“God works.” Jack McMaster
When my dad made this statement, he was implying two things:
- God is always at work for His purpose and your good.
- Living in obedience to God produces the best results.
This week’s episode builds on Monday’s article, part five in the series titled “Without Compromise.” Here is the transcript of the podcast:
Have you struggled with compromise or conformity? That’s the ongoing question we are talking about in this series. Today’s discussion is the seventh in the series, and all of them are based on a study of Daniel chapter 1 and correspond to the articles posted each week on the Leadership Ezra website. The big idea we are discussing is how you can navigate pressure without deviating from your values – specifically, the pressure to compromise or conform in an unhealthy or immoral way. It’s really a discussion of how to lead and live with excellence without compromising your faith. And today, that begins by trusting God with the outcomes.
In the matching article to this podcast on the Leadership Ezra website this week, I talked about an experience in my ministry of Christian Education that put me in the position of having to decide whether or not I was going to trust God with the outcome of that experience. If you want to get the full story of what happened that led to what I’m about to talk about, you’ll need to read the website article. But here’s where I left off. I went home that day and told my family that my position had been eliminated and that it would end in 28 days. But then, with a smile on my face, I told them that God had a perfect plan for us that we could trust. I said that He was doing this for a reason, and therefore, we could fully trust Him and didn’t need to have any anxiety. We prayed together as a family and committed to having peace and confidence in what He would do.
The next day (on a Wednesday), I prayed, and then I updated my resume and began to look for places to apply. By Thursday afternoon, I had copies of my resume ready to go and in envelopes, with about a dozen different places to send them. We prayed over them, put them in the mail, and consciously determined to trust God with the outcome, choosing not to have any anxiety.
The next day, my daughter came downstairs and told us that she had been praying and that God had impressed on her that I would be getting a phone call the following week on Tuesday and would have an interview on Wednesday. We assured her that God could do that, but that even if He didn’t, we would still trust Him. She was adamant that that’s what God had told her He would do. The next Tuesday morning, as she left for work, all she said was, “Text me when you get a call.” I left right after her for work, and when I sat down in my office, almost immediately the phone rang. You guessed it. It was a phone call from a school in another state, and I had an hour-long conversation with someone who finished the call by asking me if could do a conference call interview with their search committee the next day. My daughter’s response when I told her was simply, “I told ya!” The end result was that literally 3 weeks later, we unloaded a moving truck in a different state, starting a new job at a new school. I didn’t know until after the fact that my resume landing on their desk was just as much a miracle of God’s timing for them as it was for me. We were to learn over the next couple of years that there were clear reasons why God had uprooted and moved us so quickly, but that wouldn’t have happened the same way if we hadn’t been committed to fully trusting Him for the outcomes and then responding accordingly.
That’s the same mindset that Daniel and his friends exhibited in Daniel chapter 1. They were uprooted from their homes and families, against their will, and taken to a place that was unfamiliar, lonely, and possibly antagonistic to their own culture and faith. Yet they chose to have an attitude of complete trust in what God was doing. In their case, they refused to compromise their faith by adhering to their dietary laws and trusted that God would still keep them healthy. They refused to bow to an idol of the king even when the consequence was a fiery furnace. And years later, Daniel refused to cease praying to God even when the consequence was a lion’s den. In all of those cases, they trusted God for the outcome, regardless of what the outcome might be. They knew that God had the best plan in mind for them, and they trusted wholeheartedly.
What this teaches us is the importance of trusting God for the right outcome in our own circumstances. The hard part is often trusting Him even when the outcome might be different than what we anticipated or wanted. But if you and I believe that God is real and that the Bible is true, then we can completely trust what God is doing. That means, therefore, leaving the outcome in His hands because He has a purpose that He intends to accomplish for His benefit and for ours. We still need to act, doing what is right, and intentionally planning and moving wisely toward the goal and purpose in front of us, but all while keeping in mind that God – not us – is in control of the outcome and end result.
So, when you face circumstances that are frightening, unknown, or unexpected, Daniel has modeled for us how to lean into God, and how to be confident that He is going to do what is best. Knowing that, we can trust Him for the outcome. That doesn’t mean that we stop doing the right things. In fact, the outcome God brings about is typically directly tied to how we are living in obedience to Him, so what we really need to do is to first obey God without compromising and then trust Him for the outcome.
