1 - Introduction - Living like a real Christian Daniels prayer | Page 9

For those who don’t know any better, they could be led to believe that Daniel
prayed out of a sense of personal discipline. This, however, is not true because
Daniel prayed rather out of a sense ofpersonal desperation. If Daniel were praying
out of a motivation of personal discipline that would have made him a legalist, but
we all know that that is something he was not. He did, however, have an

intensedesperation to know God better, and as a result of this absolute sense of
desperation he prayed passionately, predictably and profusely.
There are in Scripture a great number of prayers prayed out of desperation. For

example, Jacob prayed in Genesis 32,“Lord, I won’t let you go until you bless me!”
Samson prayed a desperate prayer as he stood in the temple of the Philistines
(Judges 16) and he cried with desperation,“Sovereign Lord, remember me!”

Blind Bartimaeus (Mark 10) at the gates of Jericho prayed a prayer of desperation
when he cried out to Jesus,“Son of David, have mercy on me!”

All of these prayers, and many others, are prayed as a result of a specifically
devastating event having taken place. Other prayers of desperation are prayers of
hope, where for example, the Jewish people, prior to the arrival of Jesus,cried out
and prayed in the hope that one day soon the Messiah would come and deliver
them.
Daniel’s prayer life had nothing to do with these two things. His prayer of
desperation signified what it meant to pray “without ceasing” through the good
times and the bad times, through the mountaintops and the valleys, through the
pleasant and the wilderness.Please note that this type of prayer might appear
disciplined, but the source of that discipline is found in desperate recognition of
his need for less of himself and for more of God.

Prayer Thought: In an age when most of us have everything that we need, and so
many of us have more than we need, our sense of desperation is quelled by our
situation of adequacy. But Daniel, despite his high standing of personal position,
still maintained the desperate need to know God better and to obey Him to the full.
Let this model of prayer, as you pray today, be an encouragement to you in your
own prayer journey. I am reminded of that verse, Jeremiah 29 v 13, which