The Power of Consistent Prayer: Lessons from Daniel

Join Reagan in this insightful morning lesson as he delves into Daniel chapter 6, focusing on the power of consistent prayer and faith. Discover how Daniel maintained his spiritual routine despite a busy schedule, pressure, and toxic people, and how this unwavering commitment brought him peace. Reagan draws parallels to Jesus’ practices, encouraging viewers to establish their own quiet times with God. Perfect for anyone looking to deepen their spiritual habits and find peace amidst life's challenges.

00:00 Introduction and Opening Prayer
00:44 Personal Anecdote: The Habit of Waving
03:14 Daniel's Custom of Prayer
05:52 The Significance of Praying Towards Jerusalem
09:01 Daniel's Challenges and Faith
14:43 Daniel's Peace Amidst Adversity
22:20 Lessons from Daniel's Prayer Life
27:10 Jesus' Custom of Finding Quiet Places
33:05 Application: Establishing Spiritual Habits
34:48 Invitation to Follow Christ

Transcript

Good morning. If you have your Bible with you, would you take it out please and turn to the Old Testament book of Daniel Daniel, chapter six. And we will read verse 10 here in just a moment. We'll read a few other verses as well, but I. Daniel chapter six in verse 10 will provide the primary text for our lesson this morning.

Daniel chapter six, beginning in verse 10. Thank you for being here this morning, especially to those who are visiting with us. We're grateful for your presence. We hope you can come and be back with us at any opportunity that you have. We want to afford you the opportunity to worship God and spirit and in truth, and our prayer always is that he will be pleased with the things that we do in service to him.

Speaking of doing things and doing things regularly, do you have anything that you've just done as habit routine for years and years and years? I'm talking about something so natural, so routine that you just do it. Without even thinking about it, maybe you don't even realize sometimes that you're doing it.

One thing like that for me is that I wave when meeting cars on a two lane road that started when I was in West Texas. Madison makes fun of me for doing this. I still do it to this day. I'm not a psycho about it. If I'm on the interstate, I don't wave at every car going by, you know? But if you're on a back road, a two lane road, and you.

You meet somebody, I just, you know, give 'em a couple of fingers, you know, good fingers, not bad fingers. I'm, I'm just saying hi to 'em as we pass, right? And I did that for a couple of reasons. Number one, I grew up in the country and everybody knew everybody. And so you wanted to, to wave and be friendly and so.

When I was a kid and I saw drive Texas the friendly way, I thought that meant you waved to everybody as you went, but, but also my dad told me that I had to do that because he really did know everybody in the area and he didn't want me to be driving his car and not wave. And people say, well, what's wrong with Larry?

Is Larry mad at me? Or whatever. But people have made fun of me for doing that because I still do it to this day, all these years later. It's not that East Texas isn't as friendly as West Texas. I'm not saying that, but that's maybe not the culture or the tradition as much here all these years later. I still mostly do that when I meet cars on a two-lane road.

In fact, a good friend of mine from Lyndale Jonathan Helvie, a couple of years ago, I got a package in the mail from him. We just randomly outta the blue. I guess they had gotten a hold of a 3D printer or something. 'cause he gave me this with a little adhesive to put on my dash. You kind of see it, right?

So, I don't even have to use my fingers anymore. I can just put this on my dash. There are other things like that that I do and you probably do too. I brush my teeth twice a day, every day, no matter what. I say, a prayer before going to sleep. At night I tell the girls when I drop them off at school, be kind and sweet and do what's right.

I say, love you. Bye to my family when I hang up the phone. And these things have become a part of my life, my custom, even since early days. And that's what quiet time alone in prayer. Was for Daniel. In Daniel chapter six in verse 10. If you're there in your Bible, would you read that with me, Daniel, chapter six in verse 10.

We'll give you the context here in just a moment, but I want us to read the verse first, and then we'll build the context around it. Now, when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went home. And in his upper room with his windows open toward Jerusalem, he knelt down on his knees three times that day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as was his custom since early days.

Now Daniel is a very well, I need to be careful, careful here. Daniel was an older man at this point. He is probably in his eighties. He has been in Babylon for 65 years or more by this point. I think it's kind of impressive that three times a day he'd get down on his knees and get back up again.

