by David Brenneman
"...got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he had done previously." Daniel 6:10
Short-term commitment is not too hard. It is disciplined consistency that comes harder to us-yet it is a key to spiritual growth.
The often sporadic nature of our commitment is seen in short-lived exercise programs, Bible memorization, reading plans, and New Year's resolutions. How many of us start something well, only to later abandon it! But equally, you have probably encountered people who are incredibly consistent and disciplined. They walk their dog at the exact same time every day or collect their mail with such precise timing that you could set your
watch by it; and when they set themselves to undertake a task or learn a new skill, they do so with a diligence that leaves you in no doubt that they will complete it.
Daniel was a man who exhibited such disciplined consistency when it came to prayer. His life was not marked by bursts of enthusiasm followed by chronic inertia. He clearly prayed whether he felt like it or not. There were probably times when he got up from his knees feeling really blessed and other times when he left feeling really flat, but he kept on He prayed and he prayed and he prayed, no matter the circumstances. That's discipline!
When a crisis hit, it didn't create Daniel's disciplined lifestyle; it revealed it. After King Darius issued an edict that made it illegal to pray to any god or man other than him for thirty days (Daniel 6:7), Daniel could have rationalized obedience to the king rather than to the Lord. He could have reasoned that because he'd stored up such phenomenal credit on the strength of all his years of prayer, he could be let off for a month. Apparenty
though, such thought never even crossed his mind Instead, he continued in prayer just "as he had done previously."
Surely there was a link between Daniel's life of prayer and the bravery he showed in obeying the God of Israel rather than the most powerful king in the known world.
Lord told us, too, that always to pray and not lose heart" (Luke 18:1). We a are not to close prayer down for a while if we don't feel like it or have little spare time for a season. If we want to live for Jesus when we're under pressure, our prayer lives must be consistent. We must regard prayer as a fundamental element of our faith, not merely a nice supplement.
The door is wide open for you to demonstrate the same kind of consistent commitment to prayer as Daniel did. Through regular discipline, prayer can become your natural reaction to every situation in your life. Do you need to set aside a time each day when you will pray and give thanks to your God, come what may? Wherever God takes us, whatever we do, however His plan unfolds, may our prayers be unceasing.
-Truth for Life Devotional
"For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen." Ephesians 3:14-21.
"Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus." 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18.
It's been becoming more and more apparent that there's yet even more to what my walk with Jesus is to be like, and I highly suspect that since I am being lead to write about this that someone out there must need to read and apply it themselves.
There's much that some take from the book of Daniel about diets and try to glean out of it by way of prophecies. As a side note that's not intended to distract from this particular post, in reading last night in the first chapter of the book of Acts, Jesus heavily came down on the side of future events as really being a priority of the discipleship teaching that the Apostles were to engage in. Theirs was to stick to the Great Commission.
For each of us who are in Christ...ours is to live our lives in Christ in such a way that people see our good works and glorify our Father in Heaven.
As part of that our prayer life must be as diligent as our time in God's Word. This is where this lesson is not just for you my Dear Reader but for me as well.
I count it as a necessary thing that diligence towards prayer must matter if we are reading in Daniel that he's commended for his diligence. Regardless of what was going on in his life he committed to and maintained praying 3 times a day.
In Daniel chapter 9 he is told that he is highly esteemed in the eyes of God. The way we read it, it comes across that indeed Daniel is certainly beloved of God.
Different circumstances that got them there for sure but to compare lives, Joseph and Daniel certainly appear to be of a kindred spirit and mindset. When in the fullness of time Joseph was ruling in Egypt we find someone who's lead a dedicated, approved, life in the Lord.
What I am personally coming to in my own life is a need for the same commitment towards a better, more consistent, more truthful prayer life than I have had and to be as committed to it as I have been with my Bible studies and morning reading. Perhaps the same can be or should be said of you?
Daniel's prayer life was very intentional and personal. In no way are we looking at what he prayed, that's written there in the book by his name as a pattern to follow other than in its sincerity. Repeating his words alone isn't some magic formula to be good with Jesus. Undoubtedly Daniel wasn't just diligent in prayer he was personal in prayer.
By way of reminder I was drawn to a story about Ben. Ben was a factory worker who walked all the way to a church to meet with Jesus in prayer every day on his lunch time. His prayer was simple and from the heart. The pastor at this church was at first skeptical of his intentions of being there until he told him his prayer. Then for the first time the Pastor adopted the worker's prayer as his own.
'I JUST CAME BY TO TELL YOU, LORD, HOW HAPPY I HAVE BEEN,
SINCE WE FOUND EACH OTHERS FRIENDSHIP AND YOU TOOK AWAY MY SIN. DON'T KNOW MUCH OF HOW TO PRAY, BUT I THINK ABOUT YOU EVERYDAY. SO, JESUS, THIS IS BEN, JUST CHECKING IN TODAY.'
Weeks had gone by and like clockwork the worker would show up. A day came when he didn't and it went on for many days. The Pastor checked at the factory n discovered that he had been ill n in the hospital. So he went to visit him. In spite of no others visiting him he found him in a wonderful mood. The nurses couldn't understand, he said, because they didn't know. At the same time he would have been at the church praying he had a visitor at the hospital.
'I JUST CAME BY TO TELL YOU, BEN, HOW HAPPY I HAVE BEEN,
SINCE WE FOUND THIS FRIENDSHIP, AND I TOOK AWAY YOUR SIN. I THINK ABOUT YOU ALWAYS AND I LOVE TO HEAR YOU PRAY, AND SO BEN, THIS IS JESUS,
JUST CHECKING IN TODAY .'
Daniel's life was lived in dedication to the Lord no matter where he was and it was noticed by His Lord Jesus Christ. This is a far more gem to glean from Daniel than that of a diet that some people believe in that will do this or that for them.
My prayer life, your prayer life, must be personal and consistent. Must be sincere and from the heart. Jesus condemned the Pharisees and Sadducees for their heartless prayers. Mindless repetition. Ben's prayer might not be much but it was far from mindless. It might not contain much but it certainly isn't heartless.
Daniel's life exemplified personal prayer time as well as a study of the Word that he somehow had with him.
In some places in this world we see droves of people on particular days believing that their obedience in repeated prayers that they're not praying with a right heart attitude means something. Whole religions and denominations of people.
You and I need to find a time in our days to meet with Jesus in prayer in sincere prayer as Ben had...as Daniel had.
"I JUST CAME BY TO TELL YOU, LORD, HOW HAPPY I HAVE BEEN,
SINCE WE FOUND EACH OTHERS FRIENDSHIP AND YOU TOOK AWAY MY SIN. DON'T KNOW MUCH OF HOW TO PRAY, BUT I THINK ABOUT YOU EVERYDAY. SO, JESUS, THIS IS DAVID, JUST CHECKING IN TODAY."
Make your commitment not your intention to meet with Jesus and make sure your prayer is from the heart. Doesn't have to be lengthy or complex. Doesn't need to sound all religious. Needs to be from you.
Start somewhere. We reveal what we really mean about our relationship with Jesus by what we do more than what we say. Jesus wants doers of the word and not just hearers only who are deluding themselves.
All NASB Scripture Excerpts used by permission.
New American Standard Bible
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