Fighting on Your Knees, Pt. 3

In prayer, we come before holy God, revering Him for who He is, and we lay our petitions before Him. We cannot argue or defend ourselves. We seek God's help.

Fighting on Your Knees, Pt. 3

"Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went home. And in his upper room, with his windows open toward Jerusalem, he knelt down on his knees three times that day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as was his custom since early days."

(Daniel 6:10)

When hard times come or bad news reaches you, what do you do? We all have a choice in those moments as children of God. We can complain, get angry, take matters into our own hands, feel sorry for ourselves, etc. But the best possible reaction we could have is to pray. King Darius signed the decree that if anyone prayed to any god besides him then he would be thrown into a den of lions. That was some pretty horrible news for Daniel! He would not pray to a false god. In fact, upon hearing this royal decree, he did what we read in our biblical text for today. Just as was his custom before the decree, he got on his knees, and he prayed three times and gave thanks to God.

What does it mean to fight on your knees? In his message on prayer, Dr. Charles Stanley helps Christians with some very helpful and practical advice. In prayer, we come before holy God, revering Him for who He is, and we lay our petitions before Him. We all get very busy, and while we may pray a little, we do not often linger long and battle on our knees, and then we wonder why life is not going well. Fighting on your knees requires more than a few brief moments with the Lord in prayer. Stanley said he first learned to fight on his knees when he came to FBC Atlanta. He said there was a great debate whether he would be the pastor. Three hundred people were ready to get rid of him, and he said it was very discouraging. He said that he had to pretend that he loved everyone, but he said, "I did not!" God showed him that he must fight on his knees with God, period. He felt that the Lord impressed upon him, "You must fight in the prayer room alone, just the two of us." He admitted that this was very hard. He could not argue or defend himself but had to fight it out in prayer.

Stanley made some statements in his sermon on prayer that I am still pondering. He said, "You can win every battle if you fight on your knees." And he also said, "You will fight till you die and maybe on that day."

He shared some important principles on prayer. First, fighting on your knees is the biblical pattern. Before Hezekiah fought the Assyrians, he prayed. As we read in the book of Daniel, he got on his knees and prayed when he received the bad news. I recently read a new book by Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth on the life of Daniel, entitled, Heaven Rules. I recommend it to you. One thing that stands out in her book was when she said that if we could only get a glimpse of our situation from God's perspective, we would not worry at all. He rules. He has everything under control. You see the biblical pattern of prayer throughout the New Testament as well. Jesus and the early church prayed often. This is the biblical pattern, and this emphasis and value on prayer should be ours as well.