Have you ever said as you left the meetinghouse on Sunday morning, “I didn’t get much out of the worship today?”

Just examine that statement for a moment.  We are there for our group worship, the worship we are commanded to do when we are “gathered together.”  Who is it that we are worshipping?   I don’t think it’s me, and I don’t think it’s you.  When it comes to the worship aspect, I think it matters what God thinks of it, not us. 

We sit in an auditorium with a raised platform in front of us.  Several different men take turns standing before us to lead us in various aspects of our worship to God.  Sometimes that gives us the mistaken idea that we are the audience.  No, we are the performers.  God is the audience, and if He “doesn’t get much out of our worship,” it’s our fault, not His, nor that of the men who try so hard to lead us, and seldom get anything but complaints for their efforts. 

What would you think of a performer who gave a lackadaisical performance, who acted like he couldn’t care less that someone was watching him?  If I paid good money for a ticket, I would want my money back.  I wonder if that’s what God thinks as we “worship” by barely mumbling through our songs, daydreaming during prayers, and making faces at the babies in front of us during the sermons.  I wonder if He would like to have back what it cost Him for us to be able to come before Him and worship Him.  You see, He is watching our performance; He is the audience.  It doesn’t really matter if I don’t like the songs chosen, if I think the prayer is too long, if I think the sermon is boring.  What matters is, did I worship God with all my heart in spite of those things?  That’s what this Audience grades us on.  I don’t want Him to ask for a refund.

So this Sunday as I leave the meetinghouse I should ask myself this, “How well did I worship my God this morning?”  Whether or not this is all there is to my worship is another matter entirely, but this question certainly makes a good start on answering that one too, don’t you think?

Oh Jehovah, truly I am your servant;
I am your servant, the son of your handmaid.
You have loosed my bonds.
I will offer to you the sacrifices of thanksgiving,
And will call upon the name of Jehovah.
I will pay my vows unto Jehovah,
Even in the presence of all his people.
In the courts of Jehovah’s house,
In the midst of you, O Jerusalem,
Praise Jehovah.

Psalm 116:16-19

Dene Ward

I read an article in the newspaper several months ago that I wanted to stand up and applaud.  Then I wanted to sit down and cry.  Let me give you some quotes from that article written by Debra Nussbaum.

             “…Sometimes when I’m at Dunkin’ Donuts I think of [that] quote from Hamlet... ‘The apparel oft proclaims the man.’ 
            “What is the guy in front of me proclaiming with his pajama bottoms?  And the woman behind me in an oversize white tank top that shows every inch of her black bra, what is her proclamation?  Is the guy revealing 80 percent of his boxers sending a message?
            “We have lost the subtle internal rule that tells one not to…wear a skirt the size of a dish towel to school or a religious sanctuary; and not, not, not to feel the need to reveal one’s underwear to the public.
            “A funeral isn’t the place for a miniskirt and 5 inch heels.  A lot of cleavage is…not appropriate for a Tuesday morning at the office or in school.  In fact, it’s bad manners.”

Why is it that the world knows when something is inappropriate, and the people of God make excuses for it?  Why is it that the world cares more about rudeness than we do about sin?

I was in my neighbor’s home one day visiting.  “Did you see the movie--?  No, wait,” he interrupted himself.  “You’re a Christian.  You wouldn’t have seen that movie.”

It seems the world knows what a Christian ought to be better than some of my brethren do.  The Corinthians had that problem too.  It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not even tolerated among the Gentiles…1 Cor 5:1.

Maybe we should take a poll.  Ask your neighbors what a Christian would and wouldn’t do.   I understand that they are not completely informed, that there may be aspects of New Testament Christianity they miss or even categorize as hateful, mean-spirited, and ignorant.  Just stick with basic morality.  What would a Christian wear or not wear?  What movies or TV shows would he not watch?  What behaviors would he avoid?  Drinking?  Smoking?  Gambling?  Why is it they can clearly see the problems with these things while we tie ourselves in knots trying to excuse them?

When amoral people know how a Christian ought to act, ought to dress, and ought to speak and we who call ourselves the true followers don’t, something is wrong.  The same thing happened to God’s people of old, and the words He sent then will apply to us too.  Read them and weep with me.

Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Because you are more turbulent than the nations that are all around you, and have not walked in my statutes or obeyed my rules, and have not even acted according to the rules of the nations that are all around you, therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I, even I, am against you. And I will execute judgments in your midst in the sight of the nations. And because of all your abominations I will do with you what I have never yet done, and the like of which I will never do again, Ezekiel 5:7-9.

