Faith Over Chaos

I sat down to read the Word today — Daniel 1, to be exact. My husband and I are studying Daniel together because apparently we’ve decided to be that couple. And honestly, if you want your marriage to last longer than a carton of milk, try enjoying the Word of God together. Consider that your free marriage tip of the day. You didn’t ask for it, but here we are.

Anyway, we were reading Daniel 1 and talking it through, and one thing kept coming up: every verse, every chapter, every book… there’s always something you can apply to your actual life. Not your imaginary “I’m totally put together” life — your real one. The one with laundry piles, unanswered texts, and that one person who tests your sanctification on a weekly basis.

So what does “application” even mean? It’s simply looking at what God is showing us — or what the people in the story say or do — and asking, “Okay Lord, how does this land in my world today?” It’s taking the beautiful ancient text and letting it poke around in your modern chaos.

So let’s talk about how Daniel 1 actually applies to my life — and yours, if you’re brave enough to let Scripture meddle in your business. Quick recap, even though I’m positive you’ve read it (insert dramatic winky face). Daniel 1 opens with the beginning of the exile, when King Nebuchadnezzar rolled into Judah, conquered the place, and hauled off a bunch of young teenagers to Babylon. Among them were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah — basically the honor-roll kids of ancient Israel.

Because they were “youths without blemish, of good appearance” (verse 4, NIV), they were handpicked for Babylon’s elite training program. Think of it as the Ivy League of pagan culture: new customs, new worldview, new language, new everything. Babylon was ready to shape them, polish them, and turn them into something completely different.

Those boys, however, had a different plan. Not a rebellious plan — not the “slam your bedroom door because your mom made you wear church clothes to Aunt Sally’s birthday instead of hanging with your friends” kind of teenage attitude. No, their posture was way more grounded than that. They chose to honor the one true God, even in a place designed to strip that identity away. They refused to defile themselves with the king’s pagan menu, and instead they respectfully told their captors, “Yeah… we can’t eat that. But give us a minute, and let me show you what our God can do.”

Okay, yes, that’s my paraphrase — but you get the idea.

Now imagine any teenager you know today. Go ahead — picture them. Do you honestly think they’d respond like Daniel and his friends if they were hauled off to a foreign land? Let’s be real: half of them act like a national tragedy has occurred when you take away their phone for ten minutes. The wailing. The despair. The “you’ve ruined my life” monologue. But that’s a conversation for another day.

I’m not talking about them. I’m talking about me.

Would I compromise? Would I do whatever my captors told me just to avoid discomfort, torture, or death? This is where the application hits — not in the hypothetical teenager meltdown, but in the quiet, uncomfortable question: Would I be brave and faithful like those teenage boys? And if I’m not sure I would, then how can I be faithful today, in the ordinary moments, so that faithfulness becomes my reflex and not just my wish.

We can just leave it right there. Sometimes the answer isn’t a sentence, a monologue, or a full-blown soapbox moment. Sometimes the real “application” is simply getting up from your Bible and actually walking in the truth you just read. Revolutionary, I know.

I will be faithful today in the things I already know God is asking of me. And that might look different for each of us. My last blog post was all about seeking Him daily, and maybe — just maybe — that’s the exact faithfulness He’s nudging you toward right now.

So I’ll wrap this up, because that last little jab of conviction probably has you thinking, “Okay fine, yes, I do need to be faithful. Let me crack open that beautiful ancient text and see what God has for me today.”

Enjoy your application today. Go live it out.

Helping you find peace in the garden again— where application can flourish even in your personal Babylon.

Before you go, tell me this: what was the last thing you read in the Bible, and how did you apply it? Drop it in the comments — I love seeing how the Word shows up in real lives.