There’s this line tucked into the story of Daniel—
blink and you’ll miss it.
“But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself…”
(Daniel 1:8)
Resolved.
Set.
Convicted.
A spine of steel.
But then—
watch what he does with that conviction.
He doesn’t storm the palace.
He doesn’t protest and yell at the people walking by the palace gates.
He doesn’t post a rage-filled scroll-thread about Nebuchadnezzar.
He makes a request.
Let that sit for a moment.
He requested.
Because Daniel wasn’t rash.
He wasn’t reactive.
He wasn’t aggressive.
Daniel was
reasonable.
Approachable.
Peaceful.
He held conviction in one hand
and character in the other
and somehow managed not to crush anybody in between.
His purpose was influence.
To open doors, not slam them.
To build relationships so that when truth needed to be spoken
ears would be willing to hear it.
He shaped his approach carefully—
so communication stayed open,
so hearts weren’t pushed away from the truth
but drawn toward it.
Brilliant.
Have you noticed?
Some people get upset at everything.
The slightest inconvenience becomes a crisis.
The smallest disagreement becomes a battlefield.
And then—
when something truly important, truly moral, truly spiritual happens…
no one listens.
It all gets lumped in with the noise,
the yelling,
the conflict
in a world begging for peace.
For…
Conviction without character is chaos.
Conviction without wisdom is destructive.
The world doesn’t need louder Christians.
It needs calmer ones.
People who can carry truth
without dropping kindness.
So how do we become those people?
Here—
we follow Daniel and his three friends.
Daniel put on something before he ever opened his mouth.
This is the first step to standing for truth the right way.
What did he wrap himself in?
Peace.
A peace so central to the New Testament that Paul calls it
“a peace that passes understanding.”
A peace so cosmic that angels announced it over the Bethlehem fields:
“Peace on earth, good will to men.”
(Luke 2:14)
It’s the only way conviction becomes a healing force
rather than a harmful one.
A non-anxious presence.
A still center in a spinning world.
What if you and I are meant to be that “peace on earth”
that brings good will to humanity?
That’s how Daniel lived—
and because of it, he and his friends shined as the lights of God
in a world gone dark.
Our world is no different.
Jesus said,
“You are the light of the world.”
Lights don’t blend in.
They break in.
Daniel and his friends?
They didn’t shine because they tried to impress.
They shined because they were faithful—
to God,
to truth,
to who they had been formed to be by God.
They were:
wise,
thoughtful,
excellent,
faithful.
And maybe that’s exactly what the world needs now—
not loud Christians,
not angry Christians,
not performative Christians…
But excellent Christians.
Christians whose work is good
and whose hearts are good.
Balanced believers.
People whose lives whisper the gospel
long before their mouths say it.
This post is based on the sermon-” Immanuel Always”. See Farmington Baptist Church’s YouTube page for the full sermon. There are a few things in this post that were not covered in that sermon.
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