Strong Under Pressure: Wisdom From the Book of DanielSýnishorn

Courage Needs Wisdom

In Daniel chapter 1, teenager Daniel joins the Babylonian court. Remember, he’s been ripped away from his country and most of his loved ones. Now he’s immersed in a world with new values, unfamiliar cultural practices, and a very different faith.

Daniel’s first test comes at dinner, when he’s served expensive food. To most of us, that doesn’t seem like a problem that needs solving. But for Daniel, it was a major test. Why?

Daniel’s people had strict dietary laws that God had given them. While we don’t have to follow the same rules today, Daniel knew it would be disobedient to God to eat the food offered to him by the Babylonian king.

People around him must have thought, What’s the big deal? It’s just a bit of pork. Or, Seriously Daniel? Those old laws are ancient history and don’t matter today. Or, Daniel gets the privilege of eating the king’s food, and he’s going to waste it and risk angering the king?

But Daniel and his friends didn’t compromise, and they miraculously grew stronger by eating nothing but vegetables. Don’t worry—this story isn’t designed to share a dieting trend. Instead, it’s to show us how to stay strong under pressure. Daniel shows us that we need courage and conviction to avoid compromising our faith.

It would be easy to stop here with a simple encouragement to stand up for your beliefs. But there’s more to discover. After remaining true to his convictions, Daniel and his friends learned Babylonian history and language, adopted Babylonian names, and began to lead within the empire. When they finally met the king, Nebuchadnezzar, he was incredibly impressed with Daniel and his friends.

What does this tell us about being strong under pressure? It shows that Daniel wasn’t hostile, antagonistic, or even rude to people with opposing beliefs.

Daniel wasn’t anti-Babylon. He was simply against dishonoring God. He probably didn’t support invasions like the ones he’d experienced, and certainly didn’t condone his colleagues’ worship of Babylonian gods. But he could learn, study, and lead within Babylon and honor God at the same time.

Daniel doesn’t think to himself, Because they eat the wrong food, they’re completely evil, and I can never talk to any of them. And he doesn’t encourage his friends to isolate themselves from people of differing views. Instead, Daniel’s crew put their wisdom to work.

If we want to remain strong under pressure, we need courage—plus wisdom. We practice wisdom when approaching every situation with prayer, God-given common sense, and the counsel of trusted friends, using Scripture as our guardrail.

When the Bible makes a clear claim—for example, that we should love people, even our enemies—we courageously hold that truth as a conviction. We refuse to make fun of or belittle others regardless of cultural pressure.

But when it comes to media choices, clothing trends, or political beliefs? Then, we need wisdom. And well-meaning Jesus followers will often come to differing conclusions.

Followers of Jesus aren’t at war with culture. Instead, we can grow in wisdom, identifying the good in each culture while sticking with what we know to be true. And wisdom guides us not to make an enemy out of people with differing views. They are people God loves, just like us.

Challenge: Remember, just like people, different cultures aren’t all good or all evil. So consider some of the good things about the culture you live in today. Then, pray for wisdom to see where you might need to influence your culture for good.

Prayer: Dear God, You are the source of wisdom. Please provide me with wisdom as I navigate complex situations. Please help my convictions remain strong under pressure. I don’t want to isolate myself from culture, so please show me how I can be in the world but not of it. In Jesus’ name, amen.