God Talks to Me Through the Old Testament
For example, as I am writing this chapter, my daily Bible reading
includes passages from the books of Daniel and 2 Peter. I
didn’t choose these verses and chapters as my reading for
today—they were in place and prepared for me to read—but
you can see how integral they are to my life as a teacher,
author, and speaker on the topic of hearing God talk.
While reading through the book of Daniel, I am, first and
foremost, impressed by the unwavering character of this
Jewish boy who was exiled and put into the service of a foreign
king. He passed every test and exceeded all expectations,
leading his peers to live by higher standards than followed by
those around them.
By the sixth chapter of Daniel, there had already been one
attempt to execute Daniel’s friends by throwing them into a fire
because they refused to publicly deny God by bowing down to
a golden statue. Incredibly, they survived, but not before
professing their faith in the God they served—whether He
saved them from the fire or not. Can I learn from this story or be
challenged to live by higher standards in my culture because of
how they lived their lives? Certainly. Is this story—their lives
—relevant to me? Absolutely. Do I live in such an anti-God
culture? Perhaps.
Because Daniel refused to stop praying to God, he was
personally attacked by a gang of government leaders who
devised a way to get him thrown into the lion’s den (a common
mode of execution at that time). One of the twists in this
account includes the sorrow of the king, who deeply regretted
that trickery was used to corner Daniel into this verdict and