Dene Ward

            When my boys were young they were enchanted with a movie called “The Never-Ending Story.”  You see, when the movie ended it started all over again, and then again, and again. 

            Maybe it’s because I am a woman that I never saw the appeal.  All I could think of was housework—laundry that needs washing over and over, shirts that need ironing again and again, dust that keeps settling, meals that need cooking three times a day.  Oh for something that when I finish with it will stay finished!

            I think the Old Testament Jews understood a little.  Have you ever read the complex procedure for the Day of Atonement?  You should sometime, and then think about the promise of a forgiveness that lasts forever.

            Every year the sins that were forgiven the year before were once again remembered against God’s people, and every year the pile grew bigger and bigger.  At least when I do the laundry, I know a shirt that I washed and ironed will not be back in the hamper until it has once again been worn.  Imagine if everything you ever washed got dirty again the next week just because clean would not stay clean! 

            The first century Jewish Christians surely appreciated the blessing of forgiveness far better than we can.  They had been waiting for that promise to be fulfilled for hundreds of years.  Behold the days come, says Jehovah, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hands to bring them out of the land of Egypt…But this is the covenant that I will make…says Jehovah:  I will put my law in their inward parts and in their heart will I write it, and I will be their God and they shall be my people, and they shall teach no more every man his neighbor and every man his brother saying, Know Jehovah, for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, says Jehovah; for I will forgive their iniquity and their sins will I remember no more, Jer 31:31-34.

               A high priest was coming who would offer himself, a perfect sacrifice that would cleanse each sin forever.  That pile of guilt would no longer build up on each one, becoming heavier and heavier, needing yet another sacrifice every year.  Think what that must have meant to a people who through the years had seen oceans of blood pouring down that manmade altar, knowing that next year, the same thing must happen again, not only for new sins, but for exactly the same old ones as well.  What a relief.

            And what a relief for us to know that God forgives and forgets, and that because of that wonderful blessing we can enjoy another “Never-Ending Story” that will remind us of a blessing, instead of a burden. 

And they indeed have been made priests many in number because by death they are hindered from continuing; but he, because he abides forever, has his priesthood unchangeable.  Wherefore also he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, seeing he ever lives to make intercession for them.  For such a high priest became us, holy, guileless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and made higher than the heavens, who needs not daily, like those high priests to offer up sacrifices, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people, for this he did once for all, when he offered up himself,. Heb 7:23-27.

Dene Ward

The older I get, the more I appreciate the quiet men in the pews, the ones who seldom speak up, whose opinions are usually kept to themselves or to just the one or two who make it a point to speak with them more than the customary, “How are you today?”

We, who suppose that we “judge righteous judgment,” are, like the Pharisees, just as bad as anyone else about the things we claim to detest, in this case, judging.  If a brother seldom speaks in Bible class, he didn’t study his lesson, right?  Or his heart isn’t in his worship.  If I stop at another congregation when I am out of town and the singing isn’t loud, and the prayers have a lot of common phrases in them, and the preaching isn’t dynamic, then they are the worst excuse for a church I’ve ever seen.  So much for “righteous judgment.”

The more I study the scriptures, the more I see quiet people living lives that would be considered normal in their day and time.  I don’t mean they would not have been different in their words and actions than the godless pagan they might live next to—I mean great deeds and feats of faith and bravery were not their claim to fame.  They simply lived to and with their God every day, making choices based upon their belief in Him, talking about His promises in casual conversation, assuming as a given that their hope was not baseless.

When was the last time any one of us had to choose between death and serving God?  I know some places where that may be the case, but no one in this country has faced that trial, and I am the first to thank God for that and pray that it continue.  Does that make me a sorry excuse for a Christian?  Maybe that’s why so many think they must raise a ruckus about everything—they have to show their “faith” in some sort of blatant manner, instead of being satisfied—and grateful—that they can live a life of steady devotion day after day after routine day.  Sometimes that quiet steadiness takes a lot more strength, and certainly more endurance, than one quick flash in the pan act of courage.

So here’s to the ordinary Christian.  He loves his wife “as his own body,” serves her faithfully, even when the years have diminished her outward beauty and increased her outward girth. 

He trains his children, not just about God, but about being a man.  He teaches them how to work, how to play, and how to survive in an unfriendly world.  He shows them patience and mercy, the traits His Heavenly Father showed him.

