Have you ever watched birds sleeping on their perch and wondered why they never fall off? How do they manage to hang on so securely? The answer lies in the tendons that run from the birds’ knees to their toes. These tendons are designed to contract and grip firmly when the knees are bent. The claws refuse to let go until the knees are straightened again. The bent knees give the birds the power to hold on to their perch tightly. From these sleeping birds, we can learn the secret of standing strong for God, regardless of any challenges in our faith journey. That secret is related to “the knee bent in prayer.”
Today, we have arrived at one of the final tests faced by Daniel in the “Unshakable” series from the Book of Daniel. In our text for this morning, Daniel was in his eighties and lived under a Persian emperor named Darius. From the observation of last Sunday’s message, we have learned that King Belshazzar of Babylon died the night he saw a message on the wall during the party. On that same night, the Persians attacked the Babylonians and won the battle. Now, Daniel was serving in the new kingdom of Persia as “one of the three administrators” appointed by King Darius. Because of his God-given wisdom and knowledge, Daniel had been continuously promoted under the leadership of three kings, King Nebuchadnezzar, King Belshazzar, and King Darius, across two different empires, Babylon and Persia.
When King Darius gained authority over the Persian Empire, he selected Daniel to be one of his top cabinet members. Many of Daniel’s colleagues were envious of him because, as an Israelite, he had become one of the highest rulers in Persia, a nation that had colonized his homeland after Babylon. They began to investigate his past to find any weaknesses and wrongdoings to accuse him of. However, they could not discover any faults in Daniel’s life because he was a man of complete integrity. That is why they decided to attack his faith. They tricked King Darius into making a special law for himself. According to the decree approved by the king, if anyone prayed to any god or human other than the Persian emperor, they would be thrown into a lions’ den. This was a significant test for anyone, especially for those with faith in God and a devoted mind for the Lord.
The name Daniel means “God is my judge.” Throughout his entire life, Daniel made every effort to live up to his name. When Daniel encountered this sacred trial in a secular environment, he demonstrated spiritual principles on how to stand strong before God. Today, I want us to explore these foundations and apply them to our faith journeys.
Firstly, Daniel remembered God, who had been faithful in his past tests. Daniel kept trusting his merciful and mighty God with all his heart amid the current challenge. He continued to believe in the God who had saved him from all the trials he had faced. When young Daniel was offered the king’s food and royal wine, he refused to consume them. Instead, he requested an administrator to provide him with only vegetables and water. During Danie’s first test, God blessed him with supernatural wisdom, making him “ten times” wiser than other students. When Daniel and his three friends were forced to bow to a golden status representing a Babylonian emperor, they declined to do so. Even though they were thrown into a blazing furnace during the second test, God saved them, and they were not hurt at all. When Daniel delivered God’s judgemental messages to King Nebuchadnezzar and King Belshazzar, God continuously protected him and blessed him with other promotions during his third and fourth trials.
Like Daniel, we need to remember what God has done for our loved ones and us in the past when we encounter challenges. We also need to perceive what God is doing right now, even during difficult times, and be thankful to the Lord for what he will continue to do for us in the coming days. Remembering God and His marvelous work is crucial for us as God’s children to keep in mind in our faith journey. As I have mentioned before, one main difference between worry and meditation is our focus. When we only pay attention to the challenging situations we face, we may keep worrying and imagining unrealistic scenarios. We may feel burdened and stressed due to an unfaithful perspective on God, who controls every matter. Our spiritual adversary, Satan, attacks us using fear as a weapon. On the contrary, when we place our whole trust in the Almighty God over any concerning situations, we can relax and rejoice, while experiencing how everything is resolved by the Lord who controls every matter. That is why the author of Hebrews encourages his audience to “fix their eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith” (Hebrews 12:3). The writer also reminds us of the divine reality that we are surrounded by “a great cloud of witnesses, including Daniel and his friends, who passed all the tests with the help of the Holy Spirit while remembering God’s might and mercy in their faith journeys (Hebrews 12:1). Fear grows when we give in to it, but faith fills our hearts when we look up to Christ. Friends, let us fully focus our minds on the Lord, even under challenging circumstances, since Jesus has already proven Himself to keep us out of the challenges we cannot handle on our own and continuously gives us strength to stand strong for God.
