The ultimate prayer rhythm

Daniel lived a pretty crazy life.  When he was a teenager, King Nebuchadnezzar sacked the nation of Judah, and Daniel was abducted from his home by the conquering Babylonians.  After being marched east across the Asian continent for months, he and the other captives arrived in the nation’s capital, Babylon.  Then he and his friends were subjected to a 3-year re-education program for the best and brightest young men taken from foreign countries. 

He and his friends made waves in the Babylonian culture and government many times – and each event was caused by them sticking to their trust in the God of Israel instead of following the gods of Babylon or the various edicts of the Babylonian government.  Their first test came during the re-education program, when they opted out of the prohibited diet provided from the royal food and drink.  Daniel interpreted dreams that no one in the king’s realm would even attempt to decipher.  Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah (aka Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego) defied the king’s orders to worship a golden statue representing the greatness of Babylon.  For their disobedience, they were thrown into a fiery furnace.  After they were rescued by God, you’d think King Nebuchadnezzar would understand that he wasn’t the center of the universe, but no…he had another lesson to learn.  Daniel saw the king go insane, act like a wild animal, and then, some time later, regain his senses after acknowledging God for who He is.

Daniel had a front row seat for all these events as well as many others.  In total, Daniel lived and served under six different rulers!  But what of the most famous story of Daniel’s life…when he was tossed into a lions’ den?  That event happened after the Persian empire defeated the Babylonians.  Through a crazy set of circumstances you can read about in Daniel 5, Daniel had just been pulled out of retirement when the Persians took over.  When King Darius set up the new order in the captured Babylon, he appointed Daniel to be one of his administrators.  But get this…Daniel is 80 years old at this point!

To make it even more interesting, at 80 years old, he’s still running circles around everyone else:

Daniel 6:3-5
Daniel distinguished himself above the administrators and satraps because he had an extraordinary spirit, so the king planned to set him over the whole realm.  The administrators and satraps, therefore, kept trying to find a charge against Daniel regarding the kingdom.  But they could find no charge or corruption, for he was trustworthy, and no negligence or corruption was found in him. 

Then these men said, “We will never find any charge against this Daniel unless we find something against him concerning the law of his God.”

And that’s exactly what they did…they went to King Darius and convinced him that no one should petition or pray to anyone except the king, lest they be thrown into the lions’ den.  There were a lot of political undertones to their proposal, but we can’t get into them here and now…the end result was that Darius signed their proposal into law.

What I want to ask is…what would your response be?

If everything you have earned and built in your 20, 30, 40, or even 80 years was suddenly in jeopardy if you get caught simply whispering a prayer, what would you do?

Would you stop praying altogether?
Would you pray only when you’re certain no one is looking?
If someone asked you pointedly, “Did you pray today?”, would you lie?

Those are tough questions.

So, what did Daniel do?

Daniel 6:10
When Daniel learned that the document had been signed, he went into his house.  The windows in its upstairs room opened toward Jerusalem, and three times a day he got down on his knees, prayed, and gave thanks to his God, just as he had done before.

The most incredible phrase in that verse is likely the one you didn’t notice.  I can say that because I didn’t notice it either, until recently – and I’ve heard the story of “Daniel and the lions’ den” countless times since childhood.  It’s the last phrase that is the most striking: just as he had done before. 

Daniel wasn’t praying out of defiance to the king’s order.  He wasn’t praying in a panic, looking for God’s guidance because his circumstances were suddenly more than he thought he could handle on his own.  Daniel’s prayer time – his conversations with God – were a normal part of his daily life. 

Daniel’s three-times-daily appointment was so important that he was willing to risk everything just to keep meeting with God in prayer.

I marvel at that.  I want to be like that…but I haven’t always been that way.  “Just as Ken had done before” wouldn’t be an accurate description of my daily time talking with God.

But it can be for me…and for you…if we start today.

Keep Pressing,
Ken

I stepped in it. Literally.

We decorate our house for Halloween with the same “cute monster” theme each year.  The main part of the decoration are the huge pairs of googly eyes that we put into several bushes in the yard.  They are absolutely hilarious looking, and our neighborhood loves them.

The morning after putting them up this year, as I was walking our dog back to our house, I was looking at the googly eyes and chuckling to myself about how they make our bushes seem like they have expressions and goofy personalities.  I was so wrapped up in admiring my own work, that I stepped in another dog’s feces.  This shouldn’t have been a surprise, because it had been on the road for a day or two. I knew it was there, but since I was distracted, I stepped directly in it.  Immediately, I knew what I had done and that it was going to be inconvenient to clean up.

Soon after, my mind went to a story from the life of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.  One night, he had a dream that frightened him.  When he described it to his wise men and court officials, no one could interpret it for him.  He eventually sought out Daniel for help.  Daniel’s news wasn’t good.  He warned the king that judgement from God was coming…on him personally.  God was going to take away his rulership and cause him to go crazy.  The king would abandon his palace and go live with the wild animals for a set number of days, until he recognized that Israel’s God was the true ruler of everything.  Daniel was troubled by this interpretation as well, and he ended with a personal plea for the king to change his ways now so that maybe God would relent.

