One section of this week’s Christian Science Bible Lesson on the subject “God” relates the biblical account of the prophet Daniel’s response to a decree which King Darius was manipulated into signing by those co-workers and subordinates of Daniel who couldn’t stand his goodness and sought his destruction.  The penalty for disobeying the royal decree—a decree which prevented anyone from petitioning any god or man other than the king for thirty days—was death.

What was Daniel’s response?  Did he cower and obey the command?  No!

Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house; and his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime. (Daniel 6:10)

Talk about spiritual courage and conviction!  He knew full-well that in doing so, his accusers would quickly rush upon him and force his execution, yet it didn’t dissuade him from doing what he knew was right—to continue to turn in prayer and gratitude to God.

As we probably all know, his understanding of the allness of God saved him from the literal jaws of death in the den of lions.  He knew he was innocent and could not be harmed by the beasts because he knew that God also held him innocent.  He knew how he had been living his life.

It led me to ask some questions:

• Are we each willing to take the same stand as Daniel did?
• Do we really recognize our inherent innocence as a child of God?
• Do we understand that God maintains all of His creation in that perfect innocence?
• Are we alert to the wiles of error as Daniel was?
• Do we see that there is no power that can oppose God and that we are always protected by the awareness of His Allness?
• And are we actively striving to live our lives accordingly and thereby prove and demonstrate each of these?

Now, you may be thinking “That’s quite a tall set of orders!”   And, yes, to mortal sense it certainly is, because mortal sense, or the carnal mind, is the accuser—the accuser that claims we aren’t innocent.  The accuser that claims we’re ill.  The accuser that reminds us of past failures.  The accuser that engenders fear or insists that we don’t know enough to be healed or to heal others.

The accuser that works to erode our confidence in the omnipresence and omnipotence of God.

But that requirement to live our lives according to God’s dictates, and according to how God knows and has already created us, is achievable by each and every one of us.

Mary Baker Eddy wrote in Science and Health (p. 233):

Every day makes its demands upon us for higher proofs rather than professions of Christian power. These proofs consist solely in the destruction of sin, sickness, and death by the power of Spirit, as Jesus destroyed them. This is an element of progress, and progress is the law of God, whose law demands of us only what we can certainly fulfil.

If we are striving to be alert and are faithfully applying our ongoing understanding of the truths of Christian Science—an understanding that comes directly from our Father-Mother God’s love for us—then we will see that progress fulfilled.  We will see and experience our innocence and freedom.

But we must take a stand.  What shall it be—Daniel’s or the accuser’s?