Give us supernatural assistance in our prayers. Give us supernatural assistance in remembering what We hear & read in Your Word & what we read in other book, We pray guide us to the right voices & books. We ask for Your supernatural assistance. We pray Lord, bring illumination to our mind. We pray that we will be able to remember what we hear & read & store it into our long-term memory. We pray that what we hear & read will make us more like Christ. Give us divine help to memorize & meditate day & night & to set our affections on things above. That we might always be occupied with Jesus; constantly walking in the Spirit and living out the maximizing of all opportunities for Your glory & honor
Don’t let our prayers be long and winded. Don’t allow us to ever forget to pray. We don’t want to pray the same way for everything, but we want to be asking You for Your help constantly You are our key component to all remembering.
Shall I refuse to drink the cup of sorrow which the Father has given me to drink? John 18:11 Weymouth
GOD takes a thousand times more pains with us than the artist with his picture.
He paints our lives by many touches of sorrow, and by many colors of circumstance.
He is bringing us into the form which is the highest & noblest in His sight.
It is our privilege to receive his gifts of myrrh in a right spirit.
God gives us His surpassing love in the myrrh.
If we come & complain:
Lord! We’re so dry & we feel so dark inside! Its then we need to open our heart to the pain. Don’t block it with the empty stuff of our surrounding diversions.
Adapted from Streams in the Desert
Are we tired? Worn out? Burned out on life’s tests? Come to Jesus. Get alone with Christ & we’ll recover in His life. He has real rest. He calls: Walk with me & work with me—
Let Him in to do His life in us. Learn His unforced rhythms of grace. He lifts the weights of anything heavy or ill-fitting on us by His power. Keep company with Him & we’ll learn to live freely and lightly by His strength Math. 11:28-30 paraphrased
Why would we ever complain, Why would we whine, GOD has not lost track of us. He intrinsically cares about what happens to us!
GOD isn’t flaky. He’s infinite. He’s the Creator of all we’re experiencing.
He‘s never tired, he’s not ignoring us. He knows everything, inside & out.
He energizes us in our exhaustion, gives fresh strength even when we feel like we’re dropping out.
When we wait on GOD in confidence we get fresh strength. We’ll spread our wings & soar like eagles, we’ll run & won’t get tired, we’ll walk & won’t lag behind. He’ll carry us in His all powerful arms.
But trusting in GOD protects us from the things & from the powerful that attempt to disable us.
Many try to get weird dictates passed when they get exalted to leadership Pr. 29:25
John Dalberg-Acton noted
“Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely”
“but only GOD will give us justice”
Pr. 29:25
Good people can’t stand the sight of deliberate evil;
But wicked people can’t stand the sight of well-chosen goodness
Pr. 29:27
Proverbs 29:25-27 paraphrased
Daniel, an amazing warrior of
living his faith & prayer
refused to surrender & capitulate to
false laws & fake news
Daniel was one of the top politicians of his day
(he was in his 80s at this time)
The presidents & princes sought to find occasion against Daniel.
(There were 120 politicians in this group of nasty probers)
They were all leaders concerning the kingdom; but they could find no occasion or fault; in all their examinations of Daniel
He was faithful, “neither was there any error or fault found in him”
They concluded We can’t find any occasion against this Daniel, except we find it against him concerning the law of his God
Daniel 6:5
So they had to make new laws that defied God’s laws so that keeping God’s law was a crime
These presidents & princes assembled together to the King of the empire & said to him,
King Darius, live forever.
This was all the presidents of the kingdom, the governors & the princes, the counselors & the captains, consulted together to establish a royal statute & to make a firm decree, that whosoever prayed to any God or man for thirty days, except the king, will be cast into the den of lions.
So King Darius, made a decree and signed the writing, that it be not changed, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not
Daniel 6:6-8
This form of punishment was not uncommon then, as weird as it sounds there were lions dens in use as capital punishment.
