Daniel 12 - the Long and Sleepless Night

Daniel 6
14. Hearing this, the king was very angry with himself for signing the law, and determined to save Daniel. He spent the rest of the day trying to think of some way to get Daniel out of this predicament.
15. In the evening the men came again to the king and said, "Your Majesty, there is nothing you can do. You signed the law and it cannot be changed."
16. So at last the king gave the order for Daniel's arrest, and he was taken to the den of lions. The king said to him, "May your God, whom you worship continually, deliver you." And then they threw him in.
17. A stone was brought and placed over the mouth of the den; and the king sealed it with his own signet ring, and that of his government, so that no one could rescue Daniel from the lions.
18. Then the king returned to his palace and went to bed without dinner. He refused his usual entertainment and didn't sleep all night.
LB

After a whole day of trying to find a legal loophole through which torescue Daniel, king Darius was finally forced to give the arrest order.

With a heavy heart he consigned Daniel to the lions and sealed the stoneover the mouth of the den with his own signet ring. This meant that noone - including Daniel's greatest ally, the king himself - couldrescue Daniel now.

But the king had one last word of hope for Daniel: that Daniel'sGod would Himself rescue Daniel.

Maybe the king thought that if he - the most powerful man on earth -could do nothing for Daniel, that Daniel's God did not stand much ofa chance either.
But since Daniel had risked his life and continued demonstrating hisfaith in this God despite the wily legislation, just maybe, hisGod was worth believing in.

Maybe this night of grief, helplessness and anxiety was the firstthe king had ever experienced. And maybe during the sleepless nightof fasting the king prayed to Daniel's God himself.

Are you in a situation where you feel helpless and anxious like king Darius?
This is the time to spend your sleepless nights confessing to theGod of Daniel - who is the God revealed in the Bible - that youneed to trust Him because all your human options have been exhausted.

The Lord Jesus said this about faith:
22. So Jesus answered and said to them, "Have faith in God.
23. "For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be removed and be cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will come to pass, he will have whatever he says.
24. "Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.
25. "And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.
26. "But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses."
(Mark 11 NKJV)

Prayer:
Father, in this time of helplessness and anxiety I turn my fullattention upon You.
All my human options have been exhausted and You are the only Onewho can bring a good outcome in this situation I face now.
I have always thought I was equal to anything life could throw at me,but I am totally stumped and I bow before You now and place myselfand my life in Your hands.
Teach me to trust You and not to be overcome by fear,
in Jesus' name,
Amen.