Are You Committed? :: Deeper Devotion

Are You Committed?

August 6, 2008

By Scott Meier

Daniel 6:8-12
Now, O king, issue the decree and put it in writing so that it cannot be altered-in accordance with the laws of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be repealed.” So King Darius put the decree in writing. Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before. Then these men went as a group and found Daniel praying and asking God for help. So they went to the king and spoke to him about his royal decree: “Did you not publish a decree that during the next thirty days anyone who prays to any god or man except to you, O king, would be thrown into the lions’ den?” The king answered, “The decree stands-in accordance with the laws of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be repealed.”

I’ m tired of all the political television ads. Every candidate is trying to ruin the other’s credibility. Just like the candidates do to each other, Satan does the same thing to you, using every opportunity to try and destroy your integrity. Each and every day we are bombarded with opportunities to leave our Christian commitment behind. It comes in the form of people who try to sway us; it comes in the form of specific temptations that hit us at our weakest point.

Daniel understood this. The other servants in the Kings Court knew the way to discredit Daniel was to create a law that made his commitment to God illegal. But when this passed what was the first thing Daniel did? He prayed! He turned to the one who would give him strength to face even a lion’s den.

I challenge you to learn three things from Daniel today: First, your walk with God must come before everything else. Second, when the going gets tough, and it will, prayer is your best line of defense. And third, in the end God is always victorious!