Actually in toltarian dictatorship/ governments savage punishment is still common
Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed
Daniel 6:10
This was a challenge for Daniel’s faithfulness in his relationship to God
It was a strong test to see if he‘d be faithful in his devotion to God in his praying,
Was he going to slack off his prayer life to protect himself from the peril of the lions’ den?
Daniel knew all about the decree.
He knew it was crafted by his enemies to destroy him.
He knew because of his high position in the government
This new decree by the king was proclaimed by royal heralds fake news through the kingdom.
He knew they were spying on him
Daniel went into his house; He opened his windows in his chamber facing toward Jerusalem, he kneeled on his knees three times a day & prayed & gave thanks before his God, as he did before
Daniel 6:10
Faithfulness is consistency.
Daniel prayed “as he did before.”
His political enemies knew his life style choices.
He didn’t hide his faith in prayer
He was open about his trust in the God of who blesses praying perseverance & consistency
For Daniel prayer was a very public priority
This was not just a situation where the scorning mockers called him a religious phony
This was not just a situation where the scorning mockers called him a hypocritical
This was not just a situation where the scorning mockers called him an unscientific nut job
This was not just a situation where he was facing capital punishment by a pack of starving lions
This was an extreme test of faith from God
Keeping the windows open toward Jerusalem meant that Daniel’s praying would be visible for the enemy.
Daniel wasn’t a secret disciple because of the ridiculous laws & new legislation that made it perilous to pray.
Jesus said,
Whosoever will confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven.
But whosoever denies me before men, him I’ll also deny before my Father which is in heaven
Matthew 10:32, 33
Daniel didn’t care about being fashionable & cool
Christ “kneeled” in prayer in the garden before His arrest
Luke 22:41
Stephen “kneeled” in prayer while they stoned him to death for preaching Jesus
Acts 7:60
Daniel was passionate & bold about praying.
“Three times a day he prayed”
The Psalmist endorsed praying three times a day.
“Evening & morning & at noon, will I pray”
Psalm 55:17
Then these men assembled & found Daniel praying & making supplication before his God
Daniel 6:11
These 120 God hating politicians gathered their swat team, FBI & CIA to arrest Daniel in prayer
Bullet proof vests, guns, shields & big clubs to fight praying to God
They hated Daniel because he didn’t bow to their political games
When I was a totaler my Mom taught me a song
Standing by a purpose true, Heeding God’s command, Honor them, the faithful few! All hail to Daniel’s band!
Dare to be a Daniel, Dare to stand alone! Dare to have a purpose firm! Dare to make it known.
Many mighty men are lost Daring not to stand, Who for God had been a host By joining Daniel’s band.
Many giants, great and tall, Stalking through the land, Headlong to the earth would fall, If met by Daniel’s band.
Hold the Jesus banner high! On to victory grand! Satan and his hosts defy, And shout for Daniel’s band.
Dare to be a Daniel, Dare to stand alone! Dare to have a purpose firm! Dare to make it known.
Meditate on these things. Give yourself totally to them That our profiting will be on display for everyone
1 Timothy 4:15
Ponder these things; be absorbed in them
Cultivate these things. Immerse yourself in them.
“take pains with these things.”
give yourself entirely to them.
give yourself undividedly & undistractedly to the word of the Lord.
MacDonald notes:
Our study & meditation on God’s Word should be done in an all-out in his efforts.
In this way, our progress will be evident to all. Don’t ever hit a plateau in thinking about God’s word. Don’t ignore scripture & then settle down into a comfortable rut.
Constantly be always advancing in the things of the Lord.
Keep God’s Word before us. Have it always on our lips; meditate on it day & night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it.
Then we’ll be prosperous & successful.
Joshua 1:8
Our delight is in God’s Word. We meditate on it constantly day night
Psalms 1
Make the words of our mouth & meditation of our hearts acceptable to You
Psalms 19
When we remember You in our bed & meditate on Your Word in the night.