The bottom line is God has a purpose with you in mind, so you can trust Him for the outcome and let go of the anxiety in the circumstances. I also think it’s a lot easier to do this if you take some time and make an “altar” list – a list of personal experiences where God has worked in an unexpected way, as touchstones to strengthen your confidence in God, to serve as your constant reminder that you can trust God with the outcomes. Learn to see and trust His hand at work in your life.
When I started a personal Bible study on the book of Ezra several years ago, I wasn’t expecting that I would turn my own study notes into a book about leadership, but that’s what happened (Leadership Ezra, available on Amazon). When that was done, I started a study of Daniel, and never made it past the first chapter before organizing my personal notes into a series of valuable lessons to share with students. As time has gone on, God seems to be prompting me to do more with it, so I have begun the process of turning my notes into short articles, that will then become the basis for chapters in a book (current working title: “Without Compromise: Leading with integrity in the face of pressure”).
The underlying basis of the story is this: In the time and world of Daniel, Israel and the capital city of Jerusalem were invaded and captured. In that process, the most gifted and talented young men were given a “scholarship” [albeit, against their will] to attend the most elite private school in the known world, one designed to prepare leaders & experts (Daniel 1:3). Upon graduation, Daniel and his friends were at the top of the class and were hired into executive leadership positions right out of school (Daniel 1:17-20). But here’s an incredibly significant observation: In between . . . they refused to compromise their faith, values, and integrity.
How did they do it? One way was by trusting God with the outcomes.
My calling has been to serve in Christian ministry, and specifically in Christian Schools. More pointedly, God called me to serve Christian schools that were broken, hurting, dysfunctional, or underperforming in some way, to be used by Him to help restore these schools to environments that honored God and performed with excellence. In one of those schools, I served as the secondary principal during the economic struggle and housing market collapse around 2006 and 2007. This school was in Florida, which was hit particularly hard by this crisis. One of the results was that the enrollment of this school dropped from about 900 students to about 550 students in a little over 2 years. Near the end of my last year at that school, my boss assured me that my job was safe even with the enrollment decline, so I continued on with the normal end-of-year activities, including chaperoning the senior trip. However, on my first day back into the office after the trip (and also right after the graduation weekend) he called me into his office to tell me my position had been eliminated, and my job would end in 3 ½ weeks. At that moment, I was confronted with the opportunity to decide how I would respond. I could panic, or I could lean into God and place the outcomes of the next few weeks into His hands. In full transparency, my typical response would be to panic about my ability to take care of my family, but in this instance, I suddenly felt the peace of God as He brought to my memory Proverbs 16:9, “A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.” I decided almost immediately that I believed in God and His Word and, therefore, could trust that He was directing my steps. So, instead of turning to fear, I smiled, looked at my boss, and said, “Thank you, I know that this means that God has something even better for me, and I am trusting His provision for my family.”
I think that’s the mindset we see in Daniel, in chapter 1, verses 14-16, which say, “14 So he . . . tested them ten days. 15 And at the end of ten days their features appeared better and fatter in flesh than all the young men who ate the portion of the king’s delicacies. 16 Thus the steward took away their portion of delicacies and the wine that they were to drink, and gave them vegetables.” What we see is that Daniel and his friends had negotiated a 10-day trial with their boss in a group experiment. (It’s important to note here that by doing it as a group, so they were able to keep each other accountable and provide support, strength, and encouragement for one another.) In this experiment, they were willing to place the outcome in God’s hands and let objective measurable results indicate the future course, trusting those results to God. At the end of the 10 days, they measured the data (appearance and weight), and the data supported Daniel’s request. Daniel had maintained his faith, trusted God, found a rational, reasonable, and gracious way to pursue a solution, and God responded in a way that fulfilled His purpose.
This makes me wonder, was the outcome supernatural or simply the product of a healthy diet? They were eating healthier foods and ended up looking and feeling healthier (therefore likely a correlation to their diet). However, the speed and magnitude of the change in appearance were completely unnatural and hard to believe (therefore likely affected by God to honor their faithfulness and protect His name). My conclusion is that it was both. As He usually does, a sovereign God used a natural process (and magnified it) to accomplish His purpose). Regardless, Daniel and his friends were willing to trust God with the outcome: they were not trusting in their particular strategy or in the outcome they were expecting to see; rather they were trusting in God.
