Tuesday March 8, 2011

Read Daniel 6:6-9

Attack can come from many places and from many angles. Satan, also called ‘the father of lies’  (John 8:44) will bend the truth to get at and destroy believers. The administrators and satraps presented themselves to King Darius and basically lied.  “All the  royal administrators, satraps, prefects have agreed that the king should issue an edict,” they cried. But Daniel had not been neither consulted nor told of such a plan. It was all a lie to trap Daniel and to remove him from office.

These jealous men knew something about Daniel. They knew that this aged sage would serve His God above and beyond any human, king or decree.

They commented in vs 5 that they will only catch him out if their plan has something to do with the law of His God. They had seen him serve God above Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar. They knew he prayed thrice daily. They knew that God came first. So they sought to attack him at his most consistent point.

The point at which this jealous party attacked Daniel was the point at which he was also his strongest. Daniel had spent 80 years cultivating good, godly habits. He prayed daily. He sought the Lord through tough times and good times. He let nothing move him from seeking His God. Three times a day he would stop his life and seek God. Such a building program is not impossible for you and I to emulate. We can easily pray in the morning., at lunch time and then in the evening. We could probably up it to 5 times a day without too much struggle. Prayer for Daniel was not a routine motion of bowing and chanting. It was an intimate meeting with the divine. It was a connection, a relationship, a trusting dependence on the creator God who sustained all things by His powerful word.

When you pray, you are meeting with God. It is a time for you and God to grow intimately  close to each other. It is an opportunity for you to pour out your heart to God, to listen to God and to sit quietly in His presence. Make it your goal to spend quality time with God at least three times a day for the rest of this week. Make it your goal to stop worrying about what your friends at school or at work think as they see you going off to pray.

Prayer:-

þ Pray for the work of Shiloh Church ministries as they serve displaced Christians, orphans, widows and the disabled. Pray that the love of Christ would flow out of them into the community and bring many to the Lord in repentance and faith.

þ Pray that the chaplain(s) at Harristown High School will have ample opportunity to preach the good news to the students, to staff and to parents. Pray for a rich harvest in this school.