Life-Changing Prayers by Michael Youssef

Author:Michael Youssef
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Christian Living / Prayer;Bible—Prayers;| Bible—Criticism | interpretation | etc;Prayer—Christianity;REL012080;REL012120
ISBN: 9781493414161
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2018-05-28T16:00:00+00:00

Daniel’s Amazing Consistency

Daniel easily could have rationalized a compromise solution to this dilemma. He could have said to himself, This law is only in effect for thirty days. God will understand if I take a month off from thanking Him and asking Him for help. He wouldn’t expect me to keep praying to Him if it meant I’d end up as lion chow. I’ll just resume my daily devotions next month.

Or he might have thought, I’ll just keep my devotional life quiet for a month. I’ll shut the window, hide in the closet, and pray silently. That way, God will still hear me. Sure, it’s a little cowardly, but I’ll just confess my cowardice and repent of it thirty days from now.

Isn’t that how many of us, as Christians, rationalize our moral compromises today? But Daniel refused to compromise. In fact, he made a spectacle of himself. No one could have any doubt that Daniel was breaking the law and praying to God. Daniel refused to pray to any human being, including the king of Persia. He would never obey a human law that violated the law of God. He became a righteous lawbreaker, a master criminal in the service of his God.

Daniel was amazingly consistent throughout his life. That’s what his enemies were counting on. He consistently honored God. He consistently prayed three times a day. He consistently offered praise. He consistently prayed for God’s help. He consistently witnessed to the world about the glory and majesty and supremacy of his God. And he consistently refused to compromise his principles and beliefs.

It was the integrity and consistency of Daniel’s prayer life that made him such a wise and dependable servant to King Darius—and that made him such a threat to his rivals. Daniel’s enemies counted on his integrity in order to trap him. It broke King Darius’s heart to have to carry out the punishment of the decree. It also must have angered him to realize he had been maneuvered into sacrificing his finest servant on the altar of his own foolish ego. He walked with Daniel to the mouth of the lions’ den and said to him before the guards threw him to the beasts, “May your God, whom you serve continually, rescue you!” (Dan. 6:16).

Then Daniel was thrown in, and the lions’ den was covered with a heavy stone sealed with the king’s own signet ring. That night, the king could neither eat nor sleep. At dawn, the king hurried to the lions’ den. He had the stone removed, and then he called out to Daniel.

And Daniel answered! “May the king live forever!” he said. “My God sent his angel, and he shut the mouths of the lions. They have not hurt me, because I was found innocent in his sight” (vv. 21–22).

So Daniel was lifted from the den, alive and well, and the king had Daniel’s rivals brought to the lions’ den to take his place. So the lions dined on Persian food instead of kosher food that day.

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