Many years ago, a man by the name of John Owen made a statement, a statement that impacted my whole life, my prayer life, my public life, my private life. And the statement went something like this. What an individual is, secret on his knees before God, he is no more. And the first prayer that I've

chosen to use, as we look at this, different prayers in the scripture scripture of a man who became who he was

because he was a man of prayer because of his knees of prayer.

Many of you know the story as a teenager.

He was abducted from his house, snatched by foreign forces, taken into a foreign land.

At the age of 14, he found himself serving a godless king, in a godless kingdom, in a godless culture, found himself with incomprehensible pressure to compromise

to this new situation and surroundings. And yet this man, Daniel, stood firm. In his teen years,

he stood firm. In his old age, he stood firm. In his old age, he stood firm.

All of his life, he stood firm.

And chapter 9 is really the secret that tells us why this man stood firm for God.

It is the secret for his strength, and it is his knees of prayer.

Turn with me, please, if you haven't already, to Daniel chapter 9.

Daniel's secret for his power was his prayer life.

When you bend your knees to Christ alone, you will not bend them to anybody else.

And because of that, Daniel's trials, which were many,

never broke him. His crushing circumstances, which were many, never jaded his spirit.

Later on, when he was in a place of power and authority and wealth, never affected him.

That power and authority which he found himself to be in in the later days of his life never

led him astray from his love and his loyalty to the Lord. This man did not cry to God because he needed something from God,

and he wanted something so badly from God.

And as soon as God answered his prayer, he ran back into the land of compromise.

No, no, and a million knows.

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