Pray for others!
“But when Daniel learned that the law had been signed, he went home and knelt down as usual in his upstairs room, giving thanks to his God.”
Daniel 6:10
As I was reading through one of my favorite books in the bible, Daniel, this verse hit me like a ton of bricks.
And shockingly enough I have never highlighted it before today.
What really hit me was when Daniel was presented with a problem, like not being able to pray.
What did he do?
HE PRAYED HARDER!!!!
But what really hit the hardest was that this verse says that he gave thanks.
NOT he prayed for this situation to leave him. OR God help me through this. Or one of my favorite prayers, God give me the guidance I need to navigate this.
NO
All he did was give thanks to God for all that he had received so far.
Let’s think about this for a moment, shall we?
Daniel was in a pretty hard situation. He probably knew that this Law was put into effect just to sabotage him. And to be 100% clear if you read the chapter, you will find out that it WAS put into effect just to sabotage him.
His counterparts in the kingdom didn’t like the fact that he was getting all the attention.
Kind of like little kids, or politicians if you ask me. I also know a few adults that would do this exact same thing if they thought that it would help them get ahead in ANY way.
ANYWAYS
The way Daniel handled it was something that we can all take note of.
He didn’t go and whine to his friends, or coworkers about how unfair life is.
And he didn’t go pray for God to take revenge on those who tricked the king into signing this law. (Read the whole chapter and you’ll know what I mean. The king was pretty darn upset about the pain he caused Daniel.)
Daniel didn’t have to do any of that because he TRUSTED that God would provide for him.
He TRUSTED God and his plan.
How often do we fail to TRUST that God has it all under control? (I know that I do it constantly!)
I’m sure that you either know of someone who is always asking God to heal them or to give them something.
Heck, I am just like that the majority of the time. It seems that a lot of my prayers lately are something to the effect of, God please give me the guidance and wisdom that I need to navigate this situation with ease and dignity.
Or something like that.
My prayers have been pretty darn selfish lately. And this one verse helped me to change that.
Crazy how when we crack open the bible and seek out wisdom how easily it comes to us isn’t it?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
I KNOW!!!!
The one thing that I really wanted to bring to light from this one verse is just how much Daniel trusted God.
He trusted him so much that he didn’t have to ask for anything. He just KNEW in his heart that God was going to provide what he needed.
TRUST!
Heck, I didn’t even know that’s where this devotional was going. Lol.
Time to Take Action
Today’s action might be a little harder than some of the other ones.
But..
Nonetheless, I want you to give it a good full-hearted try
Are you down with that????
GREAT!!!!!!
Here it is.
Today I want you to only give thanks for everything that you have.
No prayers asking for anything else!! Just give thanks for everything!
Not only that, I want you to believe deep in your heart that God will give you exactly what you need.
Take a moment to close your eyes (WAIT!!! You can’t do it yet or you won’t be able to finish reading this and won’t know what to do! Lol)
Then visualize that God has given you everything you need.
Your bank account is full! Your health is a 12 out of 10. Your mental health is the best it’s ever been. Your work loves you. you are unstoppable. (kind of a Superman, spiderman, Groot (look him up if you don’t know him) mix of superheroes that is not scared of anything and can conquer anything.
One more thing for this take action part.
Do this for the next 5 days and see how it changed your life and your outlook on your life!
I promise you won’t be disappointed.
Prayer
Lord, today we come to you, with hearts that are full of grace and gratitude. We are so grateful for everything that you have given unto us! We are thankful for the fact that you are always there for us. Even when we don’t see you.
God, today we just want to let you know how much we trust you. We trust that you will always have our back and only allow things that we absolutely need to happen to us. We trust that you will deliver us from any situation that might come into our lives. We trust that you know what’s best for us. We trust you with all of our hearts.
We are so grateful for your son.
In his name, we pray.
Amen.
Little More
You might not realize this but over the past 3-4 years I have been publishing these devotions and the blogs that I write for our business, Eclipse DOT, I have written more than 1000 pages of content!!!
I know CRAZY right?!?!?!?!?!
I went from a kid who, in school, I’m sure my teachers thought would never write another paper after school. To the person who publishes about 10-15 pages of content a week!
With that being said. There are times that I get exhausted and feel like this is more work than it’s worth.Â
Just about that time, God places someone in my life that says, Hey, what you’re doing is GREAT! Don’t stop, please you are literally changing lives!
