"Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went home. And in his upper room, with his windows open toward Jerusalem, he knelt down on his knees three times that day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as was his custom since early days." (Daniel 6:10)

When Daniel heard the decree of King Darius ordering the death of any who petitions any god or man other than the king himself, he went home and prayed to God, thus disobeying the decree. These thrice-daily prayers were "his custom since early days" - they were Daniel's usual spiritual cultivation. And these prayers were so important to Daniel that he deemed them worth dying for.

How important do we consider our own daily spiritual cultivation? When life gets busy, spiritual cultivation is sadly the first thing we drop. We often think to ourselves that it's okay to miss one prayer or to skip a few days of Bible reading. After all, we will go to church on the Sabbath and read the Bible and pray then. We find ourselves relying on the Sabbath alone as our sole source of spiritual cultivation.

How far removed is this kind of attitude from Daniel's, who deemed his daily prayers worth dying for. Daniel was unwilling to compromise his cultivation even for 30 days because those prayers were the source of his spiritual strength. By being faithful to his daily prayers, Daniel demonstrated his faithfulness to God. In choosing to pray to God despite the king's decree, Daniel chose God over his own life.

Sometimes, we need to look at our daily worship of God with this sort of extremity. Have we ever thought that each time we choose to forgo our spiritual cultivation, we are forgoing God and choosing ourselves above God? We become worshippers of our own convenience rather than worshippers of God. Let us instead learn from Daniel and put worshipping God first in our daily lives. Let us choose to set our prayer and Bible reading time as a priority in our day - perhaps even the first thing that we do every day. And if we can be faithful to this, God will respond in kind. God is faithful and often returns to us far more than we ever gave to Him. Let us strive to be faithful worshippers, worshippers who are willing to die before they stop worshipping God.

 

Reflection Questions:

1.     What is preventing me from being faithful to my daily spiritual cultivation?

2.     What do I need to change to make worship a priority in my and my family's daily life?