Right. But this had been his customs since early days. The New King James tells us and, and that's a good translation there. There's another sense that we'll talk about more for this phrase, but he had been doing this for a long, long time, since he was young. He had been praying three times a day. In the same way.

Now, there's a couple of interesting notes about this, why three times a day? Well, that became tradition for the rabbis. This was something that most rabbis expected of their people by the time of Jesus, and they attributed this practice going all the way back to Moses. But it's interesting that we see David say something very similar in Psalm 55, 16, and 17.

Listen carefully, please. As for me, I will call upon the Lord, and the Lord shall save me evening and morning, and at noon I will pray and cry aloud and he shall hear my voice. Now, this was not a required practice under the old law. It's not a required practice under Jesus. But that is a pretty good habit to get into right Morning, noon and evening.

I'm gonna take some time. I'm gonna make some time to be alone with God so that I can go to him in prayer three times a day. Daniel did that and it's not because he's in some retirement home with nothing else to do. No. He made this his habit since early days. And he continued that habit even as his life got busier and busier.

The second thing that's interesting to me about this phrase, he, he prays with his windows open toward Jerusalem. Why does he do that? Why would the windows open toward Jerusalem? Well, Solomon said in two Chronicles 6 34 and 35, listen carefully when your people go out, Solomon says to God, wherever you send them.

And when they pray to you toward this city which you have chosen, and the temple which I have built for your name, then hear from heaven, their prayer and their supplication and maintain their cause. Now it's interesting that God's people had been sent out to the land of Babylon, but they had been sent out by God and that temple of which Solomon speaks.

Had been destroyed by this time in the Book of Daniel, and yet still Daniel is opening his windows in that direction and fulfilling the requests that Solomon makes here, that God would hear his people as they pray toward this temple and, and Solomon, nor most of the people of Israel, had a misunderstanding that somehow God was confined to the temple, but it was representative that God was amongst.

His people. Baldwin brings out an interesting point when he says the fact that Jerusalem was in ruins called Forth faith from Daniel, that it would again be restored because the God who had set his name on the city was the continuing unchanging God in control of history. By kneeling down and praying back toward Jerusalem In this sort of way, Daniel was saying, I believe God, that you will fulfill your promises, that you will bring your people back to the land, and I believe that you will protect me while I am in this land as well.

So this was a reminder to Daniel in the midst of everything else that was going on in his life. Who he was as a follower of God and whom he served, that God was in control and that there was peace to be found with him. May I very humbly suggest that we need to establish the same kind of habit. How do we do it?

Well, it's not by changing the circumstances of our life, and I think a lot of times that's what we think. I just need to change my circumstances and then I'll have peace, and then I'll have time to do these sorts of things. I wanna ask you what was happening in Daniel's life? If you didn't get a handout for the lesson this morning, I, I wanted everybody to kind of pay attention for this introduction.

But if you need one of those and would like one of those, would you raise your hand. There's some young men who come around and pass those out if you need one of those, if you raise your hand, I got a few here now. I think it's important for you to have the handout this morning. There's some fill in the blanks like we normally do.

I'm also gonna have, I'm also gonna have something for you to be able to do on your own time as well where you might be able to imitate Daniel and somebody else that we're gonna talk about as well. But what we see in this passage is that Daniel was dealing with three different difficult things in his life.

Number one, Daniel was dealing with a busy schedule. If you go back to the beginning of chapter six, Daniel chapter six and verse one. It pleased Rais King of the Meads and Persians to set over the Kingdom 120 satraps to be over the whole kingdom and over these three governors of whom Da Daniel was one.

Not just that he was one of three. The, the word here kind of implies that he was first, he was foremost of these, that the say Traps might be, might give account to them. So that the king would suffer no loss the kingdom wouldn't get outta control. We've got bureaucracy working here so that everybody's doing what they ought to do.

I want you to imagine how busy that would've made Daniel. That he is one of three governors over the whole kingdom of the Meads and Persians, which in terms of area, was really only rivaled by what we're gonna see with the Greeks and Alexander the Great, and then the Romans after them. But to this point, this is the biggest kingdom that had ever existed.