He works for his employer “as unto the Lord,” giving the boss no need to worry about his stealing either the business’s supplies or time--a day’s work for a day’s pay, and the willingness to throw in some unremunerated extra time and effort simply because it’s needed.

He sees to the good of his neighbors, offering a helping hand, the loan of equipment, the gift of sharing good things that have come his way.  He shows them the Lord he serves in the way he treats them.

He handles the trials of life, not as if they make him special and deserving, but as if they happen to all, knowing he deserves even worse for his part in the sin that contaminated the world.  He never allows them to affect his faith in God or his desire to serve that God.  He simply keeps on going, like that famous bunny.

And so he may not talk a lot.  He may not jump up and down and raise his hands high in the air.  He may not be caught shedding a tear during a song or a prayer.  But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t mean every word of what he sings or prays, or have deep feelings of love and gratitude, and shame on anyone who judges otherwise.  Jacob worshipped, leaning on his staff, we are told in Heb 11:21.  What?  No hallelujahs?  I wonder how some today might have judged that.

In fact, a whole church full of such men might not rise to the ideal for some who need outward show to “get anything out of” the worship.  What makes them think they are better than another who can motivate himself with his own quiet, inward thoughts?  Isn’t it a good thing, that Someone Else is doing the judging? 

As to that “ordinary Christian,” he isn’t really very ordinary at all.

…for man looks on the outward appearance, but Jehovah looks on the heart,
1 Sam 16:7.

Dene Ward

God must have loved gardens.  That first garden was used as the ideal all through the scriptures, the utopia that everyone longed for.  The Messianic kingdom is referred to as the restoration of the Garden of Eden in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and other prophets. And the land that was desolate shall be tilled, instead of being the desolation that it was in the sight of all who passed by. And they will say, 'This land that was desolate has become like the garden of Eden, and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are now fortified and inhabited.' Then the nations that are left all around you shall know that I am the LORD; I have rebuilt the ruined places and replanted that which was desolate. I am the LORD; I have spoken, and I will do it. (Ezekiel 36:34-36).

And why was Eden perfect? Everything man needed was in that first garden, trees and plants to sustain his physical life, including the Tree of Life.  God also gave man the companionship of a woman, for He said, it is not good that man should be alone, 2:18.  He gave him work to do, tending that garden, and every evening He came to walk with man.  Surely that marvelous fellowship was the greatest need He fulfilled.

Revelation 22 depicts another garden, one that despite my growing belief that the majority of the descriptions in that book are about the victorious church, I cannot help but see in a final heavenly fulfillment.  We will be back where the Tree of Life spreads its branches, 22:2.  We will be with other servants of God, “those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life” 21:27.  We will have work—to serve and worship our Creator for Eternity, 22:3,8,9.  And once again we will be in fellowship, and proximity, to God—His throne is there and we shall “see his face” 22:1,4.  God’s plan will have come full circle, from that first garden to an eternal one.

But there was another garden, one right in the middle of it all—Gethsemane.  It had some of the same characteristics.  The disciples had fellowship with each other and with their Lord.  And they had work to do.  “Watch with me,” Jesus told them, Matt 26:38.  It had been a long day, one full of surprises and mysterious statements by their Master.  They were tired, wanting only to rest, and so “their eyes were heavy,” and they slept, 26:48.  When the Lord needed them most, they failed Him.

That garden was the reason we have hope of an Eternal Garden.  In a sense, we are living our lives in that middle garden with the Lord.  “Watch and pray that you enter not into temptation,” he told those men, Mark 14:38, adding at the end, “the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”  My flesh may indeed be weak, but too often my spirit is lacking as well.  Life can wear you out.  Trials seem to come in one long succession, like a string of ugly beads.  All you want to do is have one day of peace, one day when something goes right, when it seems like the world isn’t against you and justice will prevail. 

It is hard, and your Lord knows it.  He sat in that same garden you are in now, awaiting things you will probably never have to experience.  And he did it so you can have hope of a garden where everything will finally be right, where you can rest and “there will be no curse any more.”

But for now, you must watch, you must endure just a little while longer.  I have finally lived long enough to know that it isn’t that long a “while” till it’s over, and then there shall be night no more; and they need no light of lamp, neither light of sun; for the Lord God shall give them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever. 

And once again, we will walk in the garden with God.

