As Was His Custom

Tim Franklin
Freedom Christian Center
July 7, 2010


Daniel 6:10 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. NKJV

Oh, that the church in America would learn from Daniel! “AS WAS HIS CUSTOM…” (that sounds like Jesus.) A new law was written—No man shall bow to any other god or man except the king. It was endorsed by the King. It would be enforced by the authorities of the land. Daniel was not moved by this law. Daniel was not moved by the threat of death or imprisonment, or discomfort—Daniel was moved by his habit of prayer! Imagine that? A habit of prayer, established by years of the ‘custom of prayer’—THREE TIMES A DAY!

We are living in a time when the average American pastor is spending as little as 5-30 minutes a day in prayer depending on which source you read. It’s a day in which men’s knees are tender and their hearts are calloused. God is looking for a people so dependent on Him that their hearts are tender and their knees are calloused. Prayer is a powerful tool in the hands of a church that will embrace and use it. Yet, in the west, we have become soft and stopped praying when we have a ‘hang nail’ let alone a law like Daniel faced, that said you could not bow to another but the king. This is still the land of the free and the brave. Our president may not bow to our God or honor the National Day of Prayer, but that has nothing to do with our freedom to have a custom of prayer.

Ask yourself: “What will it take to stop me from praying?” To busy? To offended? To lazy? To afraid? To relaxed? To doubtful? Come on Brevard! We are better than this. The price of freedom has been paid. Jesus is His name! Let it be written of us in years to come… “They prayed as was their custom.”