Daniel 2:19 During the night the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision. Then Daniel praised the God of heaven.

Exactly as the king’s other astrologers had told him, (Daniel 2:10-11) no human intellect could have revealed what the king had dreamed, but the whole point of this story, and of the Bible, really, is that the universe isn’t limited to human intellect, and contrary to what the astrologers had said to the king, God indeed chooses to interact with those who love Him. Daniel knew that God was his only hope, and he also knew that was a strong hope indeed. When God answered his need his response was, very appropriately, to praise God. We tend to fall short on both sides of that issue. In the first place we tend not to trust God to be the answer to our problems, or at least not to give us the answer we need, and then when He does meet our needs, we are all too prone not to give Him the thanks and praise He deserves. Part of that comes from trying to dictate to Him how He should answer our need. Often we can’t imagine how God wants to meet our need, and so we don’t even recognize His answer when it comes. We also don’t distinguish very well between our needs and our wants, as is so often true with little children, and we accuse God of not meeting our needs when actually He is protecting us from things that would not be good for us. Because of that, we fail to thank and praise Him for all that He does, and we are the poorer for it.

I remember the relief it was when not so many years ago it really, finally, got through to me that God’s smart and I’m not. I was blessed with a high IQ and I’ve depended on and taken pride in that most of my life. Looking back, I can see that’s gotten me into trouble lots of times! I was quick to acknowledge that God was smarter than I was, but I still considered it something of a finite gap. How foolish, really. When “God’s smart and I’m not” got through to me it lifted a huge burden from me that I hadn’t realized I was carrying, of being responsible (so I thought) to come up with the solution to everything. That is actually the very definition of hubris! I am responsible as a steward for everything the Lord has placed in me, intellect included, but that doesn’t mean I’m the one in charge. I am given authority over that for which I am responsible, since God never separates responsibility and authority, but that operates properly only as I am in submission to God’s authority over me. The Roman Centurion had the understanding of authority and submission right. (Matthew 8:8-9)

Father, thank You for this reminder. Help me remember to seek You first in every situation, and to recognize and cooperate with Your solutions when they are revealed. Help me not be anxious about Your timing, either, but wait expectantly on You so that You may replace my strength with Yours, for Your glory. (Isaiah 40:31) Thank You. Praise God!