“When Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open toward Jerusalem. He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he had done previously. Then these men came by agreement and found Daniel making petition and pleas before his God.” Dan. 6:10-11
In my preparation for our Revelation Sunday School, I am often drawn to the book of Daniel (not just because it is the definitive source in understanding Revelation). However, it isn’t just the academics and the need for interpretation that draws me back but maybe even more importantly it is the heart of Daniel towards his God no matter what comes…no matter what he is shown…his love of God …His fear of the Lord remains constant… something I long for daily.
His heart is filled with praise for God, not a preoccupation with his life. He just learned of a decree that anybody praying to any other god or man but King Darius would become the lions’ dinner. So what did he do? The same thing he’d been doing for decades in Babylon. The windows are open, his knees are bent, his gaze is set; and even before he asks for help (if he ever did), he offers God thanks. “He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he had done previously.” He’s neither paranoid nor presumptuous, but he’s most definitely at peace. Wow!
What freedom, what intimacy with his God this aging, beloved servant of God enjoyed. But why am I surprised? Hasn’t God declared long ago, “The righteous flourish like a palm tree, and grow like a cedar of Lebanon. They are planted in the house of the LORD; they flourish in the courts of our God. They will still bear fruit in old age; they are ever full of sap and green” (Ps. 92:12-14)? This is not a maybe but a certainty, if we would only believe it!
Look again at Daniel’s heart in motion. God never demanded that Daniel get on his knees three times a day to pray. He didn’t have to—it was Daniel’s delight because of His love for God. No government decree could keep him from praying to God, loving God, seeking God, or worshiping God. He was much more committed to God’s eternal glory than to his personal survival. God’s grace radically reoriented his life. He never even thought, it seems, of changing the practice of his devotion towards God.
As I said, I long for Daniel’s peace and praise to mark my life—no matter how difficult my circumstances, intense the spiritual warfare, or out of control my world may feel. For even as “the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Pet. 5:8), he’s already a defeated foe. We live in the victorious day Daniel anticipated with certainly. God’s beloved Son, our Savior, “the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed” (Rev. 5:5).
Daniel’s heart shows us that when my/our heart is preoccupied with Jesus as the Lion of Judah, we will find as Daniel did that we will be without any ultimate concern for any other kind of “lion’s den” into which we might be thrown…because we know the decree is in (God’s decree by the way), we are in the last days, times will be troubling so it is to be our continuous expression to regularly be in God’s Word and prayer and with His people so that we will be more concerned with God’s glory than our own security.
Let us be people who love and praise our God with such intensity and purpose so that everyone around us knows… so that anyone who God brings our way will be moved to ask about the hope within us… so that God can be glorified in all we say and do!
God Bless y’all.
In His Grip,
Pastor Mike
