Use Your Freedom

What if the government passed a law tomorrow that made it illegal for you to pray publicly? Would you still pray?

That very thing happened to Daniel, the prophet. Some people who hated him knew he had a habit of praying openly every day. So they hatched a plot and convinced King Darius to unwittingly sign a decree that, for 40 days, no one could pray to anyone except him.

So when it became law, what did Daniel do? Did he go into hiding? Did he conceal his prayers?

No, he prayed like he always did, and his enemies reported it to the king. As a result, a troubled King Darius had Daniel arrested and thrown into a den of lions.

You probably know the rest of the story. The Lord preserved Daniel and saved him. And in the end, the people who hatched the plot became lunch for the lions.

In the New Testament, we have the story of Peter and John, who were arrested and brought before the Sanhedrin. When the religious authorities ordered them to no longer speak or teach in the name of Jesus, they said, “Do you think God wants us to obey you rather than him? We cannot stop telling about everything we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:19–20 NLT).

Their examples remind us that we need to stand for what is true. We still have the freedom in America to pray openly. Let’s take advantage of that freedom. We still have the freedom in America to openly proclaim the gospel on the airwaves, in stadiums, on street corners, or wherever we want to. Let’s take full advantage of that freedom.

And let’s not, even for a moment, take for granted the great privileges we have here in the United States of America.