“But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king’s food or with the wine that he drank. Therefore, he asked the chief of the eunuchs to allow him not to defile himself. And God gave Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the chief of the eunuchs.”
– Daniel 1:8–9
I love this picture of Daniel going totally against the grain of not just the culture around him, but what he was being commanded to do as he served in the king’s court. That he resolved that he would not defile himself. What a picture. Like, are you resolved like this today? That you will not defile yourself in this world in ways that our culture beckons and in some senses commands us to do. To say no, we are resolved, that we will be holy. That we will go totally against the grain of the culture, the world around us. And we will be holy in what we say and what we think and what we desire and what we decide, and how we live and how we work.
There are opportunities all day long for you and me to defile ourselves with, not necessarily the king’s food, but with all sorts of things in this world. So God, give us grace, strength, boldness, humility, trust in You to follow Your word today, to not defile ourselves with the temptations of this world. With the trends in this world, with the way this world would have us think. God, don’t let us be conformed to this world. We don’t want to be conformed to this world. We want to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. We want to live in light of Your word. We want to be pure. We want to be holy in everything we think and say and desire, and do. We want to die to ourselves today? I want to take up our cross to live crucified with You, to live by faith in You. God, help us to resist all the temptations toward worldliness in our lives today.
And we pray for the kind of favor and compassion that You gave Daniel in Daniel chapter one in our lives. God, that You would help us to be holy, that You would help us to be pure and in the process just like You helped Daniel and the chief of the eunuchs saw him and realized that he was different and that the way he was living and eating in this circumstance was better.
God, we pray that over our lives. We pray for Matthew 5:16 to be the fruit of our lives, that we would let Your light, the light of Your word, and Your spirit in us shine through us. God, I pray this over kids and schools who are listening to this. God I pray this over ,yeah, teenagers, over young adults on college campuses. God, I pray this over every one of us going to a workplace. God, for every one of us going throughout our community, throughout our cities, to help us to live in such a way that the light of Your spirit, Your word, Your goodness, shines through us, that people might see our lives and give glory to You in heaven.
God, we pray this in light of Daniel chapter one, verse eight and nine. In Jesus name, Amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder and Chairman of Radical, an organization that helps people follow Jesus and make him known in their neighborhood and all nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, and Don’t Hold Back.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
