Daniel by Max Anders

Author:Max Anders
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: B&H Publishing Group
Published: 2010-02-14T16:00:00+00:00

MAIN IDEA REVIEW: When the crises of life threaten us, and our very lives are at stake, calm and quiet dependence upon God is our only recourse.

III. CONCLUSION

* * *

Waffling in Prayer

In my retirement I live several months each year on the campus of Toccoa Falls College in northeast Georgia, just ninety miles north of Atlanta. One of our rivals in almost every sport is Atlanta Christian College, whose teams I have seen play basketball and soccer on numerous occasions.

On the campus of that institution floats a wonderful story from ten or fifteen years ago. Apparently the Atlanta Christian College choir travels on concert tours by bus, a practice common to almost every institution of its kind. On one occasion the choir stopped at a restaurant whose fame was known to all the locals—pecan waffles. All the students at one table ordered the specialty of the house. As the waitress set the waffles in front of them, they bent over, heads bowed to give thanks. The waitress, hardly knowing how to react in this situation, leaned over and whispered to one of the students, “If you're looking for the pecans, they're on the bottom.”

Public prayer becomes a testimony to our faith in the grace of God. In this chapter we see it demonstrating faith, thanks, worship, and rock-solid trust in God's power to protect and care for his children. Remember, we have not yet come to John 4 and the recognition that place and posture contain no value in God's eyes. Daniel knew that there was a Jerusalem out there somewhere, in ruins and decay perhaps, but still the city of God. His was an exclusive faith—Jehovah alone, Jerusalem alone. We share that exclusivity without the attached geography: “There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called—one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” (Eph. 4:4–6).

Daniel offers us one of the greatest models of the Bible, a clear-cut demonstration of courage and commitment from youth until death. He stood for what he believed even though the stars might fall, and no king, however powerful on earth, could dissuade his focus on the King of heaven. He would have enjoyed a brief prayer composed by Lancelot Andrewes during the years the Reformation spread across Europe: “Oh direct my life toward Thy commandments, hallow my soul, purify my body, correct my thoughts, cleanse my desires, soul and body, mind and spirit, heart and reins. Renew me thoroughly, O Lord, for if Thou wilt, Thou canst.”

PRINCIPLES

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