“Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine.” (Dan.1:8)
Dear Father, the older I get, the more I’m convicted and encouraged by the life of Daniel and his exiled friends—but more so, I am hyper-encouraged by the way you reveal yourself in this book. May the Gospel bring us all greater freedom to live and love as Daniel and his friends did—with passion, freedom, conviction, and HOPE.
As you know, Abba, I used to read the book of Daniel only as a survival manual for life in a scary, godless world. But it’s actually a thriving manual—a book written to give us a BIG-God-theology to live and love to your glory. One Day the entire earth will be filled with the knowledge of your glory, Abba—including Babylon, Russia, Ukraine—even my home state of North Carolina.
Hope—(not hysteria, hyper-ventilating with fear, or hiding) is the calling you have given us—we who have been rescued, redeemed, and “rewired” by the Gospel. So, with a better understanding of the Gospel, here’s my prayer, Father: Fill me and my friends with “Gospel-Resolve”—the 100% opposite of self-reliance.
Give us great joy and faithfulness in living out the cosmos-transforming promises of the Gospel. Since Jesus is the emphatic “Yes!” and fulfillment to every promise you have made (2Cor.1:20), we resolve to love Jesus with everything we have and are—filling our minds with Jesus’ thoughts, feasting on his incomparable goodness, and seeking to behold more and more of his staggering beauty.
Strengthen us Abba to say No to everything that will diminish and divert our love from Jesus—all overt and covert attacks on our adoration of and devotion to Jesus (2Cor.11:1-3). Free us to say Yes to everything that will increase our knowledge and experience of Jesus’ every-dimension love (Eph.3:18-19). So Very Amen.