Certainly in the Middle East or the ancient Near East. And so he's got all of these people reporting to him, and those people obviously had people under them who were reporting to them. And so Daniel would've been a very, very busy man. He would've had a lot going on. And maybe not as much as the Babylonians, but the Meads and Persians, they love their paperwork.

And so Daniel's got a lot that he's having to do at this time. He has a busy schedule. Even though he was dealing with that, he still as was his custom since early days, took three times a day, likely morning, noon, and evening for quiet time alone with God where he might pray. But it's not just a busy schedule.

There's some worse things happening. There is pressure, there is stress, there is great responsibility. If you keep reading there in verses three and four, then this Daniel distinguished himself. Above the governors and say traps because an excellent spirit was in him and the king gave thought to setting him over the whole realm.

So Daniel is in the midst of a possible promotion here and, and his spirit was to work hardily as unto the Lord. And yet he has a lot of pressure. He has a lot of stress, he has great responsibilities, but it's not just the normal day-to-day stress. He is got some people, maybe I'm taking the metaphor too far.

He's got some people in the office that are out to get him. Verse four. So the governors and Satraps sought to find some charge against Daniel concerning the kingdom, but they could find no charge or fault because he was faithful, nor was there any error or fault found in him. Do you think Daniel was ignorant to what they were trying to do?

I doubt it. I think Daniel probably knew that they were out to get him, and though he would've been a precise man in all of his dealings all the time, it certainly would've added some extra stress knowing that someone is looking to entrap you in your work. You know, anybody basically. Can come in and nitpick and try and find something that we do wrong in our work, something that maybe we don't do the way they would like, and that's what Daniel is having to deal with, not just with these other two governors.

The text is, but with the say Traps as well. So he has all of these people who are trying to catch him in something that he's doing wrong. He's under a lot of pressure if you think about it in physical terms. But it's not just the schedule and the stress and the pressure and the responsibilities. He's having to deal with some really toxic people.

You keep reading there in verse five. Then these men said, we shall not find any charge against this Daniel unless we find it against him concerning the laws of his God. So these governors and say, traps thronged before the king and said thus to him. King DeRay live forever. All the governors of the kingdom, the administrators and satraps, the counselors and advisors.

So we're giving a little insight into all the other positions that were under. Daniel have consulted together to establish a royal statute and to make a firm decree that whoever petitions any God or man for 30 days except you, O King, shall be cast into the denin of lions. Now, oh, king established the decree and signed the writing so that it cannot be changed according to the law of the Meads and Persians, which does not alter.

Therefore, king Rais signed the written decree. I think in all likelihood, this was mostly pretty ceremonial. I don't think they really thought. King Duras really thought they were gonna arrest anybody and throw 'em in the lion's den. I mean, most people, when they're praying, they do so pretty privately and you would have to seek them out to catch them doing this.

And so he signs the decree foolishly, but he signs the decree. These are, with all due respect, worse than any of your coworkers. These were toxic people. Daniel had to be around who were looking to catch him, and if they couldn't catch him in something, they were going to invent something against him. So what does Daniel do?

Read verse 10 with me again. Now, when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went home and in his upper room with his windows open toward Jerusalem, he knelt down on his knees three times that day and prayed. And gave thanks before his God, as was his custom since early days. Then these men assembled and found Daniel praying and making supplication before his God, and that leads to him being thrown into the lion's den, a busy schedule, pressure and stress and responsibilities, and being forced to be around toxic people all the time.

Some people would look at those three things today and say, you can't have peace with that. Those things rob you of your peace. Was that true of Daniel? I. Daniel still had peace in the midst of this. He knew who he was. He knew whom he served, and he did not cower at their threats. He had peace despite his circumstances in the very midst of dealing with these three difficult and uncomfortable things.

And I think that's evidenced by how little Daniel talks in this chapter. We see that he is the one who's in control and at peace while everybody else is upset and going here and there and saying this or that. There is a lot of talking in this chapter. And while Daniel talks a lot in the book, he doesn't talk a lot in this chapter, does he?

The other governors and safe traps, they talk a lot DURs, he talks a lot on a couple of different occasions. Daniel only says this in Daniel chapter six, beginning in verse 21. When King Arias comes and finds that spoiler alert that the lions don't eat him, then Daniel said to the king, oh, king, live forever.

