10 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.
There seems to be competition for everything. (Have you seen the slapping showdowns from eastern Europe!?)
But there is no International Excuse Making Championship. I checked.
I did not look up the reasons (excuses) that such a competition did not exist. It could be that it's difficult to create a tournament when nearly the entire global population is a highly skilled contestant.
As we think about the prayers of the Bible, we can feel the urge to make excuses for our own prayer lives.
But no one ever had a better excuse not to prayer than Daniel. In Daniel 6, Daniel's rivals, out of petty and professional jealousy, orchestrated a law to be passed that made it illegal to pray.
Think about that for a moment...the only way they could bring Daniel down was to accuse him of praying too much!
If anyone had an excuse to pray less, it was Daniel. "If I pray, I will die!" That sure beats "the dog ate my prayerbook".
What does Daniel do...the exact same thing he had been doing. He prayed. Same way, same place, same time.
For most of us, even the slightest disturbance of our routines and circumstances can upend our prayer life. For Daniel, not even a death threat was an excuse to miss his time with God.
Today, may our prayer times be undeterred. By anything.
Your pastor,
Tim
