Living in the midst of a God-defying culture, in a city where you could be arrested if your neighbors tattled on you for worshiping Jehovah, Daniel did a bold thing. He prayed … three times each day … with his windows open.
We know enough about him to trust Daniel’s intent. He wasn’t out to make a spectacle of himself. He wasn’t trying to be the flashpoint of controversy. He was simply a praying man, and praying men and women don’t stop praying under threat. If anything, they pray even more.
If ever there was a time for warlike intercession, Daniel was living in it. God was being defied. Innocent people were being terrorized. The enemy was advancing with increasing boldness.
Has a ring of the here and now, does it not?
As in the days of Daniel, we are living once again in a time when the worshipers of Jehovah need to open wide their windows and pray—with courage and with resolve. The world needs to know that there are still those who know that Almighty God is alive, and who look to the God of heaven for answers and deliverance.
It is all too easy to get caught up in the fury and noise of dissent, to seek answers in political stances and groupthink. But what if … what if the people of God turned fully to Him? What if they were to become so zealous for His glory that they would commit to intercession over indignation, to praying over arguing?
What if you were to pray like Daniel? What if your first responses to the evils of our day were to be prayers of intercession? Isn’t that better than adding to the noise of anger? Isn’t that likely to accomplish more?
Daniel … went to his house
where he had windows in his upper chamber
open toward Jerusalem.
He got down on his knees three times a day
and prayed and gave thanks before his God,
as he had done previously.
Daniel 6:10 ESV