He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him that overcomes, to him will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God. Revelation 2:7.                                                                                 

Dene Ward

If there is one thing the world has wrong about Jesus it’s this:  the idea that Jesus not only accepts us as sinners but allows us to keep on sinning because He is so kind and loving.  And one of their favorite examples is the adulterous woman in John 8. Nonsense!

In the first place, Jesus’ attitude toward sin is really just a side issue in this narrative.  This is about the Pharisees trying to trap Jesus yet again, and His being able to avoid the snare yet again.

They brought Him a woman who had committed adultery “caught in the very
act,” they said.  “The law of Moses says we should stone her.  What do you think?”

Jesus first did what we ought to do 90% of the time.  He kept His mouth shut. 
When your mouth is shut, you can think better.  And this was an obvious trap, if you just thought about it.  His silence also did this:  they kept pressing Him until it must surely have become obvious to many who were listening exactly what their motive was as Jesus calmly stooped and wrote in the dirt.
             
And what was so obvious about the trap?  He was approached while he was
teaching, a time when there would be many to see and hear His downfall (they
hoped), and whatever He had been teaching at the time would have been made ineffective.  He was not asked what the Law said, but what He thought. 
Asking rabbis what they thought about scriptures was not unusual, but if
anyone disagreed with Him, perhaps they would no longer listen to Him.  They said she was caught in the very act, so where was the man?  According to the Law they seemed so concerned about, Deut 22:22, both should have been brought for judgment, so it was obvious that doing right was the last thing on their minds.

This was the trap:  if He says that she deserves to die, He has pronounced the death sentence without the permission of the Roman authorities, which the Jews were not allowed to do, so He is in trouble with the powers that be. 
If He says otherwise, He is in trouble with the Jewish people who held
Him to be a prophet and a righteous man, because He has disobeyed God’s
law.
             
But with one sentence, He turns the whole thing around on them.  He who is without sin, let him cast the first stone.  I find it hard to believe that these men who would soon murder Him and within a short time afterward imprison, abuse, and murder His followers were at all stung by a guilty conscience.  His few words remind them that the Law says they are to carry out the sentence because they were the witnesses, the ones who caught her “in the very act,” Deut 17:2-7.  The Law says Jesus could not lift a hand against her until they cast the first stones.  So now who is in the trap?  Are they willing to follow the Law in spite of the Roman dictum against capital punishment?
             
And so Jesus once again stooped down to scribble in the dirt, and when He
looked up, everyone was gone.  And now, He could not accuse her, not because He condoned sin but because there were no witnesses; and He could not stone her, for the same reason.  He would not have participated in a travesty of justice anyway, but now He simply could not, according to God’s Law.
             
But what does He say to her?  Go thy way and sin no more.
             
Jesus never has and never will accept sin.  He will accept sinners, but only if they change their lives and begin to live righteously.  Even then, when
they slip and fall, He expects remorse, repentance, and growth that make those sins farther and farther apart.  For each of us, when we lay our sin at His feet, the answer is the same:  Go thy way and sin no more.
             
I bet that woman of so long ago did her best not to let Him down again.  Can we do any less?
 
My little children, let no man lead you astray.  He who does righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous.  He who does sin is of the devil, for the devil sinned from the beginning.  To this end was the Son of God made manifest, that he might destroy the works of the devil, 1 John 3:7,8.

Dene Ward

            Remember those grape hulls I mentioned, the ones leftover from making grape juice?  After sitting in that liquid for a few weeks, nothing remains but a pale, sour, seedy bag.  Still, straining them out and throwing them away was hard for me to do.  When you live closely for so long, you use everything until it has no service left in it. 

            I never throw away a plastic bag, for instance, after only one use.  I wash it and hang it out in the kitchen to dry.  After several uses it will eventually develop a hole or two, sometimes pinprick holes, but even that makes it no longer airtight.  When that happens it becomes a produce bag.  Why buy special green bags with vents in them?  I just add another hole or two with a couple of knife stabs and “re-purpose” the bag.

            So I had a hard time throwing out those grape hulls.  I certainly didn’t want to eat them—I had already tried that, but maybe the birds would, or a coon, or a possum—they eat just about anything.  So we laid them out on an old stump to see what would happen.

            Nothing happened.  Nothing wanted them.  We saw no signs that anything had even nosed around in them or pecked even once.  Somehow every animal and bird could tell just with a look that nothing good remained in those hulls.  They were simply useless.

