Ninety Days, Day Sixty Three.

If there's a theme that underlies the book of Daniel, it's that Daniel spends much time in prayer – either the narrator describes him entering into an act of prayer or the text shifts tone from description to Daniel's internal monologue as he enters a prayer.  Notable in Daniel 6 is that Daniel immediately spends time in prayer, three times a day, once the king issues the decree that no one is to pray to or worship anyone other than the king for the next 30 days.

That faithfulness in prayer pays off for Daniel, because the act of prayer, the act of speaking to God on a regular basis, created a relationship between him and God, a relationship built on Daniel's trust in God.  So when Daniel is placed in the lions' den, he has no fear, because he knows God will take care of him.

Which is exactly what happens – the lions don't touch Daniel at all, much to the relief of the king.  The sight of an unscathed Daniel ("no wound was found on him, because he had trusted in his God" v 23) was sufficient evidence for King Darius to proclaim Daniel's God as "the living God, and he endures forever; his kingdom will not be destroyed, his dominion will never end" (v 26). 

Earlier today I was following the Twitter feed of Shaun King, pastor of Courageous Church in Atlanta.  One of his tweets said, "Easily my most popular blog post ever" – with a link to said blog post.  I was curious.  Click here to read his story, then come back here.

Back?

Like Daniel, this is a story of God answering prayers – nearly immediately. 

This is a story of a people with the faith to believe that God will answer prayers, and seeing how He answered those prayers.

We need to pray like the family and friends of Pastor Shaun.

We need to pray like Daniel.

And we need to trust like both.

Posted via email from A Mile From The Beach