Fast Like DanielSample

Haters 

Daniel faced some serious haters. They were jealous, ambitious—and deadly. Opposition probably looks very different for you than for Daniel. Your grumpy boss, dirty-mouthed co-workers, gossiping so-called friends, popularity-driven fellow students, or financial worries may look a little easier in the light of the haters out to kill Daniel. But whatever it looks like, opposition has a way of driving us to God, so in those times of trouble we find it natural to turn to Him for help against injustice.

But here’s something you may not have thought about: nothing tests you better than success. When we’re struggling, we find it easy to turn to God because we need some serious help—ASAP!

But wait until you get some success. Guess who comes out of the woodwork? The haters and the devil. I like to say it this way: as you reach new levels, you get new devils. There’s haters in life, and then there’s the hater of all haters, the devil. It’s not popular to believe in a real devil right now, but while he’s not running around with a red suit and a pitchfork, the one the Bible calls “the enemy of our souls” and “the accuser” is quite real. He is the original hater, and he’s old school. He wants to kill you!

He wants to pull you down and to keep you from the life God has for you. He’ll use other people, but he knows human nature really well. He knows that when we get a little taste of success, we might get prideful. He watches us really carefully when we get promoted or achieve something, and he waits for the opportunity to turn something good against us—by helping it go to our heads.

Daniel had reached high levels, and he now faced opposition from some of the chief leaders of Persia. But Daniel handled it like he did everything else: he turned to God.

So how will you handle your haters? 

The only way to fight haters is by going to the One who is Love, and the only way to handle your successes is the same as the troubles—on your knees in humble prayer. It’s how Daniel handled his haters, and it’s how we are to handle them still today. When we Fast Like Daniel, we trust God to handle our haters, and we let our all-powerful God handle the devil.