Going with the Flow or Daring to be Different?

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.

Daniel 6:10

Corrie Ten Boom was a Dutch lady whose family risked their lives during the Second World War to provide a hiding place in their home for persecuted Jews. Some one betrayed them and as a result her watch maker father was sent to a concentration camp where he died ten days later. Corrie and her beloved sister Betsie were incarcerated at Ravensbruck. They were starved, covered with fleas and made to suffer. Betsie did not survive the horror of the camp but Corrie gaunt, filthy, and weak was released in October 1944. She later found out that an order had been given at the end of that very week to kill all women her age and older. An error in prison paperwork was the catalyst God used to release her. Corrie vowed if the Lord allowed her to live, she would tell as many people as possible about the love and forgiveness of Jesus Christ. She also promised to go wherever the Lord led. Although she was fifty nine years of age when released she travelled all over the world for the next thirty years speaking in more than sixty countries, captivating audiences with her inspiring faith and love for the Lord.

Daniel had been serving the government for some 60 years now. 60 years, and yet they couldn’t find any wrongdoing on his part!  Instead they found that he both was above any corruption and that he had not failed in any of his duties. He was without error or fault. Furthermore we read in v. 3 that Daniel had an excellent spirit or exceptional qualities about him.

The king knew that Daniel “continually served the Lord” (vv. 16, 20). Even his enemies knew his habits and practices, because he had developed the disciplines of grace over the decades of his life. So they knew that he prayed three times a day, facing Jerusalem, and that’s how they sought to nail him.

Now, having your life ruled by godly convictions is a good thing, right? But wait a minute: couldn’t we say the same thing about the Pharisees? We could.  So what’s the difference between the Pharisees and Daniel?

One contrast was that Daniel was willing to lose everything for His love of God and his service of the Lord, while the Pharisees would not die to themselves. Another difference was that Daniel’s structured and disciplined habits flowed from a heart that loved God and sought His glory, while the Pharisees loved themselves and their own glory.

Therefore we must be careful not to confuse regular religious practices and habits (such as fasting, praying, reading our Bibles, etc.) with a true love and a heart-felt obedience to the Lord.

Daniel could have easily thought to himself, “I’ll just take the next 30 days off from praying as I usually do.” Or “I’ll just close the shutters when I pray, so no one will see me.” But no. Daniel would not be cowered or backed into submission. He would stand firm in His faith, out of his love for the Lord.

We are creatures of habit, either for good and for God’s glory, or for evil and for self-glory. And Daniel had been practicing this habit of prayer for some 60-70 years! Yes, it was this habit of regular, disciplined prayer that “got him in trouble” but this unjust suffering is what God loves to work with, for His glory, and to demonstrate His mighty arm!

We read in v. 10 that Daniel opened his window toward Jerusalem.  Why was that, now that Jerusalem lay in ruins and the Lord’s temple had been destroyed?  We read in 1 Kings 8:46-51, at the dedication of the temple, that when God’s people sin and they are sent into exile, if they repent and “pray to You and turn to the land and the temple area” then God will hear them and restore them to the land. So Daniel prayed toward Jerusalem in accordance with the promises of God’s Word, believing that God would hear him and have mercy once again. For Daniel, it was more than a ritual direction; it was an orientation of his faith in God.

We used to ((The people in power are trying to take them away) live in a country where we can express our religious beliefs. What would you do if our Prime Minister signed an executive order stating that no one was allowed to pray publically to the God of the Bible for the next 30 days?  Or that you were not allowed to read your Bible for the next month? Or that couples were forbidden to pray together or have family devotions together for the next 30 days… and the penalty for these activities would be 30 days in jail and a 1 lakh rupees fine.  What would you do? How might those executive orders impact you?

This Lenten Season though the truth is we feel more like Jonah running away from the Lord’s command, or like Peter denying Christ, but Christ calls us to be a Daniel who is ready to face the lions for the Lord.

God Bless You.