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Daniel Prays

5/16/2017

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Opening Conversation: If someone told you that you were never allowed to pray again, what would you do? What if praying to God was against the law? 
 
Introduction: Daniel was a prophet of God who lived about 500 to 600 years before Jesus. When he was quite young, he and his friends were captured by the Babylonians and taken away from their homes in order to work for the king of Babylon. Living in a new place with a different language, their names were even changed. In Babylon, Daniel’s name was changed to Belteshazzar; Hananiah became Shadrach; Mishael became Meshach; and Azariah became Abednego. While going through all of these changes would have been difficult, Daniel and his friends continued living for and obeying God in the foreign land of Babylon.
 
Read Daniel 1:8-17
 
Devotional: Daniel was young when he was taken from home, and he would grow old in this foreign land. In Daniel’s lifetime, the kingdom of Babylon was replaced by the kingdom of Persia and its leader, Darius. Daniel continued serving Darius just as he had served the kings of Babylon. In Daniel chapter 6, however, we find that Darius made an usual law. At the request of other leaders in his kingdom, he made it illegal for anyone to pray to God. If anyone was caught praying, that person would then be thrown into a den of lions! Knowing this new law was now in place, the old man Daniel had a decision to make for himself — “Do I keep praying or do I stop?”
 
Read Daniel 6:10
 
DISCUSSION: What would you have done if you were Daniel?
 
As you see, the new law did not stop Daniel from praying. While living in a foreign land would have been difficult in some ways for Daniel, he was always someone who gave thanks to God. But just as Darius’s new law said, Daniel was going to be thrown into a den of lions because he kept praying. Darius knew he had made a foolish law and didn’t want to throw Daniel into the lions’ den, but he was not allowed to change the law. On the night when Daniel was thrown into the lions’ den, Darius could not sleep. When the next morning came, he rushed to check on Daniel.
 
Read Daniel 6:19-23
 
God’s angel kept the lions from harming Daniel! Both in his youth and his old age, Daniel always trusted God and never stopped praying to Him. May we do the same!
 
Prayer: Thank God for allowing us to always pray to Him, no matter what others might think. Ask God for a heart like Daniel’s to always be thankful.

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Before You Were Born

5/7/2017

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Opening Conversation: Before you were born, what do you think God knew about you? 
 
Introduction: Jeremiah 1:1 tells us that the prophet was born in the 600s BC. This was a very bad time for the people of Judah. They continued to worship idols and disobey other commands from God. God had warned them over and over again through the prophets that their enemies would conquer them unless they turned back to God. This is called “repentance.” God chose Jeremiah as one of the last prophets to warn Judah about their ways, and God always had very special plans for Jeremiah’s life.
 
Read Jeremiah 1:4-5
 
Devotional: The first thing God tells Jeremiah is that He had always been paying attention to Jeremiah. Even before Jeremiah was born, God knew who Jeremiah was! This is not just true for Jeremiah. This is true for all of us! Every life is special in God’s eyes, and God pays close attention to each person. The Bible tells us just how special we are in God’s eyes in that He created both man and woman “in His own image” (Genesis 1:27). Besides being known by God before he was born, Jeremiah also learned that God’s will for Jeremiah’s life was for him to be a prophet.
 
Read Jeremiah 1:6-8
 
When Jeremiah learned that God wanted him to be a prophet, he became afraid and made excuses. He first excuse was “I’m too young.” To this, God told Jeremiah that he was not too young to be sent by God. Not matter how young or old we are, we all can tell others about the Lord. But Jeremiah then wondered, “What if I don’t know what to say to people?” God replied by telling Jeremiah that He would give the prophet the right words to speak. When we speak to others about God, we have the Bible to show us the message to share with others. Because Jeremiah lived in times when many people disobeyed God, he was also probably scared of how others might treat him. Finally, God says, “I am with you.” No matter how afraid Jeremiah might have been and no matter how others may have treated him, the prophet could go forward every day knowing that God was with him. After all, if God knew Jeremiah since before he was born, then God could surely stay with him all the days of his life. The same is true for each of us.
 
DISCUSSION: When do you most need to know that God is always with you? 
 
Prayer: Thank God for always watching over you and being with you. Ask for God’s help to know how to speak to others about Him and His will for our lives. 

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    Blaine Kelly

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