Secondly, Daniel kept praying to God during his trials. Even when Daniel learned about the king’s frightening regulation, he continued to pray to God with thanksgiving three times a day. He did not complain about the king’s decree, which his enemies had devised to put his life in danger. Instead, he praised God’s goodness while kneeling before the Lord. Bowing down on his knees was an expression of his humility and submission before God. Daniel also opened his windows toward Jerusalem when he prayed at home. Even though he was in Persia, far from his homeland of Jerusalem, he never stopped praying to God to return his people to their home from captivity. To compromise with King Darius’ order, Daniel could have simply closed the windows so his enemies wouldn’t see him pray. He could have said, “I’ll pray in my heart. No one will know.” Or he could have excused himself from praying openly for 30 days. But he didn’t. As the meaning of his name indicated, Daniel was determined to serve only God, regardless of the outcome. He feared only the living God, not any human power.
In our Psalm for today, the Psalmist asked himself where his strength would come from when he lifted up his eyes to the mountains (Psalm 121:1). In the Bible, mountains can often be associated with “powerful kingdoms” (Daniel 2:35). Mountains may also represent “immovable and secure places of refuge” (Psalm 11:1). King David, known as the author of many Psalms, including this one, answered himself right after the question he made on behalf of all his audience: “My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth” (Psalm 121:1). Let us consider this response. David, as the king of the United Kingdom of Israel, had almost everything: power, reputation, wealth, wisdom, health, and so on. However, David did not rely on any of these; instead, he confessed that his genuine support originated from the Lord, the Creator of all the mountains, which symbolize “all earthly powers.” Because David knew this, he knelt before God during times of crisis. Like Daniel, he prayed three times a day to God to keep him from all harm and watch over his life (Psalm 55:17-18).
We as humans are weak and imperfect, and we cannot handle all situations even if we try everything. One study reported… When we cry out to God for His help and give our difficult situations to God, He can and will hear our voices and rescue us unharmed, even though many obstacles are out there. Today, we need to pray to God with the same humble mind for His blessings as Daniel and David did. Even though we may feel like little children, in prayer, we can face “uncertain days” because the Lord, our merciful and mighty God, is in control. In prayer, we can courageously and confidently overcome any challenges today or tomorrow because God sent His son, Jesus, who died to atone for our sins and defeated the power of the death. In prayer, we can move forward into God’s bright directions because we know Christ “holds the future.” In prayer, all fear in our faith journey is gone because Jesus lives and gives us victory and eternal life. With a spirit of expectancy toward Jesus Christ, we should continuously pray that God would open the windows of heaven and pour His blessings down upon each of us, our loved ones, our family, our church, our community, and our country.
Thirdly, Daniel never changed his attitude toward God in his spiritual race. I want to read to you again each second part of verses 10 and 13: “Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before” (Daniel 6:10b). “He still prays three times a day” (Daniel 6:13b). I want us to pay attention to these two similar descriptions in the Holy Scripture. The first one – “just as he had done before” – shows Daniel’s heart toward God, his determination to be the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. As a young man, Daniel dedicated his life to worshiping the Lord only, regardless of various temptations. As a middle-aged person, Daniel continued to serve God despite all challenges throughout his career. As an older man, Daniel kept engaging in divine activities, such as sharing God’s influence with others, fulfilling his God-given tasks for his society, and praying to God regularly despite facing possible consequences for this sacred practice. These are the reasons why the author of the Book of Daniel described Daniel’s total dedication and commitment to God: “as he had done before.” Even a group of Daniel’s opponents witnessed what Daniel was doing at home in the midst of the king’s prohibition. They reported to King Darius: Daniel still prayed three times a day. Daniel’s enemies echoed that there was a consistency in Daniel’s prayer life. Someone calculated that if Daniel was 85 years old and had prayed three times a day during his life, he had perhaps prayed over 93,000 prayers. Wow! For Daniel, praying was like breathing. It is a really good habit to have in the life of faith.
While I was preparing this part of the message, I was struck by two things. The first one is obvious: “Why did Daniel pray?” By the world’s standards, Daniel lacked almost nothing. He had been the most prosperous and influential person in the whole kingdom of Babylon and Persia. In the mist of his busy life, Daniel took time to pray to God three times a day as he had done before. The answer to the previous question is that Daniel needed more time to pray to God to manage his duties in public and keep his soul alive in private. Abraham Lincoln once said… We need to begin each day with a time of prayer. We need to ask God for His strength for the day before we get out of bed. In the middle of the day, we need to return to God and ask for His direction. During the night, we need to thank God for what He has done. Do we really want to be strong for God? Courageous hearts and minds are related to our spirit of humility before God in prayer. Over the next 30 days, I want us to challenge ourselves to engage in this prayer endeavour for ourselves, our loved ones, our family, our church, and our community. Remember what the Bible says in Philippians 4:6-7: “Do not be anxious about anything… but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” According to this scripture, everything can be affected by prayer. Whether it is a financial, relational, physical, emotional, or spiritual matter, our Lord wants us to bring every item to Him in prayer instead of worrying about it. If God can deliver Daniel from the lion’s den, He can and will surely deliver us from any challenge we may face today.
