Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread.

Our reading titled God's Keeping Presence was written by Patricia Raybon.

Looking at my high school yearbook, my grandchildren marveled at outdated hairstyles,

clothing, and old-fashioned cars in the photos.

I saw something different.

First, the smiles of longtime buddies, some still friends.

More than that, however, I saw the keeping power of God.

His gentle presence surrounded me in a school where I struggled to fit in.

His keeping goodness watched over me, a kindness he grants to all who seek him. Daniel knew of God's

keeping presence. In his exile in Babylon in Daniel chapter 6, he prayed in his

upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem, despite the king's decree not to do so.

From his prayerful vantage point, Daniel would remember God whose keeping presence sustained him,

hearing and answering his prayers. Thus God would hear, answer, and sustain him again. Yet,

despite the new law, Daniel would still seek God's presence, regardless of what might happen to him. And so he prayed just as he had

done so many times before, while in the lion's den, an angel of the Lord kept Daniel safe as his

faithful God rescued him. Looking to our past, during present trials, may help us recall God's faithfulness.

As even King Darius said of God in verse 27, he rescues and he saves.

He performs signs and wonders in the heavens and on the earth.

God was good then, and he's good now.

His presence will keep you.

Today's Our Daily Bread Devotional Scripture reading is from Daniel

6, verses 19 through 27.

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