Scripture
12Then he said, “Don’t be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day you began to pray for understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your request has been heard in heaven. I have come in answer to your prayer. 13But for twenty-one days the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia blocked my way. Then Michael, one of the archangels, came to help me, and I left him there with the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia. 14Now I am here to explain what will happen to your people in the future, for this vision concerns a time yet to come.” Daniel 10:12-14
Observation
Did you catch that? Jesus met with Daniel to let him know his prayer was heard the moment he prayed it, but that there was spiritual battle going on that Daniel knew nothing about (compare the vision of Daniel 10 to Revelation 1 to see that this was a pre-incarnate Jesus). During all of that time Daniel continued to persevere in prayer. Daniel had spiritual grit and God was honoring it by sending His Son Jesus to strengthen him and open his eyes to the purpose of his prayers. In fact, all of todays reading is about a grit that won’t quit. The Psalmist writes this song of ascent as they make their long journey to Jerusalem and cries out for freedom from their oppressors, “1I lift my eyes to you, O God, enthroned in heaven. 2We keep looking to the Lord our God for his mercy, just as servants keep their eyes on their master,” (Ps. 123:1-2). It’s that picture of never taking our eyes off of the One who will save us and the One we will serve. No matter how long it takes we cry out for mercy with the Psalmist and Daniel, “We make this plea, not because we deserve help, but because of your mercy. 19“O Lord, hear. O Lord, forgive. O Lord, listen and act! For your own sake, do not delay, O my God, for your people and your city bear your name.” (Dan. 9:18-19). Look at the grit on these guys in Luke 5: “18Some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a sleeping mat. They tried to take him inside to Jesus, 19but they couldn’t reach him because of the crowd. So they went up to the roof and took off some tiles. Then they lowered the sick man on his mat down into the crowd, right in front of Jesus. 20Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the man, “Young man, your sins are forgiven.” They weren’t about to give up until their friend was face to face with the Man of Mercy! They were willing to rip off the roof a stranger and interrupt the Rabbi’s teaching for just one shot at seeing their friend healed. That’s the same grit that kept Daniel praying on behalf of his people and the Psalmist praying as they walked to Jerusalem to meet God at The Temple. That’s a grit that won’t quit until the breakthrough comes!
Application
During my Masters course I read a lot of books. One of them that had the most important impact on me was called “Grit” by Angela Duckworth. She wrote, among other brilliant things, “Grit has two components: passion and perseverance…Grit is about working on something you care about so much that you’re willing to stay loyal to it… To be gritty is to resist complacency… One form of perseverance is the daily discipline of trying to do things better than we did yesterday.” Daniel the intercessor, Psalmist the pilgrim, friends that were roof wreckers all had one thing common- Grit. In our instantaneous culture we tend to give up way too sin. At the first sign of suffering, resistance, push-back, or delay we look for a way out instead of another way through. We look at someone else’s highlight reel of success and fail to notice the years of heartbreak and sweat equity it took to get there. We look at Daniel’s breakthrough and ignore the 21 days of brokenness on his knees. We look at the healing of the paraplegic’s healing and ignore the massive effort, determination and unstoppable faith of his friends to get him in front of Jesus. We don’t like to have to watch and wait as the Psalmist describes because we want God to watch and wait on us. Daniel fasted and prayed for 21 days and I’m not sure I’d last 21 minutes. Why? I don’t have enough spiritual grit. I’m sold out enough to God’s higher purposes because I’ve sold out to the lie that God’s will isn’t worth waiting for. So, I end up giving up right before the breakthrough simply because I can’t always see what God is up to!
Prayer
Forgive me for a gritless prayer life Lord! I’m here and healed because people didn’t stop praying for me until they saw me outside of that hospital. Thank you for the reminder that there are battles going on the spiritual that I am not aware of and all You need me to do is keep an eye on You. Holy Spirit fill me with Your power for the Divine Delay is producing something good in me and that’s grit- “3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” (Romans 5:3-5)
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