Daily devotion – the breath of life!
Daniel 5: 13 So Daniel was brought in before the king. The king asked him, “Are you Daniel, one of the exiles brought from Judah by my predecessor, King Nebuchadnezzar? 14 I have heard that you have the spirit of the gods within you and that you are filled with insight, understanding, and wisdom. 15 My wise men and enchanters have tried to read the words on the wall and tell me their meaning, but they cannot do it. 16 I am told that you can give interpretations and solve difficult problems. If you can read these words and tell me their meaning, you will be clothed in purple robes of royal honor, and you will have a gold chain placed around your neck. You will become the third highest ruler in the kingdom.”
17 Daniel answered the king, “Keep your gifts or give them to someone else, but I will tell you what the writing means. 18 Your Majesty, the Most High God gave sovereignty, majesty, glory, and honor to your predecessor, Nebuchadnezzar. 19 He made him so great that people of all races and nations and languages trembled before him in fear. He killed those he wanted to kill and spared those he wanted to spare. He honored those he wanted to honor and disgraced those he wanted to disgrace. 20 But when his heart and mind were puffed up with arrogance, he was brought down from his royal throne and stripped of his glory. 21 He was driven from human society. He was given the mind of a wild animal, and he lived among the wild donkeys. He ate grass like a cow, and he was drenched with the dew of heaven, until he learned that the Most High God rules over the kingdoms of the world and appoints anyone he desires to rule over them.
22 “You are his successor, O Belshazzar, and you knew all this, yet you have not humbled yourself. 23 For you have proudly defied the Lord of heaven and have had these cups from his Temple brought before you. You and your nobles and your wives and concubines have been drinking wine from them while praising gods of silver, gold, bronze, iron, wood, and stone—gods that neither see nor hear nor know anything at all. But you have not honored the God who gives you the breath of life and controls your destiny!
The writing was on the wall for the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar that fateful night when he mocked the true and living God.
Do you know that God has given you this day to live? Daniel the prophet tells us that God gives us the very breath of life to live each day. This is one of my favourite passages in the Bible and a text that always reminds me of my frailty and the graciousness of God to keep me alive, to give me life.
In some Church services it seems as if the worship leader’s job is to ignite and wind up the gathered people in the service. To somehow gee them up to worship and to come in reverence to the Lord God Almighty. This should never be required or occur in my opinion.
Like this coming Communion Sunday, we need to be extra reminded of the significance of the table of the Lord, which is a table of Thanksgiving. For this table is where we, who once were lost in our guilt and sin, can now legitimately come and take part in the breaking of the bread and drinking the cup of the new covenant.
Our society has become so pampered and selfish that people continually need to be molly coddled or they are unable to participate.
This Sunday when we gather as Christ’s Church, let us come knowing that our lungs are filling with the breath of life only because of God’s grace. That when we take part in Holy Communion, this is a glorious privilege that God has granted to us at a great price.
So, for all of us let it truly be a table of thanksgiving. Let us not need to be ‘pumped’ up falsely. Instead let us gather with humble joy and wonder that God has granted us mercy and not justice.
Take a breath and thank God!