My God sent his angel and shut the lion's mouths that they have not hurt me because I was found innocent before him. And also, oh King, I have done no wrong before you. Daniel doesn't rant and rave. Instead, he just calmly lays out the situation the way it is. God was with me. He found me innocent and I haven't done anything before you.

Oh, king lived forever. That's a man who was at peace. At peace in the lion's den, but also at peace in his life. At peace in his relationship with God. Daniel is unbothered by these things, and yet many people think that you have to change these three things in order to have peace, that you have to build a bubble around your life.

You have to protect your peace, and so in order to do that, I have to cancel my appointments. I have to simplify my schedule. I have to avoid negativity and difficulty in pain. I have to take on less responsibilities, anything to avoid the stress and pressure of life. I have to cut, quote, unquote, toxic people out of my life and control my environment where there are only those people who are building me up in some way that are around me.

And only then, only when I build that bubble around myself can I have peace. And what happens is that so many people are trying to build this fragile facade of peace by simply controlling their environment rather than being equipped to face that environment with peace and that facade is easily broken As soon as any of these things crop up again, as they will inevitably do.

Now, don't misunderstand me there. There is an element of truth that we should be mindful of our schedules. That we can busy ourself out of peace. Absolutely. That we should manage our stress. We can worry ourself out of peace. Absolutely. And we need to be, as the Bible warns us over and over, we need to be careful about who we are around.

Evil people can corrupt our peace, so don't take this too far, but loved ones. If I may be so bold. These three things are just called living in the world.

This is what we all have to face. If we're gonna be part of this world, we're gonna, we're gonna be busy, and there are gonna be times in life where that waxes and wanes more than another. I saw something funny. I, I shared it with Stephanie, or maybe I've shared it with Preston. Oh, that's bad, isn't it?

I don't remember which one of those two I shared it with. I saw this funny thing where it's like being adult. An adult is just saying over and over again. We'll do that whenever things slow down until you die. Like, like that's being an adult, right? We have busy schedules. We're all under stress. We all have responsibilities of things that we have to do at home and at work and with the church family and things that, that yes, they are our responsibilities.

And yes, there is some degree of pressure that's involved with that, and the only way we could avoid toxic people entirely is to get some cabin in Montana and move there all by ourselves. Now that sounds good to some of us, but that is not what God has called us to do. God has not called us out of a world filled with these things just as he called, didn't call Daniel out of a world filled with these things.

Daniel, I think, is one of the best examples in the entire Bible of somebody who properly interacted with the world that he was in the world, but he was not of the world. He didn't assimilate into that world, but he worked within the confines of the culture and time that he was in to glorify God in amazing ways.

Brothers and sisters, this is living in the world. And so if we think peace kind of come about because we remove these things in our from our life, the only way that's going to happen is if we get out of this world in which we live. Jesus did not call us out of the world, and Daniel did not leave the world either.

Instead, he was shining his light to such a degree that the King of Persia knew. And glorified his God by seeing the peace and deliverance that that God brought. And what does Dias proclaim when he sees that he proclaims peace? Read verses 25 through 28 with me please. And then we'll make some applications.

Then King Doras wrote to all peoples nations and languages that dwell in all the earth, peace be multiplied to you. I make a decree that in every dominion of my kingdom, men must tremble in fear before the God of Daniel. For he is the living God and steadfast forever. His kingdom is the one which shall not be destroyed, and his dominion shall endure to the end.

He delivers and rescues and he works signs and wonders in heaven and on earth. Who has delivered Daniel from the power of the lions. Daniel knew that more important than following the king's decree was keeping his connection to the king of Kings and Prince of Peace. And Daniel's habits didn't change based on circumstances.

He prayed three times a day, as was his custom since early days. This phrase as was his custom since early days in the New King James. Others translate as he had done previously. The English standard version, for example, translates it that way and it carries with it those two concepts. Number one. Daniel just did the same thing he was doing before the decree.

He didn't change what he was doing. He didn't change his life because there was this big change in the world and that it impacted him. He continued in his habit. He continued in his routine of finding the quiet times to be alone with God for prayer and reflection. And then the second thing is what we've emphasized.