The end result of my own personal experience of trusting God with the outcome when the future was unknown was that God provided in an incredible, clearly God-caused, and perfect way to meet our needs and move us to the next step that He had for the life of our family (that’s a story for another time, perhaps on the podcast that will along with this article). But that’s what God does, He uses our circumstances to bring about the result that brings Him glory and furthers the Kingdom.
That leads to my questions for you: whether it is life outcomes or project/task outcomes, how are you navigating these things as part of your faith? Are you willing and able to trust God with the outcomes even if it’s not what you wanted? Do you see God’s hand involved in the process and the purpose when you are tested? My encouragement for you would be to take some time and make an “altar” list – a list of personal experiences where God has worked in an unexpected way, as touchstones to strengthen your confidence in God, to serve as your constant reminder that you can trust God with the outcomes.
The Lesson of Outcomes, therefore, is that God is involved and active in your life, even in the midst of trials and challenges. You need to learn to see and trust His hand in the process and in the outcome.
This week’s episode builds on Monday’s article, part five in the series titled “Without Compromise.” Here is the transcript of the podcast:
Have you struggled with compromise or conformity? That’s the ongoing question we are talking about in this series. Today’s discussion is the fifth in the series, and all of them are based on a study of Daniel chapter 1 and correspond to the articles posted each week on the Leadership Ezra website. The big idea we will be discussing is how you can navigate pressure without deviating from your values – specifically, the pressure to compromise or conform in an unhealthy or immoral way. It’s really going to be a discussion of how to lead and live with excellence without compromising your faith. And today, that begins by cultivating healthy relationships.
I want to share two different stories today because they help paint a picture of the two kinds of relationships we’re talking about. The first story happened during and after high school. I had a classmate that I was friends with by virtue of the fact that we were on the same team, Track & Field, and competed together in the same event. He was not a follower of Jesus, and I was, and some of his behavior choices were very different than mine. I tried to be intentionally public about my faith and my choices, but I also tried to maintain a positive relationship with him. That meant that I didn’t act the same way he did, but I also wasn’t harshly critical or condemning. Instead, I treated him with love and grace. A couple of years later, I made a trip home from college to visit my family, and he called me. He had recently learned that his mom had cancer, and that had shaken him. He remembered the demonstration of my faith and reached out to me to talk about what was happening. I don’t believe that would have happened if I hadn’t established the kind of relationship in the first place that made him want to do that.
The second story happened when we were still fairly young, with infant and toddler-aged children. My wife had a health crisis that resulted in several hospitalizations, lots of testing, deteriorating health, and no answers (it would be another 15 years before a doctor discovered a slow-growing uncommon cancer in her endocrine system that was likely the cause of all that had been happening). In that season, there was a group of friends who were part of our church and who worked with us together at the Christian school where we were employed, who stepped into our lives to help us get through. They helped with childcare, meals, doctor visits, and spiritual and emotional support. The circle of relationships we had established helped carry us through a very difficult time. There is a verse in Proverbs that says, “A neighbor nearby is better than a brother far away,” and this was a demonstration of that verse in our lives.
Broadly speaking, I believe there are two circles of relationships in our lives that are important. One is what I would call our inner circle. Those are the people who share our faith and values, which the New Testament calls our brothers and sisters in Christ. They are the ones who can walk alongside us in our faith journey, providing encouragement, support, and accountability (just as we do for them). The other is what I would call our outer circle. Those are the people who intersect with our lives, but who do not share our faith. They may be co-workers, neighbors, classmates, or anyone else we interact with regularly and on whom we can have some impact. They are the ones who give us the opportunity to be a testimony of Jesus to open the door for sharing the Gospel with what we say and with how we live. With these people, we win the right to share Jesus with what we say when we have modeled Jesus to them with how we live.
In both cases, the support and the impact happen because there is relationship that has been established first. Daniel showed us both of these in Daniel 1. He had 3 friends – Shadrack, Meshack, and Abednego – who were with him in his journey. Their support and accountability of each other helped them to stay strong in the midst of the pressure they were facing. He also built a positive relationship with his boss, who was not a follower of Daniel’s God and interacted in a way that maintained that relationship even when there was tension and conflict. That relationship ended up allowing him the freedom and flexibility to protect his convictions. I want to make sure I point out here that Daniel was never condescending or antagonistic in this relationship, much like what I see in the communication on social media today that comes out of the mouths of people who say they are believers, which I believe damages the opportunity for the impact of the Gospel.
