Connect the dots and be significant

Are you a young person? Or perhaps you consider yourself simply young at heart. Whatever the case, as you look back at your journey through life, good or bad, you can see some connections that helps you eventually figure out that there must be a mastermind behind all of this. If you are still figuring this out, it is probably because you are in the middle of a challenging time or success with limited view or understanding of where it is all leading to. Daniel and his friends must have thought that way as they started a new phase in their lives in captivity.

Daniel 1:3-4

Then the king instructed Ashpenaz, the master of his eunuchs, to bring some of the children of Israel and some of the king’s descendants and some of the nobles, young men in whom there was no blemish, but good-looking, gifted in all wisdom, possessing knowledge and quick to understand, who had ability to serve in the king’s palace, and whom they might teach the language and literature of the Chaldeans.

We are now in Daniel. This is an inspirational book. I remember this book being discoursed so well as a young student attending a Campus Crusade for Christ student conference in Kansas City in December of 1983 with more than 17,000 other students. Daniel and his friends had such an impact on the Chaldeans. It is said in verse 21, "Thus Daniel continued until the first year of King Cyrus." Yes, he served a long time and he made such an impact that King Cyrus, one of the greatest kings at that time, submitted himself to God and commanded that the temple be rebuilt in Jerusalem.

Hence it is no surprise that Ezra 1:2 says, "Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: All the kingdoms of the earth the Lord God of heaven has given me. And He has commanded me to build Him a house at Jerusalem which is in Judah." Verse 1 indicated that this was in his first year as king. Are you connecting the dots? There is a thread. This is Daniel and his young group of friends. Do you see yourself insignificant? God can take you from there to turn the world upside down. Be significant by living the gospel before man.

Father, help me live the gospel before men.

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