They said to each other, "We are not going to find anything of which to accuse Daniel unless it is something in connection with his religion."

So they went to see the king and said, "King Darius, may Your Majesty live forever! All of us who administer your empire - the supervisors, the governors, the lieutenant governors, and the other officials - have agreed that Your Majesty should issue an order and enforce it strictly. Give orders that for thirty days no one be permitted to request anything from any god or from any man except from Your Majesty. Anyone who violates this order is to be thrown into a pit filled with lions. So let Your Majesty issue this order and sign it, and it will be in force, a law of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be changed." And so King Darius signed the order. When Daniel learned that the order had been signed, he went home. In an upstairs room of his house there were windows that faced toward Jerusalem. There, just as he had always done, he knelt down at the open windows and prayed to God three times a day.

Daniel 6:5-10

Daniel's practice of praying three times a day was an essential part of his walk with God. He knew there is a certain kind of spiritual refocusing that we can't do without stopping. His stopping gave him a very different walk - one that was obvious to those around him. What about us? Are our religious beliefs obvious to those around us? They should be.

Time in Christ's service requires time out for renewal.

Our Daily Bread - September 20, 2003