Character Counts

“Now Daniel so distinguished himself among the administrators and the satraps by his exceptional qualities that the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom.” - Daniel 6:3


Yesterday, we talked about the powerful truth that the lion within you is stronger than the lions surrounding you. We see this in Daniel 6, where Daniel is thrown into the lion's den, yet he was completely unharmed. But what got Daniel thrown in the lion’s den in the first place?

Daniel 6:3 says, “Now Daniel so distinguished himself among the administrators and the satraps by his exceptional qualities that the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom.” So if Daniel had all these exceptional qualities, how could he possibly be thrown to the lions?

The following verse says, “the administrators and satraps tried to find grounds for charges against Daniel in his conduct of government affairs, but they were unable to do so. They could find no corruption in him because he was trustworthy and neither corrupt nor negligent.”

These individuals began to investigate him, examine him, and they concluded that there were no complaints, no faults, no grounds for any accusation that would stand in a court of law unless it was with his God. They rewrote the law that no one can pray unless it was to Darius.

Daniel’s character was unimpeachable. And character counts. Character is simply defined as who you are when nobody is watching. But I would like to add another dimension to that definition. It is who you are when everybody is watching. Who you are when nobody is watching and who you are when everybody is watching should be the same. Not one way here and one way there.

Daniel was a man who had character, and he understood that character counts. Do you? Have you asked yourself recently, “how’s my character?” It sounds crazy, but how often are we thinking about it? We think about our image, how our hair looks, what clothes we wear, and what shoes we put on. But what about the character under the clothes?

Are you the same person alone and around others? Are you the same person around your family that you are around your friends that you are around your spouse or children? Character counts. How’s your character?