May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13.

You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You. Isaiah 26:3 NKJV.

And in our chapter, Daniel 2, Nebuchadnezzar had a dream so troubling he called together his magicians, enchanters, sorcerers and astrologers and told them they must tell him what he dreamed and then interpret it. Upon pain of death should they not be able. And the astrologers rightly answered the king, “There is no one on earth who can do what the king asks! No king, however great and mighty, has ever asked such a thing of any magician or enchanter or astrologer. What the king asks is too difficult. No one can reveal it to the king except the gods, and they do not live among humans.” v. 1-11. This made the king so angry that he ordered the death of all the wise men of Babylon. The commander of the king’s guard, Arioch, spoke with Daniel and explained what happened. At this, Daniel went in to the king and asked for time, so that he might interpret the dream for him. Then Daniel returned to his house and explained the matter to his friends Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. He urged them to plead for mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery, so that he and his friends might not be executed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. v. 16-18. Imagine being Daniel and his friends, or any of the wise men of Babylon. And during the night, God revealed to Daniel the dream and its interpretation. And Daniel praised God! “Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever; wisdom and power are His. He changes times and seasons; He deposes kings and raises up others. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning. He reveals deep and hidden things; He knows what lies in darkness, and light dwells with Him. I thank and praise You, God of my ancestors: You have given me wisdom and power, You have made known to me what we asked of You, You have made known to us the dream of the king.” v. 20-23. And Daniel told Arioch to take him to the king. The king asked Daniel if he was able to tell him what he saw and interpret it. And Daniel witnessed for the God of heaven that Nebuchadnezzar did not know. Daniel replied, “No wise man, enchanter, magician or diviner can explain to the king the mystery he has asked about, but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries. He has shown King Nebuchadnezzar what will happen in days to come. Your dream and the visions that passed through your mind as you were lying in bed are these: As your Majesty was lying there, your mind turned to things to come, and the revealer of mysteries showed you what is going to happen. As for me, this mystery has been revealed to me, not because I have greater wisdom than anyone else alive, but so that your Majesty may know the interpretation and that you may understand what went through your mind. Your Majesty looked, and there before you stood a large statue – an enormous, dazzling statue, awesome in appearance. The head of the statue was made of pure gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly iron and partly of baked clay. While you were watching, a rock was cut out, but not by human hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashed them. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were all broken to pieces and became like chaff on a threshing floor in the summer. The wind swept them away without leaving a trace. But the rock that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth. This was the dream, and now we will interpret it to the king. Your Majesty, you are the king of kings. The God of heaven has given you dominion and power and might and glory; in your hands He has placed all mankind and the beasts of the field and the birds in the sky. Wherever they live, He has made you ruler over them all. You are that head of gold. After you, another kingdom will arise, inferior to yours. Next, a third kingdom, one of bronze, will rule over the whole earth. Finally, there will be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron – for iron breaks and smashes everything – and as iron breaks things to pieces, so it will crush and break all the others. Just as you saw that the feet and toes were partly of baked clay and partly of iron, so this will be a divided kingdom; yet it will have some of the strength of iron in it, even as you saw iron mixed with clay. As the toes were partly iron and partly clay, so this kingdom will be partly strong and partly brittle. And just as you saw the iron mixed with baked clay, so the people will be a mixture and will not remain united, any more than iron mixes with clay. In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever. This is the meaning of the vision of the rock cut out of a mountain, but not by human hands – a rock that broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold to pieces. The great God has shown the king what will take place in the future. The dream and its interpretation is trustworthy.” v. 27-45. Reading this I couldn’t help but think of the people still left in Judah trying so hard to not obey God as He directed them to go into captivity. They couldn’t have known the amazing and awesome plans God has for all of us as they resisted God. Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell prostrate before Daniel and paid him honor and ordered that an offering and incense be presented to him. The king said to Daniel, “Surely your God is the God of gods and the Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries, for you were able to reveal this mystery.” v. 46-47. And Daniel and the friends who prayed with him whom Daniel credited to the king, were given high positions; Daniel as ruler over the entire province of Babylon in charge of all wise men, and Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah became administrators over the province of Babylon, v. 48-49.

Daniel and his friends are a testament to what faithfulness to Creator God – Father, Son, Spirit, looks like. They trusted God completely and prayed to Him for the help only He in His wisdom can provide. And they prayed to God because they knew He heard them. Their relationship of trust helped them draw near to God and pray. They trusted God completely for the outcome.