Continually

Often when I think of people who God used to change things, it's not so much that they did something, it was that they never stopped doing it!

Reading through Daniel, and his famous story about being thrown into the Lions Den because of his uncomprimise to worship something other than God, a word stood out to me that I never really saw before. Something that fits this thought quite well.

I wanted to go back to the original Hebrew to see if it was something the translators added for readability, or if it was a dedicated word in the Text, and indeed it was the latter.

תְּדִירָא

The Hebrew word (pronounced ted-ee-raw)

It occurs in both Daniel 6:16 and Daniel 6:20.

[16] Then the king commanded, and Daniel was brought and cast into the den of lions. The king declared to Daniel, “May your God, whom you serve continually, deliver you!” (ESV)

[20] As he came near to the den where Daniel was, he cried out in a tone of anguish. The king declared to Daniel, “O Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to deliver you from the lions?” (ESV)

תְּדִירָא ... continually ...

Daniel was not just seen as simply a follower of Yahweh, or as someone who stood up to this decree set to derail his faith. He was not someone who walked in with a message from time to time ... he was seen as someone who served God ... continually.

Many things we do build our faith; devotion, study, prayer. Many things show we are the hands and feet of Christ; serving, giving, loving. Many things we do as a body of Christ together; worship in community, serve our local church, help in the ministries. Yet as important as they are, there must be this sense of continuity in all aspects of our lives if we are to be disciples of Christ. The way we live, the way we work, the way we are as friends, the way we recreate, the way we speak, the way we think ...

May we strive to saturate our lives in the Truth of Christ so that we too, may be easily seen as not only a Christian by profession, but by observation in our daily walk on this earth.

Be well church.

His,

~Matt