Just before writing this today, we received an emergency broadcast on our phone (an Amber Alert). Since we normally pray over them, after checking the alert, I heard Jesse say, “Lord, we pray for America!” I couldn’t help but hear God also speaking through this tragic emergency alert. Please pray for this little girl, America, to be delivered from all danger and restored to safety. But please also hear God’s emergency broadcast to pray the same for our nation ~ not only tomorrow (on the national day of prayer), but every day. ♥♥
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Recently, the Lord gave us Daniel 6 and I was struck by the parallels to what’s happening in our nation. You know the story. In their frustrated frenzy to get rid of Daniel, his enemies had realized they’d never be able to do so through any legitimate accusations of corruption. His only “weakness,” in their estimation, was his undying devotion to God.
5 Then these men said, “We will not find any ground of accusation against this Daniel unless we find it against him with regard to the law of his God.”
Through a stroke of evil genius, they realized they needed to create laws that would force Daniel to have to choose between obedience to God or man ~ between practicing his faith or committing treason. (…the “A Time for Treason” theme continues). When Daniel learned of the law enacted against his faith, and its ultimate penalty for failure to comply, it would have been so easy for him to compromise. He could have simply decided to forgo praying, reasoning that it was only for 30 days. Or even more tempting, he could have rationalized that he’d still pray to God as before, but that he’d keep the practice of his faith a private matter ~ behind closed doors. No one needed to know. This would allow him to appease the authorities and avoid trouble, while convincing himself that, in his heart, he’d still be worshiping God. But this wasn’t Daniel’s response.
10 Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house, and his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he got down upon his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he had done previously.
Daniel refused to take his faith into hiding; He refused to be intimidated into a silent faith or to bow to pressure to compromise to save his skin. Knowing his very life was at stake, he boldly positioned himself in front of open windows and continued to serve and worship God, in full view for anyone to see. Surely his faith was cut from the same cloth as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Come fiery furnace, lion’s den, or any other gruesome threat of demise, they knew they must obey God rather than man. They were confident that God was well able to render man’s worst threats and opposition impotent and ineffective. But even if He didn’t, they still lived with the conviction that they were ultimately safer in obedience to God and disobedience to man, regardless of the worst consequences man could contrive, than the other way around.
Thankfully, we know God intervened in a miraculous way to protect and deliver Daniel because he stood for what was right and entrusted himself to God’s care. Since Daniel continued to open His mouth for God, God supernaturally shut the mouths of what the enemy meant to destroy him. And with the same divine irony that unfolded in the lives of Esther and Haman, God flipped the script. Not only did Daniel’s enemies receive the horrible fate they’d planned for him, but Daniel prospered and the laws were changed to protect and promote worship of and service to God.
25 Then King Darius wrote to all peoples, nations, and languages [in his realm] that dwelt in all the earth: May peace be multiplied to you! 26 I make a decree that in all my royal dominion men must tremble and fear before the God of Daniel, for He is the living God, enduring and steadfast forever, and His kingdom shall not be destroyed and His dominion shall be even to the end [of the world]. 27 He is a Savior and Deliverer, and He works signs and wonders in the heavens and on the earth—He Who has delivered Daniel from the power of the lions.
Wow!!! What a relevant message for our nation demonstrating the precise kind of divine turnaround we desperately need to see. (Clearly, we don’t pray for the enemies of God’s Word, ways, and people to end up a banquet for lions – or to receive any horrible fate – but we do pray our enemies in the spiritual realm are utterly devoured.)
May Daniel’s life inspire us to fear and obey God, not man (Matthew 10:16-39). May it encourage us all not to be pressured to conform to political correctness and to laws the enemy devises to silence or skewer God’s Word and those who hold to it/Him. May it infuse us with the COURAGE to continue standing for Truth in love and doing God’s will “with the windows open” for all to see – in spite of popular public opinion or threat of penalty or harm. And may it remind us of God’s power to flip the script, turn the tables, and rewrite the endings – and the laws – so that we are delivered from the enemy’s schemes and a nation is (once again, in our case) turned to Him.
Praying for us all to have the COURAGE to Live With The Windows Open!
© Laura Jewell Tyree
AGREED!
AGREED!