Let's Pray!

So everyday we are endeavoring to pray morning, noon, and night - a pattern reflective of Daniel's prayer life.

Daniel was a prophet of God stuck in a country that was not his own, separated from his family, and was in the company of idol worshippers. Daniel was in captivity! He was were he did not want to be but Daniel made the best of it. In fact, despite of his situation, he prospered in the land of Babylon because he knew how to get a hold of God. Daniel stood up against the paganism of the Babylonian King and prayed despite being under the threat of death. Daniel stayed a night in a lion's den and came out the morning after victorious over his enemies! Daniel was bold, passionate, and favored because he connected with God at least three times a day. Daniel was a steemed magistrate in a strange land because of the wisdom God bestowed on him. What an amazing Bible character Daniel was! Not only did he experience all the above mentioned, Daniel also recieved visions from God concerning the future including the death of the Messiah - Jesus and the rapture of the saints in the end times!

Fantastic!

We don't know the extent of the knowledge of Daniel. We don't know the scope of his natural talent. We don't know his pedigree. We don't know if he had a familial propensity for greatness. We don't know alot of Daniel's background history, but what we do know is that he knew how to pray.

Sometimes we depend on our physical and mental abilities to bring us through our life's situations. We focus on what we can do and what we think we are able to do. We can rely on our resources such as our careers, our jobs, and our wages to pull us out of tight spots. We strive to make sure that we are able by ourselves to make it through. What happens? When our resources does not meet our needs, frustration can come. If we continue to pursue the answers for our situation through our own powers, we can find ourselves more and more frustrated as we find out that alot of what we think we're able to do sometimes do not meet the need at hand. If we are not careful, frustration can lead to hopelessness!

So what do we do?

Connecting to God is the key to perpetual hopefulness. When we are connected to God, there may be times where we do not get what we feel like we should but we later find out that God has everything working together for our good. Connecting to God enables us to not be so entrusting with our own abilities thus preventing ourselves from feelings of frustration and hopelessness. If we can rely on God as we exercise our God given abilities, even if our talents are not enough, we'll find ourselves less stressed since our reliance is not our resources, but on God's resources; we're we fail, He steps in!

Prayer is the connecting point to God. Learning how to trust and lean on God is the outcome of prayer. God answers prayer - but equally important is - prayer changes our attitude about our situations. When we pray for our needs, we release our self-reliance into God-reliance. Prayer has a natural element of surrender and humility. It's very difficult to pray for God to answer or meet our needs without inherently confessing, even without speaking it out, that we are in need of Him. Yes, God hears our prayers and it affects God because God is stirred by prayer (along with praise), but the affect of a heartfelt prayer works on our spirit and our mindset. The praying person learns, as he/she prays, to trust in God.

Daniel's prayer life raised him to be a man of favor. Daniel's connection to God enabled him to withstand his time of captivity. Daniel's prayer life made him a prosperous man and an esteemed man in Babylon! Like Daniel, we can recieve favor, perseverence, prosperity and esteem if we would take the time to pray like Daniel.

Last words ...

Just so I don't get mistaken ... yes, the very act of praying changes us, but, remember, it is the answering God that makes the true difference in prayer. Some of us may lose our jobs, possesions, and money - but God does not lose anything. What we lose, God can find!

We bless you in Jesus Name!