He had been doing that same thing for a long time, that this was long established routine. And I think one of the big lessons that we should take from that is we should establish these habits now and whether this is a time when everything's going well and we already have a lot of peace and, and maybe we don't need it as much, or whether we're in a time of difficulty and things aren't going so well and we really need it, whichever stage we are in, we should establish these routines so that when the really difficult days do come and they will, the habit is already there.

The routine is already established and the peace has already been made. And it didn't matter what was happening around Daniel or how big the stakes were, he was going to continue to pray and fulfill his spiritual habits like he always had. Now I know. I know You want that too. I want that too. And hopefully you've made the commitment to find the quiet places as.

As has already been mentioned this morning with the Lord's Supper talk. Adam did a great job with that. We're, we're talking about walking like Jesus walk like Jesus, finding peace by imitating the prince of peace. And in this first quarter, we've encouraged our members here to walk like Jesus by finding those quiet times and places to be alone with God.

And just as an aside, I really appreciated what Adam said connecting. It's, it's so, it's so crazy, isn't it? Like I've been studying this quiet places, finding the quiet places, looking at all the quiet places in the Bible, and like a dummy. I didn't see the most important quiet place at all of all. Adam did a great job making that connection.

What is Jesus commanding us to do by coming together and partaking of the Lord's Supper? Is it not a commanded quiet place for us to come and be with God to pray to him? To remember him and to meditate on what his son has done. We need to find the quiet places, and Jesus says right off the bat, here's one for you every week, but I would suggest wisdom dictates that we find a bunch more quiet places to be alone with God.

I hope you've made that commitment to find the quiet places and such commitments should grow into habits. The text is a clue on how to accomplish this. If you have your handout there with you this would be a good time to fill this out. What do we see Daniel doing? What we see? Daniel making a commitment.

Daniel found a quiet place to pray and maybe the morning and maybe the evening would've been really easy. And my life I've found first thing when I wake up. That's a good time to find some quiet time to pray to God. I've found, and I've done a lot better at this in the, in the evening when I'm going to bed, that's a good time to find quiet time alone with God.

What I find really amazing is that Daniel found a third time in the midst of everything that was going on, he found a time in the middle of the day that he found this quiet time to pray. That shows commitment on his part. Secondly, we see that there was a time, three times a day he was going to do this and there was a location in his upper chamber, and it wasn't just in this location.

We see that he had a, a pattern a, an I, ideal conditions that he wanted in order to make this as impactful and effective as it could be. He was on his knees with his windows open. Facing toward Jerusalem. So commitment and time and location and ideal conditions. I've shared that before as we've talked about Daniel and Bible class.

But I wanna make a connection to these four things that I've not thought about really before. Commitment, time, location, and ideal conditions. Daniel found these quiet places. We aren't just imitating Daniel in doing this, right. Our theme for the year is not walk like Daniel. Our theme is walk like Jesus.

And I want you to turn to a passage that has a very similar phrase in it. Will you turn to Luke chapter 22 in verse 39. Luke chapter 22 in verse 39.

Begin reading with me in verse 39 on the night. Jesus is to be betrayed after he is partaking of the Passover. He has established the Lord's Supper after he has said and prayed a lot of things with his disciples. It is late in the evening, maybe sometime after midnight and coming out. Verse 39, he, Jesus went to the Mount of Olives as he was accustomed, and his disciples also followed him.

Now, this isn't the exact same phrase certainly it's Greek instead of Hebrew, but even in the step two agent, it's not the exact same phrase in Greek, but it is very similar that Jesus had a custom, just like Daniel did, and his custom was to go to the Mount of Olives. We learned in other gospels in a garden, and he went there to pray.

Verse 40, when he came to the place, he said to them, pray that you may not enter into temptation. And he was withdrawn from them about a stone's throw. And he knelt down and prayed saying, father, if it is your will take this cup away from me. Nevertheless, not as my will, but your not my will, but yours be done.

We know, of course, what happens in the rest of this text as Jesus is betrayed and ultimately crucified, but if you think about the circumstances of what Jesus does here. Jesus was dealing with the same things as Daniel. Was he not a busy schedule this week? The conclusion of this seven or eight day period that we find here, this was according to the gospels, the busiest week of Jesus' life.