Psalms 63:6
Make our meditation on You sweet Lord
Psalms 104:34
I will meditate in Your Words & have respect to Your ways.
It was in early 2020 that we first began to hear of this novel coronavirus that was sweeping through parts of China, then making the short hop to nearby Asian nations, then making the longer hop to not-so-nearby European nations.
The reports out of China were alarming, the reports out of South Korea sobering, the reports out of Italy terrifying.
Slowly & then all of a sudden it was in our countries, in our towns, at our doorsteps.
We are now into the second half of May & everything has changed. Or nearly everything, anyway.
You can go to just about any store or restaurant at just about any point in the world & see these changes with your own eyes—
the lines outside the shops, the empty shelves, the surgical masks, the social distancing dots.
Three months ago we wouldn’t have believed it possible. Yet here we are.
What do we do now? There have been many calls in recent days for humanity to awaken to our power & potential.
We can conquer the disease! We can go back to normal! We can establish a new & better normal! We can fix the economy! We can transform the economy!
The calls come from every part of the ideological spectrum. No one ever wants to waste a crisis.
But I’m convinced the crisis will be wasted if it doesn’t humble us. If it doesn’t force us to acknowledge our weakness.
Our inability. Our lack of knowledge. Our lack of wisdom. We are so very weak, yet so very proud.
Consider: We still don’t know many of the most basic facts about the virus.
We don’t know exactly where or how it originated.
We don’t know all the ways it spreads.
We don’t know how contagious it is.
We don’t know if or how it is affected by light or heat.
We don’t know if it is seasonal.
We don’t know why some people remain asymptotic while others die.
We don’t know what proportion of the population has already had it.
We don’t know who has it now.
We don’t know who is immune to it.
We don’t know how to make a vaccine.
We don’t know the best way to stop its spread.
In fact, we don’t even know if stopping its spread is the best strategy.
When we have taken actions, we have inevitably taken many actions that will be judged wrong or unwise, even if they were understandable at the time.
Concerned doctors at first rushed to put their patients on ventilators, but only later realized that ventilation often seemed to harm more than help.
Hospitals cleared their wards, but then watched surprised as so many of them remained far below capacity while non-COVID patients languished in the absence of elective surgeries.
Field hospitals were erected at great expense but then remained unused.
Governments & health organizations assured us masks were useless in slowing the spread, then reversed course to tell us masks were actually essential.
Politicians around the world enacted and enforced lockdowns, but these measures may have exacted nearly as high a cost when considered against economics & mental health.
Governments have put their printing presses into action to create vast sums of money, not knowing how this will affect the current economy or how future generations will foot the bills.
For all of these questions & conundrums we may have personal answers or strong convictions based on our own reading of the news & our own interpretation of the data.
But honesty ought to force us to admit that for so many of them we simply don’t have good answers & don’t have compelling solutions. We may never have them.
But so far the great story of COVID-19 is not one of wisdom or accomplishment or the triumph of the human spirit.
We haven’t only done badly, of course.
There has been some triumph amidst all the sorrow, some heroism amidst all the pain, some bold decision-making amidst all the uncertainty.
But so far the great story of COVID-19 is not one of wisdom or accomplishment or the triumph of the human spirit.
The great story has been our lack of knowledge, our lack of wisdom, our lack of unity, our lack of resolve, our lack of accomplishment, our lack of good solutions.
And amidst all the lack, surely we should admit that we are weak & act weakly.
Then, face to face with our weakness, surely we should echo the words of Solomon who once cried out for wisdom by admitting
“I am but a little child. I do not know how to go out or come in.”
Here before the coronavirus
we do not know how to go out or come in— we do not know how to beat it or surrender to it, we do not know how to save lives or save the economy, we do not know how to love one another by staying apart we do not know how to love one another by coming together.
But there is one who does know & humility is the key to his ear, the key to his heart, the key to his mind.
For as that same Solomon later said,
“When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom”
Proverbs 11:2
Wisdom is there for those who will humble themselves enough to ask for it & receive it.
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