As I read the book of Daniel Chapter 1:1-12 i got to learn something about taking a decision and two key words were revealed to me and that is "decision and compromise". Daniel and his 3 friends understood that they had a choice to eat the ancestral food that the Royal house prepares for them or to stand their ground holding on to their Christian belief. The 4 then decided to rather eat something that the ground produces which is vegetables and drink water, in my understanding this was not cooked veggies but rather raw veggies and we all know that in the days of Daniel water was taken from the river or wells so it means they opted for nature than cooked food that will be presented to idols. As Children of God the minute we take a decision not to defile the word of God, then we allow God to take leadership in our lives and move in our favor, read verse 9.
As Africans we come from backgrounds where ancestral rituals are a norm and in other households are a must and as we grow and decide to follow Jesus we end up being caught in the middle and we end up compromising our walk with the Lord because we want to please our parents. We even quote the word "Children honor your Mother and Father." The question we must ask is in this instance are we honoring our parents by compromising our God by engaging in rituals? What i am here to tell you is you can still honor your parents and fulfill the word yet not compromise God. What you need to do is go in your closet room and ask the Lord to take the lead in what you are asked to do, this is when you are not double-minded, this is when you have decided that you will not participate in ancestral activities and let His favor be on you so that when you address your parents you do not sound rude and arrogant.
We are in a era where Men of God compromise the gospel instead of preaching the living word they preach wealth and prosperity instead of saving souls they sugar coat the word of God because they are scared Christians will leave the church and they will lose out on tithes. The Gospel of God which is the gospel of truth has been compromised we need servants of God who will stand the ground just like Daniel and his friends and say whether I can preach to 3 people every Sunday it doesn't matter as long as i am preaching the Living word. We need Christians who will say i will not mix culture or traditional activities with my Christian belief,come Good Friday(passover) or Christmas we see Christians slaughtering goats and sacrificing to their gods and sundays they take the bible and go to the house of the Lord to worship.
We need Children of God who will stand against the oppression of Nebuchadnezzar and say we are not going to compromise our belief by engaging in idols/ancestors. Here the tone of Daniel in verse 12 when he spoke to the Official, he understood that as a Child of God everything is taken care off he doesn't need to be hostile,harsh or rude. God always fights for us if we stand firm and be grounded (read James 1:1-8), He raises the standards for us and qualifies us when we take the decision not to compromise Him.
Stay blessed
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