A Prayer for Greater Peace, Intimacy and Freedom
Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before. Then these men went as a group and found Daniel praying and asking God for help.
Daniel 6:10-11
From time to time I have shared prayers with you written by Pastor Scotty Smith, Christ Community Church, Franklin, TN. He has a great blog, Heavenword:
Heavenly Father, I’m so drawn to the heart which beat in Daniel’s breast—a heart filled with praise for you, not paranoia about his life. His love for you was magnetic, even contagious.
He just learned about the decree that anybody praying to any other god or man but King Darius would become lions’ lunch. So what did he do? The same thing he’d been doing for decades in Babylon. The windows were open. His knees were bent. His gaze was set, and even before he asked you for help, he offered you thanks. He was neither paranoid nor presumptuous, but he was most definitely at peace.
What freedom and intimacy this your aging son and servant enjoyed with you. But why am I surprised? Haven’t you promised, “The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; planted in the house of the LORD, they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green.” (Psalm 92:12-14).
You never demanded Daniel to get on his knees three times a day. You didn’t have to, for it was his delight. No government decree could keep your son from seeking your face and enjoying your grace, for he was much more committed to your eternal glory than to his personal survival.
Father, may the same peace and freedom that defined Daniel’s life shape ours as well, no matter what Satan throws at us. For even as “the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour,” (1 Peter 5:8), he’s a defeated foe. We live in the victorious day Daniel anticipated from afar. Indeed, Jesus, “the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed” (Revelation 5:5). Jesus is the main Lion with whom we want to be thoroughly preoccupied.
As we get older, gracious Father, please keep us fresh and fruitful through the gospel. Deeper our intimacy with you. May your grace always be amazing to us. Continue to pour your transforming love into our hearts, and use us however you choose the rest of our days in this world. So very Amen, we pray, in Jesus’ magnificent and merciful name. – Pastor Scotty Smith
GPS – God’s Positioning System: 1 Samuel 4-8; Psalm 91; Proverbs 9
Compass Pointers: A generation of Christians reared among push buttons and automatic machines is impatient of slower and less direct methods of reaching their goals. We have been trying to apply machine-age methods to our relations with God. We read our chapter, have our short devotions, and rush away, hoping to make up for our deep inward bankruptcy by attending another gospel meeting or listening to another thrilling story told by a religious adventurer lately returned from afar. The tragic results of this spirit are all about us. Shallow lives, follow religious philosophies, the preponderance of the element of fun in gospel meetings, the glorification of men, trust in religious externalities, quasi-religious fellowships, salesmanship methods, the mistaking of dynamic personality for the power of the Spirit; these and such as these are the symptoms of an evil disease, a deep and serious malady of the soul. A. W. Tozer
Navigation Rules to Memorize: Level 1: Proverbs 14:29; Level 2: Proverbs 14:25-30
Anchored to the Rock: “Pray constantly.” 1 Thessalonians 5:17
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