📅 14 December 2025

🛡️ Daniel – Strong in Faith. Faithful in the Fire
Devotions from the life of a young man of conviction

🪪 15.God Knows Your Name – Calling Begins with Identity
Why you need to know who you are before you know what you are meant to do

📖 Daily Verse

“And Daniel resolved in his heart …”
– Daniel 1:8a

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✨ Introduction: Who You Are Is More Important Than What You Do

Many people spend their lives trying to figure out what they should do. They ask about calling, meaning, and purpose. But before these questions can be answered, another, deeper question must be faced: Who am I really? Identity is the foundation on which every decision rests. Without this foundation, even the best plan becomes unstable.

Daniel is at the very beginning of his life journey when he is taken into exile in Babylon. He is young, inexperienced, and torn away from everything familiar. Yet something within him is firm. His stability does not come from his circumstances, but from an inner certainty of whom he belongs to.

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🛤️ Devotion – Identity in a Foreign World

When Daniel arrives in Babylonian exile, nothing is the same as before. Language, culture, values, and religious beliefs differ fundamentally from what he knew in Jerusalem. Babylon does not merely try to educate him—it seeks to reprogram him. He is given a new education, a new environment, and even a new name. Daniel, whose name confesses that God is his judge, becomes Belteshazzar, a name that honors a pagan god.

This change of name is no coincidence. It is an attempt to redefine Daniel’s identity. Yet although Daniel bears a new name outwardly, inwardly he remains the same. He refuses to be separated from his roots or detached from his God. His identity is more deeply rooted than any external change.

This becomes clear early on. Even before Daniel performs great deeds or receives visions, he makes a decision of the heart. He resolves not to defile himself. This decision is quiet, unnoticed, and personal. No one applauds. No one immediately sees it. Yet it is decisive. Because it shows this: Daniel does not act out of conformity, but out of conviction.

His calling does not begin with a public assignment, but with inner clarity. He knows who he is, and therefore he knows where his boundaries lie. Babylon can change his name, but not his heart. This inner faithfulness accompanies him through decades of responsibility, power, and temptation.

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💭 What Does This Mean for Us?

We too live in a world that constantly tries to tell us who we are. We are defined by performance, success, background, or failure. Some voices are loud, others subtle—but all seek to shape our identity. If we do not consciously hold on to whom we belong to, we begin to lose ourselves.

Daniel reminds us that identity does not depend on circumstances. It is not granted by others, nor can it be destroyed by external change. Whoever knows who they are in God’s eyes remains steady, even when everything else shifts.

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💎 What We Can Learn from Daniel

Identity comes before assignment. Those who are secure within do not need to prove themselves outwardly. Small, faithful decisions shape a strong calling over time. And it is possible to live in a foreign environment without losing yourself.

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🪜 Practical Steps for Today

Consciously remember how God sees you and calls you. Examine which voices shape your thinking and which ones you should limit. Make clear, small decisions in everyday life that flow out of your identity. And remain honest before God—because that is where true calling grows.

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❓ Questions for Reflection

Where do I currently draw my sense of worth from?
Which labels have I accepted without examining them?
How would my decisions look if I were confident in my identity in God?

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🙏 Prayer

Lord, You know my name and my heart. Help me not to derive my identity from what I achieve or from what others say about me. Strengthen in me the certainty that I belong to You, and teach me to live out of this truth. Amen.

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🔑 Key Thought of the Day

God does not call you first through tasks, but through identity. Whoever knows whom they belong to will find their way—even in a foreign world.

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