The second thought I have been influenced by is Daniel’s attitude toward God, once again, related to the following testimony: “just as he had done before.” This indicates his continued longing spirit throughout his journey of faith before God. While reflecting on Danie’s spiritual manner, I was reminded of a similar passion the Apostle Paul had when he was about to be called to be with the Lord. At that time, Paul encouraged his congregation to follow his example by saying: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7). This well-known passage implies that over the years, like Daniel, Paul had faced many challenges. Like Daniel, throughout his whole journey of faith, Paul had not only fought the good fight, resembling the characteristics of Christ in their journey of faith, but had also finished the race and kept the faith, loving the Lord with all his heart and serving his God with all his strength in various ways. The main reasons why both Daniel and Paul were able to overcome any trials and tests were their ongoing spiritual desires to please God and their unchanging intimate relationship with the Lord. Both had kept absolute faith in God and had prayed to the Lord, just as they had done before.
While meditating on this segment more, I was also reminded of emeritus eldership in our denomination. Church elders have no retirement and are encouraged to have a lifetime commitment to Christ’s Church. Emeritus elders can continuously share their godly wisdom and insight with God’s people even they are in a non-active status regarding their eldership over the church. The former Glenarm congregation recognized several elders who provided their lifetime spiritual leadership and rewarded them with a sacred honorary title called emeritus elders. Those emeritus elders, along with other servants of God, showed us their entire devotion to God and His church throughout the whole course of their spiritual races. In my opinion, a church is God’s best-blessed living organization that we can be involved in until we are summoned to dwell in the presence of the Lord while using our God-blessed talents, resources, time, wisdom, energy, and more for His valuable and eternal ministries. Joining divine fellowship can begin at any age, and infant baptism is a good example of entering God’s realm with parents’ decision to raise their children in God’s ways and dedication to trust in God over their loved ones’ spiritual journey. These unwavering hearts, whether through our parents’ faith or our individual confirmation later, should remain within us once again until we are invited to eternal life with God.
One more interesting point I would like to share before concluding the sermon is the influence of Daniel’s unwavering faith in God. Due to Danie’s divine inspiration of loving the Lord his God, even in the midst of challenge, King Darius was transformed into a believer and confessed God with the following statement: “For He is the living God… He performs signs and wonders in the heavens and on the earth. He has rescued Daniel from the power of the lions” (Daniel 6:26-27). What a wonderful testimony we have heard! In the New Testament, we remember the Magi coming to worship the newborn baby Jesus. Do you know where they came from? That is right. They started their journey from the Persian areas. Not only did King Darius generation remember, but future generations in the whole regions of Persia and Babylon also recalled Danie’s courage in being strong for God. The three wise men from the east, possibly from Babylon or Persia, came to know Christ many years later.
Today, we have learned that the secret of Daniel’s steadfast attitude comes from his ongoing spiritual passion for the Lord. He kept being connected to God through the Word and prayer. The reason Daniel was able to overcome any challenges or tests throughout his entire journey of faith was his total commitment to doing what was right in the presence of God, just as he had done before.
As I stated before, our journey of faith is exposed to be in a continuous battleground. Whether we realize it or not, in one way or another, we face challenges every day in our faith journey. Whether we like it or not, we need to engage in this holy war against evil until Christ comes again. That is why sometimes we find ourselves be overwhelmed by handing one issue after another. The best method of overcoming these challenges courageously and confidently is by continuing to what is right before God, just as we have done before.
Friends, I hope and pray that, like Daniel, we could all continuously have the same spiritual longing for God until the last breath of our faith journey, just as we have done before. I wish that our loved ones and the people around us could recognize that we want to become more like Christ, just as we have done before. May God bless each of us to have our ongoing godly desire for the Lord, to become people of prayer, to experience God’s amazing power in our daily lives, and to leave a spiritual legacy for our loved ones until we are called to be with the Lord in the Promised Land called Heaven.
*In this sermon I have used some thoughts from various sermons on Daniel 6:6-16; Psalm 121:1-6; Hebrews 12:1-3; 2 Timothy 4:1-8.