Part 3
“Hearing this, the king was deeply troubled, and he tried to think of a way to save Daniel. He spent the rest of the day looking for a way to get Daniel out of this predicament. In the evening the men went together to the king and said, “Your Majesty, you know that according to the law of the Medes and the Persians, no law that the king signs can be changed.” So at last the king gave orders for Daniel to be arrested and thrown into the den of lions. The king said to him, “May your God, whom you serve so faithfully, rescue you.”A stone was brought and placed over the mouth of the den. The king sealed the stone with his own royal seal and the seals of his nobles, so that no one could rescue Daniel. Then the king returned to his palace and spent the night fasting. He refused his usual entertainment and couldn’t sleep at all that night. Very early the next morning, the king got up and hurried out to the lions’ den. When he got there, he called out in anguish, “Daniel, servant of the living God! Was your God, whom you serve so faithfully, able to rescue you from the lions?” Daniel answered, “Long live the king! My God sent his angel to shut the lions’ mouths so that they would not hurt me, for I have been found innocent in his sight. And I have not wronged you, Your Majesty.” The king was overjoyed and ordered that Daniel be lifted from the den. Not a scratch was found on him, for he had trusted in his God.”-Daniel 6:14-23
King Darius, obviously, had a lot of respect for Daniel. Scripture tells us that, upon leaving the lion’s den, Darius didn’t eat or sleep that entire night and refused to be entertained. When morning dawned, he rushed out to see if Daniel’s God had rescued him. When the stone was rolled away, not a scratch was found on him, for Daniel had trusted in his God.
The last key to a courageous prayer life is trust. Courageous prayer trusts God. Remember, that when they came and took Daniel into custody, they found him in prayer asking for God’s help.
I don’t know how he envisioned that looking, but as they were tossing him in the lion’s den it may have appeared as if God didn’t answer. When the stone was rolled over the top sealing him in, it may have appeared that the Lord didn’t answer. When the King sealed the stone with his signet ring ensuring that no one could come and save Daniel, it may have appeared that God didn’t answer. When the first lion roared and bore his teeth it may have appeared that the Lord didn’t answer.
If it were me, my prayer life would have found new life in that moment. How many would have been throwing out every prayer you could pray? However, Daniel didn’t learn to trust God in the moment, he learned to trust God three times a day, seven days a week, in his upstairs room with the windows open toward Jerusalem. If you can’t trust Him to show up in your prayer closet, you will never trust Him to show up in the Lion’s Den. Daniel didn’t learn the value of prayer in the Lion’s den. He learned it in his prayer closet.
Daniel, did however, experience the value of prayer in the lion’s den, because of the value he put on prayer when he was petitioning God from his upstairs chamber.
Sometimes we stop valuing prayer because we didn’t see God show up when or how we expected. We stop trusting God, when in reality we should stop trusting our weak prayer lives. Let’s be honest, we want to experience the miracles Daniel did, but we don’t want to pay the price. We don’t want to develop the discipline of consistent prayer, we don’t want to sacrifice our comfort to make prayer a greater priority, we don’t want to learn the value of prayer in our prayer closets, we just want to experience it when we need it.
Courageous prayer takes consistency, priority and trust.
Pastor Scott Burr
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