Three
times a day [Daniel] got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God,
just as he had done before. Then these men went as a group and found Daniel
praying and asking God for help.—Daniel 6:10b-12
If you read books on prayer, you will find that
each of them will cover something of how God has used people in prayer. Let me
give you a few instances from Scripture.
Daniel was thrown into the lions’ den because he
was a man of prayer. He practiced prayer morning, noon, and night. Daniel was
bold about his praying and God delivered him from the lions’ den.
Then we see David when he sinned, talking in Psalm
51 about his time of repentance. All of us could use the spiritual diagram found
in Psalm 51 for ways to pray when God has brought us to a time of conviction.
Finally, we need to remember that Acts is
the book of prayer. The power plant of the early church was prayer. In Acts 12,
Peter was in prison when an angel came and released him. He showed up at one of
the local prayer groups, and a young girl named Rhoda found Peter standing at
the door! She went back and told them, “Peter is knocking at the door—our
prayers are answered!!” And the people said, “No, it must be an angel,
because Peter is in prison.” Doesn’t that sound like us? We really believe
God can do things, but when He does, sometimes we say, “Oh no!”
If prayer and the ministry of the Word was a
priority for the disciples, so it should be a priority for us.