Running with horses: The prayer life of Daniel

'When Daniel knew that the document (to ban people from praying to any other god other than king Darius himself) had been signed, he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open toward Jerusalem. He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he had done previously.' Daniel 6:10

My heart is broken at the way Daniel prayed in his life. When i think about my own non-existent prayer life (other than during times of need), and how during the times that i do pray, my mind wonders off easily, i just feel ashamed, broken and sorry. God, who is supposedly the most important Person in my life and in the whole Universe, deserves so little time from His creatures such as myself. I have tried to pray consistently before, and despite my best intention and effort, my prayer life usually lasts for a few days, before something else takes over.

Here is a man who was probably much busier than any of us, who had an entire country to run, documents to sign, meetings to attend, and he actually took time three times a day to kneel and pray. The more shocking thing is that, when it became illegal to pray, and when praying would cost him his own dear life, he persists in praying, as he had done previously. What is in Daniel that made him so utterly devoted to the One Being that he disregarded his own life and said: 'You will have to take away my life before you take away my prayer'?

Here are a few shocking things in Daniel 6.

He prayed in full knowledge of the signed document.
He could have hidden in some other place to pray, like in the woods or in his secret chamber, but instead, he chose to pray at the window which opened toward Jerusalem, as he had done previously. We must recognise that this praying at the window was not a new stunt he performed, but was simply what he has been doing all the while. It is also not a public display of spirituality like what the Pharisees loved to do, but he was making a statement to the king and his foes that only the God of Israel deserved our total devotion and worship. We must also take note that he was not going to receive praises for his public prayer, but by doing this it would cost him his dear life. He was going to be persecuted for righteousness.
If he had not persisted in his prayer, his foes could have easily said: Now i see, when it becomes dangerous to pray, you bail out. I see that your devotion to God is so brittle after all.
He gave thanks in his prayer. He did not come up with a list of demands for God in his prayer, even when his life was at stake, but he primarily gave thanks to Him.
He got down on his knees, three times a day, to pray. Such spiritual discipline. This is not to be confused with legalism, or righteousness by works. He did that, i believe, because he had such a intimate relationship with God that praying, like eating and showering and sleeping, are routine in his life.

What made Daniel so disciplined in praying to God and praising Him? I think there is the God-reason, and the Daniel-reason. God-reason is simple. The book of Psalms is full of it so i won't spend time writing about it here. But if the God reason is so strong, why is it that sometimes we all falter in our prayer life? Something must be wrong in us that we fail to behold the Glory of God, hence we don't sense the need to come before Him in prayer.

Finally God revealed something to me.

My daily scheduled prayer is NOT primarily an act that I do, as one of the many things in the to-do-list to tick off, so that I can proceed to other things. It is really coming to have my spiritual hunger fed, my true need of relationship met, and to come to a point of dependence on Him. It is an intentional act of humbling and dependence, recognising that i can't go on without spending time with God. That if i choose to ignore this, I would inevitably head toward to dead end, a stone wall and the end of myself. It is also an intentional act of dropping all my agendas of that day, and come with an empty cup before Him, and have Him fill my cup. Finally, and most importantly, it is coming to the heavenly Father as a beloved child of His.