Perhaps the king took Daniel’s advice and changed his ways, at least for a time because the dream’s interpretation did not transpire right away.  But one year later, it did happen:

Daniel 4:29-32
At the end of twelve months, as he was walking on the roof of the royal palace in Babylon, the king exclaimed, “Is this not Babylon the Great that I have built to be a royal residence by my vast power and for my majestic glory?”

While the words were still in the king’s mouth, a voice came from heaven: “King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is declared that the kingdom has departed from you.  You will be driven away from people to live with the wild animals, and you will feed on grass like cattle for seven periods of time, until you acknowledge that the Most High is ruler of human kingdoms, and He gives them to anyone He wants.”

And so it happened…for seven periods of time his life of ease and authority were taken away.  He really “stepped in it”, didn’t he?  Although he was warned, he was still so full of himself and self-promoting that God had to intervein directly into his life.  Fortunately for him, his punishment had an expiration:

Daniel 4:34, 36-37
But at the end of those days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, looked up to heaven, and my sanity returned to me.  Then I praised the Most High and honored and glorified Him who lives forever…At that time my sanity returned to me, and my majesty and splendor returned to me for the glory of my kingdom.  My advisers and my nobles sought me out, I was reestablished over my kingdom, and even more greatness came to me.  Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise, exalt, and glorify the King of the heavens, because all His works are true and His ways are just.  He is able to humble those who walk in pride.

The last line is the lesson God wanted King Nebuchadnezzar to learn – that He is able to humble those who walk in pride.  To get His point across, God had to take drastic measures in the king’s life.  The king had to lose it all before he realized Who had given it all to him to manage.

How many times in life have we “stepped in it” because we’re too wrapped up in our own stuff? 
How many times has God had to step in and knock us down a peg so we remember where our blessings come from?

To keep the first century believers from falling into the same trap, two New Testament authors (James and Peter) quote Israel’s King Solomon:

1 Peter 5:5
All of you clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because “God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

James 4:6, 10
But He gives greater grace.  Therefore he says: “God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.”…Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will exalt you.

After Nebuchadnezzar’s humble-pie-adventure, perhaps Daniel taught him Solomon’s wisdom.  Nebuchadnezzar’s example encourages us to learn the same lesson now, before our self-centeredness needs God to step in and give correction.

Keep Pressing,
Ken

Talking with outsiders

No one likes a “know-it-all”.  Generally speaking, people do not mind if someone else has more knowledge, but the way a person handles themselves in light of that additional knowledge can make or break relationships.  Whether it’s among strangers or siblings, classmates or co-workers, no one appreciates being talked down to.  The subject matter could be of small consequence or something really important, but how something is communicated is as important as what is being communicated.

For those of us that have been following Christ for a length of time, there is a tendency toward smugness that will cause problems.  When we get comfortable going through the motions of living the “Christian life” instead of focusing on our relationship with God, we grow stale.  Our mindset and interactions with others will twist until we end up presenting a conceited, self-righteous version of Christianity.

A telling symptom of this stale-ness is found in how we interact with those outside of our Christian family.  What is our general attitude toward non-Christians?  While we know that they need Jesus, do our actions and attitudes invite them toward Jesus or push them away?  Do we speak at them with a lot of Christian-ese?  Do we belittle them because of their sin?

After spending most of his letter describing the wondrous relationship we now have with God and praising the Colossian believers for their great love for everyone in God’s family, Paul took a moment to give them a warning:

Colossians 4:5-6
Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the time.  Your speech should always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you should answer each person.

Those outside the faith need our wisdom and our gracious speech, not arrogant attitudes and put-down talk.  Being “better off” doesn’t make us “more important”.  In fact, many of the Bible’s authors gave warning against such self-righteous thinking.

Instead, gracious speech comes from a grateful mindset.  That’s why Paul has spent so much time writing about the greatness of Christ and the priority He should have in our lives.  When we have our relationship with God in its proper place, then our interactions with outsiders will begin to look and sound a lot like Jesus’ interactions with others.

Looking and sounding like Jesus will draw a lot of attention, people will take notice of the difference.  In order to be ready to answer each person, we should take the same attitude Daniel had when God told him the meaning of the king’s dream:

Daniel 2:30
As for me, this mystery has been revealed to me, not because I have more wisdom than anyone living, but in order that the interpretation might be made known to the king, and that you may understand the thoughts of your mind.

Can you hear his humility?  Can you see how Daniel shifted the focus from himself and gave the credit to God?  When we have the opportunity to share the gospel with others, we should have the same attitude:

I’m not a Christian because I’m better than anyone else.  One day, someone told me that God loves me enough to die for my sins.  He loves you, too.  I’m just glad that I get to be the one to tell you about it.

Keep Pressing,
Ken