Then I get a boost of energy and keep on going.
The other day I was thinking about how much I am keeping up with right now.
We are finally preparing for a HARD launch of our software that takes the complexity out of compliance for companies that use trucks. www.dotdocs.com
If you haven’t checked it out you should!!! Better yet if you know of anyone who uses trucks in their business then you should let them know about it!!!!
(Who knew that a dumb truck driver, me, would ever design and build a software platform that would help so many people?!?!?!?)
We are growing our team at Eclipse DOT and hosting a MAJOR live event this fall and trying to get 500ish people to it. (still working out all the details. Stay tuned for more info!)
As I said earlier I write this amazing devotional, a blog, social media posts, and tons of emails that are sent out to our Eclipse DOT community every week!
We even publish a newsletter that is delivered every week! And are considering making a monthly magazine for the trucking industry that is specifically for the people who were like me when I worked for Crossfire!
How cool would that be?!?!?!?!?
I just filed for a trademark for DOT Docs!!!! Which I am super stoked about.
We are still doing CDL testing and training. And looking to grow that team.
And now we are going to start building online training courses that will be accessible through www.DOTDocs.com.
If that goes well, then we will most likely need to build a team that creates content for our customers and clients.
The last thing that I have been diving into lately is advertising.
And let me tell you, this is amazing and super scary all at the same time!
It is really hard to spend your OWN money to see if you can grab anyone’s attention!
It is also really wicked cool when you build something that does grab their attention and then gets them to click on your ads and takes them to sign up.
Then I play with the landing pages (websites) that those ads take them to. I get to play with them daily to see how I can get more interaction.
Lately, it has seemed that I have been checking to see how many people viewed the ad, then how many clicked on it. and then how many people signed up to buy what I was trying to sell.
And if there were not enough people clicking on the ad I play with it.
Then when I start to get that figured out, I play with the website to see how I can get more people to sign up/buy what I’m offering.
If it’s an online class then I have to figure out how to get more people to show up. And if a ton shows up then how do I get them to buy into what I’m offering at the end?
For a lot of people, they would look at this process and say, wow you’re busy.
But.
By now you know me better than to say that I’m busy.
Busy is a 4-letter word and I try my best not to use 4-letter words!
I look at it as if I get the opportunity to learn every single day!!! and I LOVE Learning!!!!!!
The other day someone on my team said, Dan I HATE this. It’s like everything I do flops hardcore! Why don’t you just do this? You are going to change it anyways!
That’s when I told them, It might seem like a flop, but in all honesty, it’s not a flop. It’s the beginning. Nothing great was done RIGHT the first time. And if it was, it was done by mistake! Lol
We need to learn to LOVE the journey, not just the destination.
I know that this one was kind of like chasing squirrels in the park. All over the place and has no real end destination.
Welcome to the inside of Dan’s head! It’s nice here. a little crazy at times, but hey it’s fun and you never get bored!
I’d like to end with this.
When you start to feel overwhelmed, pause and look around.
Notice the grass, or lack thereof if you look at my yard (thank you chickens. I swear every time I planted grass they ate ALL the seeds. lol)
Breathe in the air and notice the pureness of it.
Take a drink of water (from the hose if you are outside at my house unless it’s from the ditch. DON’T drink from that hose. Lol) and notice the smoothness of it. Notice how your mouth feels as the water hits your tongue and cheeks.
Look at the sky and just take in the expanse of where you are standing. It doesn’t matter if you are in the city or the country. Notice just how vast the sky is and how amazing it looks.
Feel your heart beating inside your chest. Place your hand on it and notice that it’s protected by your ribs, muscle, and then a layer of skin.
Now pause for a moment after you have done any of those things.Â
All of those were created in less than 7 days. By one being.
If he can create all of this and handle being inside of ALL of our heads (sorry about the crazy inside of mine) then he can help you through any situation that you might be facing right now!
Trust in the creator!
Trust that he is in your corner!
Trust that he knows what’s best for you and is working to provide it for you!
Trust that he wants you to be happy, healthy, and ultimately successful at everything you do!
Trust that you are taken care of!
Now, Stop saying that you are busy and start saying I am blessed!
NEVER allow yourself to use the word busy again!
When someone asks you how you are, pause and thoughtfully say, Amazing, Outstanding, Blessed, or GREAT!
I think you get my point.
You are not busy!!!
The creator is busy, we are blessed!
Dan Greer
