Church and State

Have you ever looked for ways to undermine your opponents?

All the presidents of the kingdom, the prefects and the satraps, the counselors and the governors are agreed that the king should establish an ordinance and enforce an interdict, that whoever prays to anyone, divine or human, for thirty days, except to you, O king, shall be thrown into a den of lions.  Now, O king, establish the interdict and sign the document, so that it cannot be changed, according to the law of the Medes and the Persians, which cannot be revoked." - Daniel 6:7-8

When Daniel rose through the ranks to become one of the presidents under King Darius, the other presidents looked for a way to unseat him.

The one thing they knew they could trap him with was his devotion to God, so they set out to make prayer to anyone but the king illegal for 30 days.

Now if such a thing were to happen today, some would choose to avoid prayer for a month, while others might take to the street in protest.  But I wonder if most would mind at all.

Maybe it wouldn't hurt to have a period of time when we all try not to pray or call out to God at all.  How long could we go without finding we need God in our lives?

I think we might find that we need God more than we are willing to admit.

Because we are free to turn to God whenever we choose, we may not do it as much as we should.  We might even make it through a whole month without praying once, and yet if the freedom to choose was taken away, we would object.

So, why not make prayer a habit?  Why not pick a time each day to pray, and after doing that for a while, see if once a day is enough.

If we are going to be willing to fight for a freedom, we should exercise it once in a while, don't you think?

More to come...