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