Daniel is the current Beth Moore study I’m doing. I loved loved loved doing it during the presidential election last fall (yeah it takes me awhile to get through studies!). Nothing like a little perspective.
Anyway, two quotes are on my heart tonight. One from that study and the other from the Patriarchs. They are seamless, though…
“When we pass an orange orchard in Florida, we don’t exclaim, ‘Behold what great things those trees have done!’ They’re doing what they were created for. Your life and mine will be well lived and greatly influential if we simply ask God to empower us to do that for which we were created… Alexander the Great would have been greater had he seen himself smaller. No human being is wise or powerful enough to attain the swift feats of Alexander the Great. The sovereign God who “sets up kings and deposes them” (Dan 2:21) had an agenda. Among other things, God used Alexander the Great to ‘spread the Greek language and culture all over the world, an act that prepared the world for the gospel by giving it a common speech, Koine Greek, the language of the New Testament.'”
“God’s exaltation of a man is never for the man himself but rather to glorify God and to edify others. If God ever exalts one of His own with position, wealth, talents, gifts, or influence, His purpose is never – not ever – human exaltation. In fact, the exalted person would be the last one the exaltation was meant to serve. For him or her the exaltation would be a test and a profound trust over anything else. Mark this equation on the chalkboard of your brain:
Exaltation + Ego = Extravagant Humbling.”