Afraid to Pray

Afraid to Pray
"For God has not given us a spirit of fearfulness, but one of power, love, and sound judgment." ~~2 Timothy 1:7 HCSB¹

"God has not given us the spirit of fear, but the spirit of power, of courage and resolution, to meet difficulties and dangers; the spirit of love to Him, which will carry us through opposition (even when we seek to oppose ourselves). And the spirit of a sound mind, quietness of mind...The Holy Spirit is not the author of a timid or cowardly disposition or of slavish fears......rather let us cleave to the Gospel."²

Dear ones, the Holy Spirit lives within us! What an amazing and awesome thing that is!! What cleaving to the Gospel will afford us is a most profound and deep desire to unashamedly, unselfconsciously call out, cry out, or simply speak out to the One Who saves us.

Let's take a quick glance at Daniel. From reading Daniel chapter 6 we learn that Daniel had an excellent spirit in him (the same spirit you and I have access to) and as a result he had favor with God and the king. Dan was given a place of authority and rule that made a bunch of guys jealous and angry. So much so that they got real busy looking for ways to bring Daniel down, but try as they might, there was no error or fault to be found in him.

So in verse 5 they say, "We shall not find any charge against this Daniel unless we find it against him concerning the law of his God."³

So they came up with a statute that would essentially make it illegal for Daniel to pray. Then they got King Darius to sign it, therefore decreeing "that whoever petitions any god or man for thirty days, except you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions." Vs. 7b³

Do you think it was possible that our brother Dan was afraid to pray? Is it possible that the fact he would be a meal for the "king of beast" led him to entertain the thought of skipping his prayer time for a few weeks?

"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, prayed and gave thanks before his God, as was his custom since early days." ~~v10³

Wow and wow again!!

It's extremely safe to say, that the vast majority of us don't have the threat of violence or death to fuel our fear of praying out loud and yet, the fear exists.

Oh that we could and would be intimately acquainted with the Spirit to know beyond any doubt that His power in us, is able, to free us from the fear of man.

Stephanie