courageous.”
What a word for us.
Because there are probably some of us today who have no worries at all. Maybe your life is perfect. Maybe you don’t have a thing in the world to worry about.
And if so—awesome. I pray that’s all of us.
But there are probably a good many of us who feel a little more like Daniel:
“I have no strength. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what’s going to happen next.”
And that’s when we need to hear these words:
“Do not fear, greatly beloved. You are safe.”
Now, I don’t always feel safe.
We watch the news, and we don’t always feel safe.
We get on the Internet, and we don’t always feel safe.
We look at the world around us, and there are plenty of things that can make us anxious.
So where do we allow these words to become true in our lives?
“Do not fear, greatly beloved. You are safe.”
We are safe in the arms of Jesus.
Now, friends, we may not always feel it.
We may not always believe it.
We may not always understand it.
But it is true.
We are safe today in the arms of Jesus.
And that doesn’t mean that nothing difficult will ever happen to us. Daniel certainly knows that difficult things happen. It doesn’t mean that we will understand everything God is doing. Daniel certainly doesn’t understand everything that is being revealed to him.
But it means that God is at work even when we cannot see what God is doing.
So today, know where your safety comes from.
Know where your strength comes from.
It comes from knowing that you are God’s beloved.
It comes from trusting that God’s story is bigger than this moment.
God’s plan is greater than what we can see right now.
And whatever struggle you may be facing today, whatever uncertainty you may be carrying, I want you to remember those words:
Do not fear, greatly beloved. You are safe. Be strong and courageous.
Trust that the story God is telling is bigger than this moment.
Trust that God is at work, even when you can’t see it.
And trust that there is more to come.
You are beloved.
You are safe.
Have a great day, friends. I’ll see you in the morning as we continue with Daniel chapter 11.
See ya. Thanks.