Courageous Prayer

Daniel was just a teenager when he was taken into captivity by Babylon (17 or 18 years old)! Scholars believe that Daniel’s tenure of service to Babylon extended over 65 years until he died at approximately age 85. That’s an incredible amount of time to be in such a notable position of influence and in a society that had proven to be antithetical to his faith.

The book of Daniel tells of the struggles of four young men to persevere in opposition and maintain hope as they dwelt in the land of their conquerors. We can draw many parallels between the Babylon of Daniel’s time and many empires/societies throughout history, that is why the book of Daniel remains a book of the great hope of the promise of God’s kingdom, which will one day reign forever, despite the pattern of human behaviour to be prideful, arrogant, and full of idolatry.

The book of Daniel is a great book to read to stir and ignite your prayer life. It teaches us how to live a life that honours God in the middle of a society that is adverse to our beliefs and behaviour.

This devotional is all about having courageous prayer; a prayer life that is consistent and constant no matter what is happening around us. With that in mind, we are also going to have in this devotional 'selah' moments in Psalms. These are great moments of focusing on an aspect of God revealed in Psalms to give us confidence and courage. The goal at the end is a prayer life that takes courage when things go wrong and seeks answers from the one who knows all and sees all.

We are called to pray in the midst of adversity, to not conform to the world around us but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:2), to be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power (Ephesians 6:10), and to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17). That is what we want to build in the next 21 days – a courageous prayer life!

Prayer for today

Father, thank you for the opportunity to enhance my prayer life through this devotional. I pray that like Daniel and his friends, that through this 21-day devotional, you would strengthen my prayer life to pray courageous prayers that are not intimated by the culture around me, but that changes the culture.