            How about us?  Sometimes we think that because we sit on a pew we are serving God.  Maybe all we are doing is lying on a stump.  Like birds that fly past those leached out grape hulls, maybe our neighbors take a quick gander and decide there is absolutely nothing there worthwhile.  If they don’t know who and what we are by the words we say and the deeds of kindness we do, how useful are we to the Master?  If they don’t see that we handle life better than they, that trials do not deplete our faith and joy and hope, why should they care about what we do on Sunday mornings?

            In fact, they will get some use out of those empty hulls of a life we lead—they will be able to tell at a glance what they do not want to be, and they will do their best to stay away from it, just as the coons and possums probably went out of their way to go around that stump in the wee hours of the morning.  Those grape hulls will act as a perfect thermostat for judging our personal brand of Christianity.  As such, they aren’t just useless, they are actively damaging to the spread of the gospel, and the growth of the Lord’s body.

            Empty hulls are not grapes, nor empty lives disciples of the Lord. 

Go and learn what this means, I desire mercy and not sacrifice…To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice, Matt 9:13; Prov 21:3.

Dene Ward

            
     What you don’t know won’t hurt you. 
             
     I didn’t know that Keith had taken Chloe’s food pan and set it in my
chair on the carport when he blew the dust off a few Saturdays ago.  He didn’t notice that she had left a few kibbles.  Neither one of us knew that a few fire ants had gotten in there and they had migrated out to my chair when he disturbed them.  I didn’t know they had started crawling into my clothes when I sat down  there until a few minutes after we walked back into the house. 
Suddenly I was ripping off my clothes and slapping myself.  I wound up with bites on my chest, back, arms, and legs, and a ring of  them around my neck.  I felt lousy  for a day or two, not to mention the aggravating itch.  What I didn’t know did in fact hurt me quite a bit. 
             
     That seems obvious, but sometimes we act like ignorance is a iable excuse for most anything.  And indeed, sometimes it is.  A new Christian has a lot to learn.  As long as he is studying and praying and trying as hard as he can to learn what he needs to be and do, his prayer for the grace of God will keep him safe.  I believe that with all my heart. 
             
     But when I have been a Christian for years and years and have done
nothing to learn and grow, or have simply stopped, that is inexcusable.  
              
     Learning new facts can be difficult, especially as I grow older.  Trying to see past the superficial to the amazing depth of God’s word can mean I must try to comprehend things I have never even thought of before.  Yet how many times have I heard “I never heard of such a thing” as the instant dismissal of a new thought in a Bible class? How many times have I heard people complain because a class was “too deep?” What a shameful thing for a Christian to say. 
             
     Then we get to the crux of the matter, for applying principles to my life can be as painful as a shirt full of fire ants.  Who in the world actually wants to know what they are doing wrong?  Why, I’ve been a Christian forty years; I’m not about to admit I still have weaknesses I need to confront in anything but a general way. 
             
     That is, however, exactly what God expects of us. The shame is that usually the babes in the Word are hungrier to learn and grow than we old-timers.  But we had better shape up, sooner rather than later, or ant bites will be the least of  our problems. 
 
     Hear the word of Jehovah you children of Israel, for Jehovah has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth or goodness or knowledge of God in the land.  My people are  destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I will reject you…Hosea 4:1,6.
 
Dene Ward

Every August the grapes come in, muscadines and scuppernongs in this part 
of the country. Strong flavored, thick-skinned, acidic, and seedy, they are best for jelly and juice, though true Floridians enjoy noshing on them as is.  With the boys grown now, I go through fewer peanut butter and jelly sandwiches so the jelly production has dwindled and the juice making increased, and I have discovered the easiest method for making and canning grape juice.

Put a cup or so of clean grapes in each sterilized quart jar.  Add some sugar and fill the jars with boiling water.  Process and once the lids have sealed, put them on your shelf for at least two months.  The liquid and the sugar will leach the goodness right out of those grapes.  When you open the jar, strain them out and enjoy what’s left behind.  Perhaps not as much fun as jumping into
the vat with Lucy and Ethel, but far cleaner and easier.

One day I decided to taste one of those strained-out grapes just to see what was left in it.  I should have known—it was duller and several shades paler than its original shiny purple-black, and loose as a deflated balloon. How did it
taste?  Like sour nothingness.  Maybe that’s what happens to us when we steep ourselves in the world.  
                  
