Stuck Between a Rock and a Hard Place: How to be a Person of Integrity

In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord delivered Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, along with some of the articles from the temple of God. These he carried off to the temple of his god in Babylonia and put in the treasure house of his god. Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, chief of his court officials, to bring in some of the Israelites from the royal family and the nobility—young men without any physical defect, handsome, showing aptitude for every kind of learning, well informed, quick to understand, and qualified to serve in the king's palace. He was to teach them the language and literature of the Babylonians. The king assigned them a daily amount of food and wine from the king's table. They were to be trained for three years, and after that they were to enter the king's service. Daniel 1:1-5

1. He thought .

Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way. Daniel 1:8

2. He had studied the and he wanted what God wanted for his life.

3. He shared his publicly.    

4. Daniel trusted God even though nothing in his life was working out the way he thought it was going to work out.

"Please test your servants for ten days. Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink then compare our appearance with that of the young men who eat the royal food, and treat your servants in accordance with what you see." So he agreed to this and tested them for ten days. Daniel 1:12-14

In matters of wisdom and understanding about which the King questioned them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters in the whole kingdom. Daniel 1:20