C
Here’s what you need to take away: It is important that you intentionally build and maintain relationships with like-minded followers of Jesus, so that you have support and accountability as you navigate the pressures of life. It is also important that you intentionally cultivate healthy relationships with people around you who are not followers of Jesus. This does two things. It gives you the opportunity to impact them toward Jesus, and it gives you the support to stick to your values even if they may not hold those same values. Both of these groups of relationships are important for us, and for the message of Jesus.
The bottom line, therefore, is that you need to build and maintain healthy relationships in both circles. Years ago, I had a pastor preach a message in which the core idea, one that was frequently repeated throughout the message, was that “People matter to God.” All people matter to God. So the lesson for you is this: Relationships matter, and they open the door to impact. Therefore, seek and build positive relationships among those who follow Jesus and those who don’t, and be gentle, loving, compassionate, and considerate to all.
When I started a personal Bible study on the book of Ezra several years ago, I wasn’t expecting that I would turn my own study notes into a book about leadership, but that’s what happened (Leadership Ezra, available on Amazon). When that was done, I started a study of Daniel, and never made it past the first chapter before organizing my personal notes into a series of valuable lessons to share with students. As time has gone on, God seems to be prompting me to do more with it, so I have begun the process of turning my notes into short articles, that will then become the basis for chapters in a book (current working title: “Without Compromise: Leading with integrity in the face of pressure”).
The underlying basis of the story is this: In the time and world of Daniel, Israel and the capital city of Jerusalem were invaded and captured. In that process, the most gifted and talented young men were given a “scholarship” [albeit, against their will] to attend the most elite private school in the known world, one designed to prepare leaders & experts (Daniel 1:3). Upon graduation, Daniel and his friends were at the top of the class and were hired into executive leadership positions right out of school (Daniel 1:17-20). But here’s an incredibly significant observation: In between . . . they refused to compromise their faith, values, and integrity.
How did they do it? One way was by cultivating healthy relationships.
We see this in Daniel 1, verses 8-14 which describe the circles of relationship that Daniel had formed, when it says, “. . . therefore he requested of the chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. 9 Now God had brought Daniel into the favor and goodwill of the chief of the eunuchs. 10 And the chief of the eunuchs said to Daniel, “I fear my lord the king, who has appointed your food and drink. For why should he see your faces looking worse than the young men who are your age? Then you would endanger my head before the king.”11 So Daniel said to the steward whom the chief of the eunuchs had set over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, 12 “Please test your servants for ten days, and let them give us vegetables to eat and water to drink. 13 Then let our appearance be examined before you, and the appearance of the young men who eat the portion of the king’s delicacies; and as you see fit, so deal with your servants.” 14 So he consented with them in this matter . . .”
The reason why I talk about his circles of relationships as plural (“circles”, not “circle”) is that I think Daniel shows us two circles: the inner circle, or those with whom he has a shared faith, which the New Testament would call our brothers and sisters in Christ; then there is the outer circle, or those who do not share his faith. Daniel’s inner circle was made up of his three Jewish friends who were also captured with him and in the same program. We see them referenced together in a couple of different places in this chapter. His outer circle involved his work relationships, specifically the one he established with his “boss.”
What we learn about his circle of friends is that he had a personal “small group,” and therefore was not navigating his life challenges on his own. What we learn about his outer circle is that Daniel built a good relationship with his boss even though his boss wasn’t a “Christian.” He knew that he (Daniel) represented God, and so he reflected that truth in the way he acted toward his boss. Therefore, in this circumstance (asking for a different menu plan), he approached his boss with kindness, not contention. When his boss denied the request (after all, the boss was protecting his own job), Daniel responded in a way that pushed back while still preserving the relationship and respecting his boss’s authority. Going about it this way allowed him to model his faith and “prove” God. What was also important in this was the fact that he had his inner circle of relationships, a community of believers around him in the process.
