Intimacy with God

When Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open toward Jerusalem. He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he had done previously. Daniel 6:10

D.L. MOODY
There is many a businessman today who will tell you he has no time to pray: his business is so pressing that he cannot call his family around him and ask God to bless them. He is so busy that he cannot ask God to keep him and them from the temptations of the present life—the temptations every day. “Business is so pressing.” I am reminded of the words of an old Methodist minister: “If you have so much business to attend to that you have no time to pray, depend upon it, you have more business on hand than God ever intended you should have.”
But look at this man. He has the whole, or nearly the whole, of the king’s business to attend to. He was Prime Minister, Secretary of State, and Secretary of the Treasury, all in one. He had to attend all his own work, and to give an eye to the work of lots of other men. And yet he found time to pray, not just now and then, nor once in a day, not just when he happened to have a few moments to spare, but “three times a day.”

ERWIN LUTZER

The real purpose of prayer is a stepping stone for us to develop intimacy with God. God gives us many trials because He knows that only desperate people pray. When we come to Him with our need, we leave His presence realizing that our greatest need is our need of Him. A fresh vision of God and His love for us is always our greatest need.

PRAYER
Father, thank you for the trials I face that assure me why your presence is what I need most.

REFLECTION QUESTIONS
Why do you think prayer is one of the first things to go from our lives when we are busy?
How does prayer bring us into closer intimacy with God?