He was preaching and he was teaching and he was debating with the scribes and Pharisees. He was making the trek into Jerusalem from Bethany. Every day there was, there was the triumphal entry and all of these other things that were happening. And Jesus was getting up early in the morning and he was staying up till really late at night.

This was a super busy time for him, the busiest time of his ministry. We see even in the prayer that he prays the pressure and stress and responsibility that Jesus had, the stress that he was under that, that he is deeply distressed in the garden and his sweat, Luke tells us, becomes like great, great drops of blood.

Jesus. Knew the magnitude of what it was he was about to do. And being the son of God, being God in the flesh, he knew the pain and the shame that was going to be associated with what it was he had to do. That's pressure. Like I've never been under anything close in my entire life, but we can empathize with this idea, can't we?

That feeling in our stomach of. Of anticipation of what's going to happen, especially if it's something that could be bad. Jesus was under that kind of pressure, and certainly he was surrounded by toxic people, even those closest to him, his inner circle, Peter, James, and John fell asleep in the garden when they were supposed to be praying for him.

All of the disciples fled. Judas betrayed him. There is this kangaroo court before the high priest who should have been the leader of God's people. And then there's Pilate who though he knows Jesus is innocent, he chooses not to release him. And then the crowds that are easily manipul manipulated from crying out that this is the Messiah when he gets to town.

To crucify him. Crucify him before. That's exactly what happens. Jesus dealt with toxic people like we could not believe. And yet what does Jesus do? How did he deal with all of that? By doing what he was accustomed to doing, finding a quiet place to be alone with his father. He had a custom of coming to the garden to pray.

He had a custom of doing this at night, perhaps because that was one of the few times he could find a time and a place to be alone with his father, and so Jesus was willing to stay up late. To make sure he found that time. Jesus found a quiet place to pray. He made the same kind of commitment and it was at night.

It was squeezed in after the supper and all that he said to his disciples and before his betrayal. Jesus certainly is in control of so many of the things taking place here, and he found this time of preparation and peace before the things that he must do through the night and into the next day to be alone with his father.

Yes, there was a location, a place that he often came in the garden on the Mount of Olives. A place outside a place of beauty where he could find that time to be alone with God. And Jesus's ideal conditions, at least at this time, was to be alone about a stone's throw from others kneeling down or as some of the gospel say, even lying face down before his father.

That he might go in prayer. We imitate Daniel when we do these sorts of things, when we make time for these sorts of things, but we, we imitate Jesus as well that this was Jesus's custom, this is what he did, and I would suggest that we need to imitate him. So what does that look like for you and for me more pointedly?

What does that look like tomorrow? What does that look like this week? At the beginning of the year, we encouraged you. If you keep a Cal calendar, whether that's on your phone or a computer, or a hard copy on your desk or refrigerator schedule quiet time to be alone with God. Make the commitment, find the time and location and ideal conditions to do this with God and spend at least 10 minutes.

Find 10 minutes that you can do this. And if you don't keep a calendar or if like me, you don't follow your calendar, particularly well decide the night before when you're gonna spend that time. When tomorrow will I find time to be alone with God? And hopefully if we do this enough, it can become our custom Since these days starting now, choose that time and place and ideal conditions for you to be alone with God and then do it.

Go to that time, go to that place at that time and be alone with God. And as we continue through this year, we're gonna talk about some specific things that you can do while you're there. But may I suggest that just finding the time and meditating, maybe praying, maybe reading whatever it is you choose to do, but focusing on God and things of a spiritual nature will immediately start bearing fruit in your life.

In regard to your peace, however busy your schedule is, whatever pressure you're under, whatever people you have to deal with, we can find peace if we imitate the Prince of Peace. But all of this is intended really for Christians, and if you're not yet a Christian this morning, and there's some help to be found in establishing good habits and good routines.

But without salvation in Jesus Christ, all of that peace is fleeting and temporary, but with him it is permanent and eternal that we can have peace not just in this life, but peace that looks to the next. If you're willing to come and humble submission to say, Jesus is my teacher and my Lord, and I am here to imitate him, if you'll put off your old man of sin to be buried with Christ and baptism, you can rise to walk.

In that new life following after him and his steps, and if we can help you with that, even now, come while together, we stand.