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 rear 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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