We need to understand that relationships matter (because people matter to God, as I heard my Pastor say in a sermon message repeatedly many years ago). If you are going to be a reflection of Jesus to the world, then it is important that you build relationships with the people around you and that, at the same time, you carry your faith in a gentle and loving way, with compassion and consideration toward others. Be intentional about seeking and building positive relationships. And you need to do that within both of your circles:
- Your inner circle: the people you would call brothers and sisters in Christ, who you need for support, accountability, encouragement, and spiritual unity. This is so important, in fact, that Scripture tells us in 1 John 4 that you can’t say you love God if you don’t love your brother.
- Your outer circle: the people that you come in contact with who are not followers of Jesus but who are probably paying attention to your faith and can be impacted by it. It is vital to remember that these people will most likely judge your faith by how you treat them.
So, then, are you building the right kind of relationships with other Christians? Are you being relational with people who don’t know Jesus? Like many of the characteristics of faith, those two things don’t happen by accident! They happen by making sure that you always have a community of believers who make you better, and that you are consistently engaging with unbelievers, always in a loving way. The lesson for you is this: Relationships matter, and they open the door to impact. Therefore, seek and build positive relationships among believers, and be gentle, loving, compassionate, and considerate to all.
This week’s episode builds on Monday’s article, part five in the series titled “Without Compromise.” Here is the transcript of the podcast:
Have you struggled with compromise or conformity? That’s the ongoing question we are talking about in this series. Today’s discussion is the fourth in the series, all of them based on a study of Daniel chapter 1 and corresponding to the articles posted each week on the Leadership Ezra website. The big idea we will be discussing is how you can navigate pressure – specifically, the pressure to compromise or conform in an unhealthy or immoral way – without deviating from your values. It’s really going to be a discussion of how to lead and live with excellence without compromising your faith. And today, that begins with matching your beliefs and your behavior.
When my children were young, somewhere in their early elementary years, I was involved in a very minor accident when I was driving them to school one morning. I had pulled out of our neighborhood and onto the main road, which had a large intersection and a streetlight on the corner of our neighborhood community. The light was red, so I pulled up to my place in the line of cars, in the middle lane behind another, and with cars on either side of me. As I was sitting and waiting at the light, I glanced in my rearview mirror, and I could see a minivan approaching from behind me, and it did not appear to be slowing down. I could see in the mirror that the driver of the vehicle was looking at something in her hand, and not at the road, so she wasn’t seeing the collision she was about to cause. In that moment of time, I knew I couldn’t move out of the way because of the cars around me. I could see my kids in their car seats sitting behind me with no awareness of what was about to happen. I remember thinking that I needed to not react before the accident happened, otherwise the kids might tense up, which could lead to more injury. And then the lady looked up, and I could see the panic on her face as she slammed on her breaks and screeched to a stop, enough that when she did hit the back of my car, it was only a slight bump. That’s when the kids jumped and asked if we had been hit by a car.
At that point, a very specific thought flashed through my mind, and it was this: “My children will learn something important by how they see me respond or react right now, and they watch me to see if I really believe what I tell them when I talk to them about how important it is to treat each other with the love of Jesus, regardless of how the other person may have wronged them.” Honestly, that was my first thought. Therefore, I chose the words that came out of my mouth with intention, and I said, “Kids, somebody bumped into our car because she wasn’t paying attention, so she must be having some really hard things going on in her life. While I get out and check the car, why don’t you pray for her?”
The opportunity I had in front of my kids at that moment was the opportunity to reflect integrity, and my response didn’t happen by accident in spite of circumstances being caused by an accident. I believe integrity is best described as consistent wholeness between what you say you believe, and what you do, and that is something you choose to do on purpose. That’s what Daniel demonstrated in Chapter 1, v. 8, which tells us that he “purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself.” In this situation, he knew what he believed, and made a conscious decision and commitment to ensure that the next actions he would demonstrate would match with what he knew he believed to be true. He determined to show behavior that would be consistent with his beliefs.
What we need to understand is that people will judge our character – and specifically, our integrity – by how we live out our convictions and our stated values. I once shared the Gospel of Jesus Christ with a successful businessman who was a moral person, both with his business and with his family, but not a Christian. When I pressed, he responded by telling me he knew a lot of people in the business world who said they were Christians and that he was more moral than they were, so why would he want what they were offering? A lack of integrity on their part impacted his willingness to hear the message.