Is wealth consuming your thoughts?  “Just let me have enough,” is a lie we tell ourselves.  He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income, Eccl 5:10.  If you allow thoughts of riches to flood your life—even if you don’t have them--anything spiritual will be washed out of your heart.  Notice the prediction God made about Israel:  But
[they] waxed fat, and kicked: you have waxed fat, you have grown thick, you are covered with fatness; then he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation, Deuteronomy 32:15. Their wealth (“fatness”) covered them so that it was all they could think about.  Any notion of serving God was completely forgotten.  If you think we aren’t at risk, just take a minute and look around.  What used to be a God-fearing nation has become a people who worship wealth, power, and celebrity instead. 
                 
Other times we allow the pleasures and conveniences of this world to permeate our lives so that the mere thought of sacrificing anything, whether comfort, ease, or even opinion, will be smothered out of us. “Self” will leach the good out of hearts and minds, and leave nothing but the emptiness of indulgence.  If your “rights” spring to your lips every time someone crosses you, you have stifled the spiritual character of yielding to others, whether your
neighbors, the man in the car in front of you, or the brother who sits next to
you on the pew.  You have suffocated the spirit of mercy that marks us as His
children.  For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh...
For to be carnally minded is death… Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God, Romans 8:5-8.

But sometimes we simply drown in “stuff.” What do you do all day long?  Run from this to that to another event, none of which is evil, but none of which is spiritual either.  How do you feel at the end of the day?  Drained, probably, and maybe even quicker to fall into the sins of impatience and intolerance simply because you are so tired.  And he that was sown among the thorns, this is he who hears the word; and the care of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful, Matthew 13:22.

What are you floating in today?  Will it make you sweet and useful to the  Master, or will it leave you an empty, useless hull of a servant, one who will be strained out and thrown away?  Let me know if you need a jar of my grape juice to sit on your shelf as a reminder. 
 
My foot has held fast to his steps; I have kept his way and have not turned aside. I have not departed from the commandment of his lips; I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my portion of food…For zeal for your house has consumed me, Job  23:11-12, Psa 69:9.

(For this recipe go to "Dene's Recipes" page)


Dene Ward

Today’s post is by guest writer Lucas Ward.

We have two excellent examples of prayer in the latter part of the Old Testament. Daniel is the more famous of the two, with his habit of praying three times a day, a habit which resulted in him being thrown to the lions from which God saved him. I like Daniel's example because it shows the devotion of a busy man. Remember, at the time of Daniel chapter 6, Daniel was the leader of a council that headed all the satraps of the kingdom of Babylon (which was subject to Persia at the time). He was, in effect, the number 2 man in the kingdom behind Darius. So he was busy.

But regardless of how busy he was, he set aside time every day to pray. This is a great example for us today with our busy lives. We always have more things that need to be done, too many things, in fact. We shouldn't (can't) allow our busy-ness to keep us away from time with our God.  If necessary, schedule an appointment with God and then keep it. It's your most important appointment of the day.

The second example is less well known: Nehemiah.  As I have studied through Nehemiah the thing I have noticed most is that he prayed constantly. The account doesn't mention a regular praying schedule like Daniel’s, but at every turn Nehemiah is praying. In chapter 1:5-11 he prays after hearing of Jerusalem's sad state. In 2:4 he says a quick prayer before asking the king for permission to repair the city. In 4:4-5 he prays that God will punish those hindering the work. In 4:9 he prays when he hears of them coming to attack. In 5:19 he prays for God to remember his good deeds. In 6:9 he prays for strength to continue in the work. In 6:14 he asks God to notice the evil his enemies are doing. So, he prayed when he was sad and troubled, when he was scared, angry, worried, when he wanted God to notice his good deeds, when he needed strength, when he wanted God to remember the evil deeds of evildoers. At every turn of his life, Nehemiah prayed.

Some of these prayers were lengthy. Many were short. At least one was internal and so short the king didn't notice an undue pause. Still, at every trying time, Nehemiah prayed. What would happen if we prayed every time we were scared and worried? Would our faith be stronger and our sense of peace unassailable? What if we prayed every time we were angry? Would we sin less often? If we prayed when problems arose, would the solutions seem easier? Nehemiah is an example of a man whose faith in God was so strong that he took everything—everything--to God in prayer.

So, combining the examples, we need to set aside time to pray, time to spend communing with God.  We can't allow our busy lives to estrange us from God.  We also need to turn to God when things happen between our "appointments". We need to take all our troubles to Him. They don't need to be long prayers, but if we cast our cares upon Him our lives will be easier and we will be better equipped to keep on the straight and narrow.

I love the LORD, because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy. Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live. Psalms 116:1-2

Lucas Ward