"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?