Here’s what you need to take away: It doesn’t matter whether you think someone can see you or not. Integrity is a character trait, and therefore, if it is part of your character, it will be exhibited no matter who is or is not watching. If you don’t have integrity when no one sees, you won’t have integrity when people are watching, either. So forget about whether or not anyone will see. Instead, like Daniel, purpose in your heart not to defile yourself. Make the conscious and intentional choice to act in obedience to God and His Word, with a visible consistency between what you say you believe and how you act in any circumstance. Choose to live with integrity.
The bottom line is that your ability to refuse to compromise in the face of pressure is directly tied to your commitment to consistently match your behavior with your beliefs. It doesn’t happen by accident
When I started a personal Bible study on the book of Ezra several years ago, I wasn’t expecting that I would turn my own study notes into a book about leadership, but that’s what happened (Leadership Ezra, available on Amazon). When that was done, I started a study of Daniel, and never made it past the first chapter before organizing my personal notes into a series of valuable lessons to share with students. As time has gone on, God seems to be prompting me to do more with it, so I have begun the process of turning my notes into short articles that will then become the basis for chapters in a book (current working title: “Without Compromise: Leading with integrity in the face of pressure”).
The story’s underlying basis is this: In the time and world of Daniel, Israel and the capital city of Jerusalem were invaded and captured. In that process, the most gifted and talented young men were given a “scholarship” [albeit against their will] to attend the most elite private school in the known world, one designed to prepare leaders & experts (Daniel 1:3). Upon graduation, Daniel and his friends were at the top of the class and were hired into executive leadership positions right out of school (Daniel 1:17-20). But here’s an incredibly significant observation: In between . . . they refused to compromise their faith, values, and integrity.
How did they do it? One way was by consistently matching their behavior with their beliefs while consciously refusing to give in to the pressure.
We see this in Daniel 1, verses 5 and 8, which say, “And the king appointed for them a daily provision of the king’s delicacies and of the wine which he drank, and three years of training for them, so that at the end of that time they might serve before the king. . . . But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank; therefore he requested of the chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.”
Daniel and his friends, as part of their intensive preparation for their future careers, were placed on a specific regimen of classes, activity, and meals. However, when they saw what was on the menu, they tried to opt out of the meal plan. The issue wasn’t really that it was expensive and rich food (in fact, the New Testament indicates that any food is acceptable, as is recorded in Peter’s vision in Acts). Rather, Daniel and his friends knew that the law they had received from God at that point in time had specific dietary instructions, so even if they didn’t understand why, they trusted God and were committed to obeying His Word. They knew that, even if no one else saw it, they needed to live consistently with who they were as Jews, therefore they were unwilling to compromise. But they did it with gentleness and kindness, not with harsh conflict and confrontation (he didn’t demand, he requested, and later in this same passage we learn that Daniel even built a positive relationship with his boss, not a judgmental, antagonistic, or condescending one).
The next question I ask, though, is why it really mattered, if they were in another culture where it was normal to eat those foods and no one from home would know what they were doing? Since we know from the New Testament that following the law doesn’t save us, and we know they were in a place where they could be “anonymous,” then why did it matter? I believe it mattered for three reasons that are transferrable to our own circumstances:
- They were maintaining their commitment to their Identity in Christ in a world that was trying to reshape their identity;
- They were maintaining their commitment to God in the face of pressure, even when compromise seemed like no big deal (or could even win them favor with the world); and
- They were maintaining their commitment to obedience to God’s Word regardless of how it made them look.
What we learn from this is the understanding that living our faith in the world requires a commitment to consistently match our behavior (or conduct) with our beliefs (or convictions), with the refusal to compromise regardless of the pressure. And this is the essence of integrity. For us to live this way requires some things from you and me. It requires a confidence in who God is and what He says, a commitment to Him and to His Word, a predetermined plan of response to pressure, a conscious choice to act in obedience to God and His Word, a visible consistency between what you say you believe and how you act in any circumstance, and all while living your faith in a loving way that reflects both compassion and character, tempering truth with love.
My personal question for you is, can the people around you see that this is true in you? Are you consistently matching your behavior with your beliefs, with the refusal to compromise regardless of the pressure? This doesn’t happen on accident. It happens when you, like Daniel, fully trust God and His Word, purpose in your heart to not defile yourself, act consistently with that purpose regardless of the pressure, perception, or outcome, and do it in a way that balances truth and love. That’s the lesson of integrity.