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"Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house; and his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime ." [Daniel 6:10]

God is honored whenever a saint lives right in all circumstances and trusts Him completely in any situation. No one better fits those lofty ideals than Daniel. As a young teenager, he had been taken from Jerusalem into Babylonian captivity. Once he had gotten there, the chief of the court officials, named Ashpenaz, had selected him to enter into the king’s service. With that honor, he was to be given the best royal food and wine and the best available training so that he could develop within a nearly perfect environment. But even as a young man in his late teens, Daniel had stubbornly determined himself to live for the Lord while in that foreign, hostile land. Daniel 1:8 says, "But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself."

He had asked Ashpenaz if his diet could consist of nothing but vegetables and water rather than of the king’s food. So the official had reluctantly agreed. Then at the end of the three-year session, Daniel and his three friends who had also lived on vegetables and water had been healthier, better nourished, and more intelligent than all of the others that had been in training with them. Those four men had taken a stand for the Lord, and He had given them the victory. Daniel 1:19-20 says, "And the king communed with them; and among them all was found none like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah: therefore stood they before the king. And in all matters of wisdom and understanding, that the king enquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all his realm ."

At one point, King Nebuchadnezzar had had a very troubling dream which had troubled him. So Daniel had interpreted it for him. As a result of that, he had been moved up within the Babylonian government. His three young friends had also moved up with him. Daniel 2:47-49 says, "The king answered unto Daniel, and said, Of a truth it is, that your God is a God of gods, and a Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, seeing thou couldest reveal this secret. Then the king made Daniel a great man , and gave him many great gifts, and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon , and chief of the governors over all the wise men of Babylon. Then Daniel requested of the king, and he set Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, over the affairs of the province of Babylon : but Daniel sat in the gate of the king."

Daniel and his three friends had remained faithful to the Lord during their entire time in Babylon. In fact, many years later when Daniel had probably been well into his eighties, the Medes and Persians had overthrown the Babylonians. Within that new administration, though, some people had wanted to get rid of him. So they had encouraged King Darius to sign into law a decree that would forbid any person to pray to any god or to any person except the king for the next thirty days. Daniel 6:7 says, "All the presidents of the kingdom, the governors, and the princes, the counsellors, and the captains, have consulted together to establish a royal statute, and to make a firm decree, that whosoever shall ask a petition of any God or man for thirty days, save of thee, O king, he shall be cast into the den of lions ." The penalty for breaking that law was that the offender would be thrown into the lion's den.

So when Daniel had prayed to the Lord in Daniel 6:10 just as he had always done, his enemies had immediately reported him. He was then thrown into a den of hungry lions. But because Daniel had lived right and had trusted the Lord for so many years, the Lord had closed the mouths of the lions so that he was not hurt. Daniel had been placed in a potentially life-threatening situation. But through the Lord, he had prevailed and his enemies had not been able to get rid of him so easily.