²⁶ I issue a decree that in all my royal dominion, people must tremble in fear before the God of Daniel:

For he is the living God,
and he endures forever;
his kingdom will never be destroyed,
and his dominion has no end. (Daniel 6:26 CSB)

If you have not read Daniel, I greatly encourage you to do so. It is a wonderful chapter of the Bible and there are many stories of obedience and deliverance. Setting the stage for today’s scripture, King Darius at the urging of others had decreed that only he should be worshiped. Daniel remained faithful to God and worshiped Him only and was thrown into the lions den but came out alive. Darius then made the new decree above because he knew that Daniel’s God was God.

We will most likely never experience such a severe test of our faith or of God’s existence. However, our life can still exemplify the same level of commitment as Daniels. And through this others may come to know that our God is God. He is the Living God.

Thus, we need to well understand what God being the Living God means in our lives. I think too often we simply see God as this far away entity that sits and rules over everything, including our lives. But that is not what Jesus came and died for. It is not what being given the Holy Spirit represents. God the Father is a living God, a close God, a God for every moment, good and bad. He, through the Spirit, is at hand every moment of our lives.

If we were to see the heavenly realms all around us I expect we should be astounded. God is here and now, make no mistake.