February 7, 2008
All Alone?
By Lydia Rule, RTF Staff Writer
Daniel… the name echoes down the Hall of Faith-filled Heroes. He was the young boy who kept his faith in a strange country, the prophet and wise man who interpreted dreams, the man who spent a night with lions and lived to tell about it.
When we think of Daniel, the Sunday school picture of him kneeling alone in prayer pops into our minds. Hey, we can even imagine a halo hanging over his head and heavenly light streaming down on top of his solitary figure.
But he wasn’t alone.
Daniel 2: 16-18: Then Daniel went in, and desired of the king that he would give him time, and that he would shew the king the interpretation.
Then Daniel went to his house, and made the thing known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions:
That they would desire mercies of the God of heaven concerning this secret; that Daniel and his fellows should not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.
When encountered with a problem (namely, the king wanting to chop off all the wise men’s heads), Daniel didn’t pray alone. He gathered his friends and asked them to pray with him. Often, when problems creep into our lives, we become prideful and think we can get through our problems alone. We lock away that portion of our lives and try to appear normal on the outside. We don’t want to share our burdens.
But never underestimate the power of other people praying with you.
Faith isn’t a one-man show. Everyone needs the strength of other Christian friends to surround them. Your pastor, youth pastor, friends, and parents are there to lift up your problems to God in prayer.
While there are times we can’t give the details of our situations, we can still ask people around us to just pray. We don’t have to be alone in our problems, God wants us to draw close to other Christians and pray one for each other.
Galatians 6:2: Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.
Bio: Lydia Rule is an avid writer who has been published in over fifty magazines and online publications. Currently, she is busy working on her fifth novel.
