Daniel: Man of Prayer
Daniel 6:10, We considered this last Lord's Day morning, and different things came to my mind after I preached through the passage. Daniel chapter 6 you remember, is the back end of Daniel's life. We don't know exactly how old he is, maybe late 70s, early 80s. He's one of those men who began well and finished well, and I do believe a key factor in terms of him beginning well and finishing well was that he was a man of prayer, he was committed to prayer. I think we would all agree from our own human experience, prayer can be one of the most difficult spiritual disciplines, and we can't forget the supernatural opposition. In resistance, the devil doesn't want us to pray, and our remaining sin is always active as well, and then the world as a whole, tries to do everything possible to keep us from praying. But here is Daniel in Daniel chapter 6 facing arguably his greatest crisis in life, and what is he doing? Well, he's praying. Daniel 6:10, “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.”
Now there's several other times in the book of Daniel where Daniel's prayer life is brought into focus, I think four other times. And the most remarkable, I think, is right here in chapter 6 in light of what he is up against. But he knows he will probably be thrown into a lion's den, eaten by lions, so an impending death awaits him. But he doesn't stop praying. Notice he rushes to the throne of grace. And you can find this in the Psalms as well, when men are faced with trouble, temptation, difficulty, there's almost a reflex action. They run to God. They run to the Lord and cry for help.
And there is three things I want to say about Daniel's prayer. First is this, that it was prioritized. That is certainly what we see here, that he gave himself immediately to this matter of prayer. And again, you could say something else that sticks out here as far as I'm concerned, is that his prayer was marked by perseverance. You prioritize prayer, that's what he does as soon as he gets alone, he's praying, seeking the face of God, but also perseverance. And that was his ordinary habit. This wasn’t extraordinary, this was his ordinary three times. Typically, they prayed in the morning, they prayed in the afternoon and in the evening. It is interesting, when Jesus talks about persevering prayer in Matthew 6, he talks about it from three perspectives in terms of three different verbs, remember? And all are put in the same verb tense, imperfect verb tense, which tells us this is a continued kind of praying; keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking. That's the language of our Lord Jesus. So he's teaching us; persevere in prayer, keep on praying Christian, don't give up.
And we also find in the Old Testament we could say three-time prayers. Think of Elijah on top of that boy who is dead, and the widow is crying, weeping, and Elijah falls on him three times, and it does appear that he is praying there as well. Then you have David in Psalm 55, David talks about praying evening and morning and noon. And then both Jesus and the Apostle Paul, right? We find them praying three different times when they're facing a major crisis in their life. They are giving themselves to a triplet kind of prayer. Now, we're never commanded to pray three times, you can pray ten times if you want, but three times is what you find repeated in the Scriptures. It is simply underscoring regular, frequent praying. That's all I think we're being told.
So what do we know about Daniel's prayer life? Here in Daniel 6, he prioritized prayer, he persevered in prayer. And then the third thing we see here is, look at verse 10 again, he gave thanks before his God, thanksgiving prayer. Knowing what lay in front of him, knowing he would probably go into a lion's den and maybe never come out again, he still was able to pray with thanksgiving. The Bible says we are to be thankful at all times; it doesn't matter what's happening in your life. The psalmist could say it is good to give thanks to the Lord no matter what our circumstances, no matter how difficult, no matter how hopeless, no matter how grieved we are, we can still give thanks to the Lord. The Lord is always the Lord. He is always faithful, always good, always true. He always hears our prayers, he always sustains us, he is always kind, he is always merciful. So we can even pray that God would help us to be more Daniel-like in our prayer closet. Let's just pray that we would be men and women of prayer.
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.
Now there's several other times in the book of Daniel where Daniel's prayer life is brought into focus, I think four other times. And the most remarkable, I think, is right here in chapter 6 in light of what he is up against. But he knows he will probably be thrown into a lion's den, eaten by lions, so an impending death awaits him. But he doesn't stop praying. Notice he rushes to the throne of grace. And you can find this in the Psalms as well, when men are faced with trouble, temptation, difficulty, there's almost a reflex action. They run to God. They run to the Lord and cry for help.
And there is three things I want to say about Daniel's prayer. First is this, that it was prioritized. That is certainly what we see here, that he gave himself immediately to this matter of prayer. And again, you could say something else that sticks out here as far as I'm concerned, is that his prayer was marked by perseverance. You prioritize prayer, that's what he does as soon as he gets alone, he's praying, seeking the face of God, but also perseverance. And that was his ordinary habit. This wasn’t extraordinary, this was his ordinary three times. Typically, they prayed in the morning, they prayed in the afternoon and in the evening. It is interesting, when Jesus talks about persevering prayer in Matthew 6, he talks about it from three perspectives in terms of three different verbs, remember? And all are put in the same verb tense, imperfect verb tense, which tells us this is a continued kind of praying; keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking. That's the language of our Lord Jesus. So he's teaching us; persevere in prayer, keep on praying Christian, don't give up.
And we also find in the Old Testament we could say three-time prayers. Think of Elijah on top of that boy who is dead, and the widow is crying, weeping, and Elijah falls on him three times, and it does appear that he is praying there as well. Then you have David in Psalm 55, David talks about praying evening and morning and noon. And then both Jesus and the Apostle Paul, right? We find them praying three different times when they're facing a major crisis in their life. They are giving themselves to a triplet kind of prayer. Now, we're never commanded to pray three times, you can pray ten times if you want, but three times is what you find repeated in the Scriptures. It is simply underscoring regular, frequent praying. That's all I think we're being told.
So what do we know about Daniel's prayer life? Here in Daniel 6, he prioritized prayer, he persevered in prayer. And then the third thing we see here is, look at verse 10 again, he gave thanks before his God, thanksgiving prayer. Knowing what lay in front of him, knowing he would probably go into a lion's den and maybe never come out again, he still was able to pray with thanksgiving. The Bible says we are to be thankful at all times; it doesn't matter what's happening in your life. The psalmist could say it is good to give thanks to the Lord no matter what our circumstances, no matter how difficult, no matter how hopeless, no matter how grieved we are, we can still give thanks to the Lord. The Lord is always the Lord. He is always faithful, always good, always true. He always hears our prayers, he always sustains us, he is always kind, he is always merciful. So we can even pray that God would help us to be more Daniel-like in our prayer closet. Let's just pray that we would be men and women of prayer.
Posted in Pastor Devotional