The Bible Series: Daniel Series

Maybe you’re stressed out every day because you’re buried under a mountain of debt and you don’t see any way out. Maybe your marriage is at the breaking point and you just don’t know how to fix it. Maybe you live every day with some debilitating pain or you struggle with depression and you just can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. These are serious problems.

Paul knew all about serious problems, too. He wrote: “We think you ought to know, dear brothers and sisters, about the trouble we went through in the province of Asia. We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure, and we thought we would never live through it. In fact, we expected to die” (2 Corinthians 1:8 NLT).

Can you relate? Have you even been overwhelmed beyond your ability to endure? Have you ever wondered what to do when you just don’t know what to do? The answer is found in the next verse: “But this happened so we would not trust in ourselves but in God, who raises people from the dead. God saved us from these great dangers of death, and he will continue to save us” (2 Corinthians 1:9-11 NCV).

When Paul faced serious problems, he knew where to turn and whom to trust in. So did Daniel. Like Daniel, sooner or later, serious problems will come knocking on your door. But, like Daniel, we can face them through sincere prayer.

• SINCERE PRAYER

Daniel’s story is like ours because in the face of life’s problems, he turned to God in sincere prayer. When the commander of the king’s guard comes to kill Daniel, the Bible says Daniel handled the situation with wisdom and discretion. He asked the commander what was going on and then went immediately to the king and requested more time to tell the king what the dream meant.

Then, the Bible says, “Daniel went home and told his friends Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah what had happened. He urged them to ask the God of heaven to show them his mercy by telling them the secret, so they would not be executed along with the other wise men of Babylon” (Daniel 2:17-18 NLT).

This was Daniel’s answer to his problem: prayer! Prayer wasn’t his last resort; it was his first response. And don’t you know, these four guys prayed like they never prayed before!

This reminds me of the preacher who died and went to heaven. When got there he noticed that a New York cabdriver had been given a higher place than he had. So he complained to St. Peter, “I don’t understand. I devoted my entire life to ministry. Why does a cabdriver have a bigger reward than I do?” So St. Peter explained, “Our policy is to reward results. It seems whenever you gave a sermon that some people in the congregation fell asleep but when people rode in this man’s taxi, they not only stayed awake, they prayed the whole time!”

If you’ve ever sat in the back of New York taxicab, then you know about sincere prayer. If you’ve ever sat in a hospital waiting room, anxiously awaiting the news, then you know about sincere prayer. If you’ve ever had a bad day that lasted longer than you thought you could endure, then you know about sincere prayer.