SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/9/2014
10:56 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Reviewing Daniel PT-2
Message from today’s SD is that we will continue to
review the book of Daniel.
Daniel Believed in a Sovereign God: First let us look at a couple of verses from the
book of Daniel that will establish the fact that God is sovereign: “that you be driven away from mankind and
your dwelling place be with the beasts of the field, and you be given grass to
eat like cattle and be drenched with the dew of heaven; and seven periods of
time will pass over you, until you recognize that the Most High is ruler over
the realm of mankind and bestows it on whomever He wishes (Daniel 4:25).” Daniel spoke these words to Nebuchadnezzar
when he had a great problem with pride. “"He
was also driven away from mankind, and his heart was made like that of beasts,
and his dwelling place was with the wild donkeys. He was given grass to eat
like cattle, and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven until he
recognized that the Most High God is ruler over the realm of mankind and that
He sets over it whomever He wishes.”
(Daniel 5:21) This verse was a
reminder to Nebuchadnezzar’s son Belshazzar, who would not humble himself and
died that very day at the hands of the Medes and the Persians.
Daniel lived in a time of dictators who for the most part
thought more of themselves than they should have and thought little about God,
but it is safe to say that at this very moment they have had a change of heart,
but now it is too late for them to do anything about it. Like the rich ruler who ignored Lazarus it is
too late for them.
A few months back my daughter was having a very bad day
and she began to cry over the things that she was facing. Her four year old son asked her why she was
crying and she told him that things were not going well and she was upset about
them. Her four year old son told her
that God is sovereign which kind of stopped her in her tracks. She ask him if he knew what that meant and he
told her that it meant that God was in charge of all things. Out of the mouth of little children come some
wonderful things. I praise the Lord for
my four year old grandson’s counseling to his mom.
Dr. Wiersbe writes “God was sovereign when He permitted
Babylon to conquer Judah, and He was sovereign in sending Daniel and his
friends to Babylon. In every aspect of
Daniel’s life and service, he depended totally on the God of heaven who is
sovereign over all things.
“Some people associate sovereignty with slavery, when
actually our surrender to God’s sovereign will is the first step toward
freedom, ‘And I will walk at liberty, for I see Your precepts’ (Ps.
119:45). We can yield ourselves to Him
with great confidence because He is our Father, and He loves us too much to
harm us and He is too wise to make a mistake.”
He had a disciplined prayer life: I suppose this is one of the things, as I
said in yesterday’s SD that I admired most about Daniel, and what I learned most
from his life.
Jewish people prayed three times a day, in the morning at
9:00 AM, at noon and then again at 3:00 PM.
We can see from different places in the book of Daniel that he kept up
this practice while living in Babylon, a practice that got him in trouble and
he could have lost his life over this practice.
We can see from the book of Daniel that he and his friend had a prayer
meeting in the second chapter of Daniel that saved their lives when God
answered their prayer and through that prayer gave insight not only to the Jews
but to us also.
Dr. Wiersbe writes “In the church today, it seems that many
people turn to prayer only when everything else failed. Their translation of Psalm 46:1 is, ‘God is
our last refuge when our own strength is gone and we don’t have anywhere else
to turn.’ What a tragedy! A. W. Tozer used to say, ‘Whatever God can
do, and whatever faith can do prayer can do, when it is offered in faith.’ Daniel not only prayed along but he also
prayed with his friends, because he knew the value of two or three believers
assembling together to cry out to God. ‘I’d
rather be able to pray than to be a great preacher, ‘said evangelist D. L Moody;
‘Jesus Christ never taught His disciples how to preach, but only how to pray.’”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: The sovereignty
of God and prayer are two wonderful things that I need to continue to study
more and more about. My prayer life
should be better, and this study on the book of Daniel shows me how much I fall
short on my prayer life. By the grace of
God I will do better.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Begin to have a better prayer life.
Memory verses for the
week: Philippians 2:5-6 “5
Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although He existed in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped.”
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
Question: “All our needs” (Philippians
4:19).
Today’s Bible
Question: “Where is Bethlehem was Jesus
born?”
Answer in our next SD.
2/9/2014 12:04 PM
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