How committed are you to your habits or disciplines of your faith? If you call yourself a Christian, what is different about your life now that you know Jesus? I’m not talking about “my sins are forgiven and i have a promised home in heaven” Sunday School answers. I’m asking about everyday life Christianity. If I were to ask your classmates, co-workers or neighbors to describe your faith and practices, what would they say? Would they be ready to describe you as a Christian? How?
Some provocative questions this week, right? No, your right, that isn’t easy to answer, although it should be. I began to develop a personal quiet time with Jesus everyday when I was 15 years old on my missions trip to Ireland. I had received Jesus’ free gift of salvation years earlier, but had fallen into ritualistic Christianity...you know, go to church three times a week and pray over meals Christianity. But on my missions trip I was challenged with the developing the personal relational Christianity. Life with Jesus isn’t about ritual, it’s about growing in intimacy with God by spending time learning from Him and talking to Him. It’s about telling others about who He is and celebrating Him with other believers.
I cannot say I have been perfect in spending time with God everyday since then, but that is where it started. Learning to spend time in prayer, more then just over meals. Regular attendance at my local church building relationships with other Christians also became very important to me. Looking for ways to share Jesus with others is also something we should be doing more regularly. What are normal parts of your life?
Now that you have your list of the Christian habits you do regularly, I want to ask you this: What would you do if a new law was issued that says “you cannot read your Bible, pray to your God or attend a church for the next 30 days. If you do, you will spend 3 months in prison.” What is your initial reaction to this thought? Anger, outrage? Come on, you know that when you go on vacation you skip church. When you have a long Saturday you would rather sleep in on Sunday. You don’t actually read your Bible all that often. And prayer? It’s more of a mindless exercise you mumble over your food anyway, so why not just take a mini vaca from it?
I know that scenario sounds radical, but an edict far worse then this was issue to this weeks unlikely character. There was a law put in place specifically because the leaders knew Daniel’s faith in God led him to pray three times daily. Because of their jealousy, the wicked rulers had the king sign into a law a command to not pray to any other god, except the king, for 30 days or be thrown into a fiery furnace.
We know the story from Sunday School, that Daniel was thrown into the lions den, however I want to look at the unlikely faith and prayer of Daniel. He had established a pattern about his faith that was recognized, not just by his neighbors and fellow believers, but by the rulers of the country. He would go out on his balcony and pray three times daily to the God of the Bible.
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