Excellence comes from AMEN

So the governors and satraps sought to find some charge against Daniel concerning the kingdom; but they could find no charge or fault, because he was faithful. Daniel 6:4

Daniel is known as a man with a spirit of excellence. It is common to think of excellence as being perfect, being good in school, or achieving success at work, but that is from a worldly perspective; in Hebrew, the word excellence is yatîr, meaning preeminence, surpassing, and extraordinary.

Because of Daniel's faith in God, he has an excellent spirit due to the predominance of his faith over the flesh and the world. According to today's key verse, Daniel’s enemy couldn't find any fault in him because he was faithful, and it is interesting to note that the Hebrew word "faithful" is "aman", from where our "AMEN" originates, meaning “sure, so be it, and believe in God.”

Daniel's faith in God led to excellence, and he did the right things for God's glory.  For example,  Daniel didn’t compromise his standards, as one of the famous fasts is the Daniel fast, in which he refused to defy himself from eating the king's delicacies. He is also a man of prayer, and his daily routine of prayer caused his enemy to accuse him and throw him into the lion's den.  Thus, the Babylonians and foreign kings were so aware of Daniel's faith in God that they exalted Daniel and glorified God.

His deep faith in God has blessed him with understanding, knowledge, wisdom, but most importantly, David serves as an example by trusting and believing in God and not compromising his values. In a sense, excellence means believing in our mighty God and doing the right thing.

Next time when we utter an Amen, let's dare like Daniel to believe that God can shut the mouth of lions and He can accomplish impossible things.

Blessing prayer: May we have faith like Daniel and your spirit of excellence be upon us. Let us put you first and we won't compromise our values, trusting that we can do all things through Christ, in Jesus' name, Amen.