Thursday, March 1, 2012
Day 21
In
his upper room, with his windows open toward Jerusalem, Daniel knelt down on
his knees three times that day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as
was his custom since early days.
Daniel
6:10
Congratulations! You made it to day
21. But this isn't the end. It's a new
beginning! The goal wasn't praying for
twenty-one days. The goal was establishing a daily habit. Why? If you don't
establish a prayer habit you'll never break the sin habit. It's one or the other. The choice is yours.
During this 21-day prayer challenge,
I did a Daniel fast and I'll be honest: it was hard. I can't wait to eat meat! But by definition, praying hard is hard. I experienced some spiritual attacks. I had a few bad days along the way. But I also feel like God broke me down so He
could build me back up. He emptied me so
He would fill me. He stretched me so He
could strengthen me. And I don't want it to stop. It's my new normal. The
21-day prayer challenged raised the ceiling, but that ceiling is the new
foundation. I'm going to press in and
press on. God has given me a greater hunger for His presence. Nothing else will satisfy!
The book of Daniel is one of the
most amazing biographies in the Bible, one of the most amazing biographies in
history. His ascendancy to a position of
power in the Persian Empire defies political science, but it defines the power
of prayer circles. Prayer invites God
into the equation, and when that happens, all bets are off. It doesn’t matter whether it’s the locker
room, the boardroom, or the classroom.
It doesn’t matter whether you practice law or medicine or music. It doesn’t matter who you are or what you
do. If you stop, drop, and pray, then
you never know where you’ll go, what you’ll do, or who you’ll meet. The irony
is that it was prayer that got Daniel into trouble and it was prayer that got
Daniel out of trouble.
Destiny
is not a mystery. It's the byproduct of daily decisions and daily habits. If you don't cultivate a prayer habit you'll
miss out on countless God-ordained opportunities. You'll never get where God wants you to go.
You'll never become the person He destined you to be. But if you get into God's presence via prayer
and fasting then nothing will be able to thwart God's plans and purposes! Even
if you're a political prisoner in Babylon! Prayer defies time, defies space,
defies odds!
So we end where we began.
Find a time. Find a place. Then
stop, drop, and pray!
Mark
Batterson-Circle Maker
