“Then the officials went together to Daniel’s house and found him praying and asking for God’s help.”-Daniel 6:11
They found him praying! When’s the last time someone found you praying? When was the last time your kids found you praying? Your spouse find you praying? Your co-worker find you praying? I’m not talking about praying in a way that draws attention to yourself. I talking about giving enough time to prayer that people, without prompting, can tell that prayer is a priority in your life.
Daniel’s accusers didn’t just stumble upon him praying. The scripture says that they went looking where they knew they would find Daniel praying. If you and I are going to have a courageous prayer life we are going to have to make prayer a priority. You don’t think that something had to take a backseat three times a day when Daniel stopped to pray. You don’t think that other things had to be pushed back or left undone so that he could build that consistency in his life.
Daniel wasn’t working a 10 a.m.-3 p.m., Monday-Friday, with weekends off kind of job:
“Darius the Mede decided to divide the kingdom into 120 provinces, and he appointed a high officer to rule over each province. The king also chose Daniel and two others as administrators to supervise the high officers and protect the king’s interests. 3 Daniel soon proved himself more capable than all the other administrators and high officers. Because of Daniel’s great ability, the king made plans to place him over the entire empire.”-Daniel 6:1-3
Daniel didn’t try to fit prayer into his day, he scheduled his day around his prayer time. What you schedule your day around will become your priority. They knew that his prayer life was a priority. They knew that even if the king issued a decree declaring that anyone caught praying to any other person or god would be thrown to the lions, that Daniel would not sway in his prayer life.
“ 11 Then the officials went together to Daniel’s house and found him praying and asking for God’s help. 12 So they went straight to the king and reminded him about his law. “Did you not sign a law that for the next thirty days any person who prays to anyone, divine or human—except to you, Your Majesty—will be thrown into the den of lions?” “Yes,” the king replied, “that decision stands; it is an official law of the Medes and Persians that cannot be revoked.”13 Then they told the king, “That man Daniel, one of the captives from Judah, is ignoring you and your law. He still prays to his God three times a day.”- Daniel 6:11-13
When prayer is a priority, it’s going to take more than a death threat to stop you. What have you allowed to be the “decree” that has crippled your prayer life? Think about that. Darius decreed death to those who prayed to anyone else or any other god, yet Daniel was still not deterred in his prayer life.
Some of us need to repent because we have abandoned prayer for far less. We will binge watch 16 hours of Stranger Things on Netflix while not giving a single solitary hour to prayer. We will stand in line at Universal Studios for two hours to ride the Fast & Furious, but not sit and pray for an hour with the saints of God, because it’s too long, too boring, or too uncomfortable.
I am thinking if we can endure two hours in line to experience five minutes of fun, surely we can endure an hour prayer meeting to see people experience eternity. It is in prayer where people’s lives are changed, saved, healed, delivered, and restored.
It takes courage to make prayer a priority.
Scott Burr
Dayspring Community Church
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