If all we do with Daniel’s prayer is to admire it, we will not use it beneficially as far as we ourselves are concerned. Or if we look at it and deduce that we can never pray like him, then we will fail to profit from his prayer. It is imperative that we learn to pray better from his example of prayer. After all, our prayer life will always need improving and the best way to do so is to examine the prayers recorded in the Bible. There are many lessons that we can deduce from Daniel’s prayer in order to become better prayer warriors. We have mentioned several in the past couple of readings, but I would like to stress five of them again.
The first lesson is the importance of knowing the Bible. We saw earlier that one basic aspect of Daniel’s prayer was that he understood from the Book of Jeremiah that God was about to fulfil the promise of deliverance of his people from captivity. That knowledge compelled him to pray. The challenge comes to us regarding our knowledge of the Bible. In it, we find encouragements and arguments to use when we pray to God.
A second lesson is that our prayers should be connected to our current providences. These providences may be new, but they can also be old. Daniel’s situation was both old and new. It was old in the sense that his people were in captivity; it was new in the sense that they had a new emperor. Whatever else could be said about the change in emperors, it was safe to deduce that God was at work because it is he who changes rulers and their thrones. The fact that God was at work in providence encouraged Daniel to pray. We see developments in our providences all the time: new people come our way, new opportunities and activities arise, perhaps unexpected or disappointing situations appear. Whatever they are, they are a reminder that God is at work, and we should therefore pray.
A third lesson concerns how we focus on God. We noticed that Daniel stressed God’s mercy. His mercy includes all his other attributes, but all his other attributes don’t always include mercy when they are involved. For example, mercy includes his power, but his power can be exercised without mercy. There is a sense in which God can even love someone and not show him mercy. The obvious example in this regard is the rich young ruler. It may be an interesting assessment to make, but we should watch out for petitions that are connected to God’s mercy because I suspect they are more likely to be answered.
Then a fourth lesson must be the removal of possible external distractions. We saw how Daniel arranged his daily activities so that he would have uninterrupted prayer. Most external barriers to prolonged prayer are easy to deal with. What are the barriers? The telephone is one, but we can switch it off if it is a mobile or disconnect it if it is a landline. The knock on the door as we begin to pray – ignore it; if it is important the person will come back or else contact you in another way. At that time Daniel made a specific period of prayer his priority; and we too cannot pray in this manner unless we give it complete priority as well.
A fifth lesson is how to pray. We noted that Daniel turned his face towards God and sought for him. The turning of his face suggested Daniel’s expectancy that God would listen and answer the request. We also see that Daniel prayed affectionately and intelligently. His affections were seen in his willingness to identify himself with sinful Israel. When we pray for the church or the nation, do we say ‘we’ or ‘they’? And when he prayed intelligently, he brought to God’s attention his great actions in the past when he had shown his mighty power in deliverance of his people. We can do the same, and in doing so we have so much more to say than Daniel. For example, we can refer to what is recorded in the New Testament and we can also speak to God about the great things he has done in the history of the church.
No comments:
Post a Comment