Dare to Stand Alone – 10.30.2020

I was thinking of a song we used to sing when I was a boy. Some of you may remember “Dare to be a Daniel:”

Dare to be a Daniel

Dare to stand alone

Dare to have a purpose firm

Dare to make it known  

Standing by a purpose true

Heeding God’s command

Honor them, the faithful few

All hail to Daniel’s band

The song could also be about Daniel’s three friends who said to the ruler of the known world, “Nebuchadnezzar, we are not in need of an answer to give you concerning this matter.  If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to rescue us from the furnace of blazing fire; and He will rescue us from your hand, O king.  But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods nor worship the golden statue that you have set up.”

It could be about David who said to the giant, Goliath, “You come to me with a sword, a spear, and a saber, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of armies, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.  This day the Lord will hand you over to me, and I will strike you and remove your head from you. Then I will give the dead bodies of the army of the Philistines this day to the birds of the sky and the wild animals of the earth, so that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that this entire assembly may know that the Lord does not save by sword or by spear; for the battle is the Lord’s, and He will hand you over to us!”

Or it could be of Joshua, or of Gideon, or of Deborah, or of any of the men and women mentioned in the annals of faith.  Men and women of great courage who chose faith over fear.  And that’s the simple point of this blog.

It feels like the news wants to keep us afraid.  Or perhaps, better said, there are genuinely fearful things happening in our world today – riots, threats of violence, election turbulence, viruses, division – none of which surprise God at all.  Courage is choosing to believe God’s got this! 

“You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.” 1 John 4:4