SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/5/2013 11:16 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Believing versus Scheming PT-2
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Daniel
6:10-11
Message of the verses: We will pick up where we left off yesterday in our study of the sixth chapter of Daniel.
Daniel’s Response (Daniel 6:10-11): “10 Now when Daniel knew that the document was signed, he entered his house (now in his roof chamber he had windows open toward Jerusalem); and he continued kneeling on his knees three times a day, praying and giving thanks before his God, as he had been doing previously. 11 Then these men came by agreement and found Daniel making petition and supplication before his God.”
I wonder what went through Daniel’s mind when he read the document that stated that everyone had to only pray to Darius for a month. I would think that perhaps the first thing that he did was pray to the Lord for wisdom, and yet Daniel knew that by following the provisions of the document that he would be blaspheming the Lord, and Daniel knew that death was better than doing that. Daniel knew what had happened to his three friends and how God had protected them in the fiery furnace, so he knew that God could protect him from the mouths of the lions. Perhaps that is how Daniel prayed that God would shut the mouths of the lions, or perhaps the thought came into his mind that his ministry was complete and this is the way that God was going to take him home. However if we look in the book of Ester and see that the plot was against all of the Jews, perhaps this document would have done the same thing and not only Daniel would be killed, but all the Jews who prayed to the Lord. At any rate Daniel did not change his times of praying to the Lord with his windows opened towards Jerusalem, just as Solomon had said for the Jews to do when they were not living in Israel. Solomon made that statement when he dedicated the temple to the Lord early in his reign over Israel. (1 Kings 8:28-30): “28 "Yet have regard to the prayer of Your servant and to his supplication, O LORD my God, to listen to the cry and to the prayer which Your servant prays before You today; 29 that Your eyes may be open toward this house night and day, toward the place of which You have said, ’My name shall be there,’ to listen to the prayer which Your servant shall pray toward this place. 30 “Listen to the supplication of Your servant and of Your people Israel, when they pray toward this place; hear in heaven Your dwelling place; hear and forgive.”
We see again in the life of Daniel that there was no compromise in his life when it came to the things of the Lord. Dr. Wiersbe writes “No, a man like Daniel feared only the Lord; and when you fear the Lord you need not fear anyone else. ‘We ought to obey God rather than men’ (Acts 5:29).”
We read at the end of Dr. Wiersbe’s commentary on this
section the following: “The most
important part of a believer’s life is the part that only God sees, our daily private
time of meditation and prayer. ‘You pray as your face is set,’
said British theologian P. T. Forsythe, ‘towards Jerusalem or Babylon.’ Most of the world begins the day looking
toward the world and hoping to get something from it, but the Christian
believer looks to the Lord and His promises and enters each new day by
faith. Outlook determines outcome, and
when we look to the Lord for His guidance and help each day, we know that the
outcome is in His hands and that we have nothing to fear. ‘Real true faith is man’s weakness leaning on
God’s strength,’ said D. L. Moody, and we might add man’s weakness transformed
into God’s strength (Heb. 11:34).”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: Two things: Don’t compromise and only fear the Lord.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
Proverbs 3:5-6.
Memory verses for the
week: Psalm 46:1-9
1 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in
trouble. 2 Therefore we will not fear,
though the earth should change and though the mountains slip into the heart of the
sea, 3 though the waters roar and foam, though the mountains quake at its
swelling pride. Selah. 4 There is a river whose streams make glade
the city of God, the holy dwelling place of the most high. 5 God is in the midst of her, she will not be
moved, God will help when morning dawns.
6 The nations make an uproar, the kingdoms tottered, He
raised His voice, the earth melted. 7
The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our stronghold. Selah.
8 Come behold the works of the Lord, who wrought desolations in the
earth. 9 He makes wars to cease; He
breaks the bow and cuts the spear in tow; He burns the chariots with fire.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
Question: “Enter the straight gate”
(Matthew 7:13).
Today’s Bible
Question: “Who said ‘Master, we have
toiled all the night, and have taken nothing:
nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net’?”
Answer in tomorrow’s SD.
8/5/2013 11:46 AM
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