Courage… When you hear this word, you may think of a certain cowardly lion on a yellow brick road to find his own. In this well-read story, the cowardly lion wants to find the courage to be the king of the forest. The lion seeks the Wizard of Oz as his source of courage.

The Bible shares a story with us about lions and courage as well. We will find this story in the book of Daniel. Daniel is a man of faith and prayer. Daniel prays every day without fail and it is his faithfulness to prayer that brings him face to face with hungry lions. Daniel had prayed from the time he was young and one day he was faced with a consequence for his prayers, a brutal death in a lion’s den!

Daniel will not stop praying so he walks directly into the lion’s den. As Daniel enters the lion’s den, he needs all the courage in the world to face this moment. If you or I found ourselves thrown into a den of lions we would perhaps find that we need a better source of courage than we have ever sought in our lives.

There is no worry for Daniel as he has the greatest source of courage in all the world, far greater courage than a fictional wizard can provide for a cowardly lion. Daniel, through the practice of daily and genuine prayer, has reached a place of absolute dependence on the Lord God Almighty! This is the place a person steeped in prayer can reach, the place of True Courage, the place of Faith that God is who He says He is and that He will do what He says He will do!

When we have this faith produced by daily supplications before God, we begin to surrender all of who we are and everything we face to God’s will and Divine Hands! It is not possible then for us to fret and worry over the mouths of lions in our lives as we once would have. Instead of that worry and trembling fear we have within us a Divine Courage, produced not of our strength of will or character, but produced wholly and completely within the Heart of God poured out over us.

Let us now be the people who pray and pray without ceasing, that we may attain the courage and confidence of those who sleep peacefully in the Lion’s Den!

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Finding Faith is written by area pastors. This week’s column comes from Pastor Matt Kinley of First Church of Christ, Lock Haven.