📅 17 December 2025
🛡️ Daniel – Strong in Faith. Faithful in the Fire
Devotions from the life of a young man of conviction
⚔️ 18.Prayer that moves things – Daniel’s spiritual battle
Why your prayers accomplish more than you can see
📖 Daily Verse
“From the first day that you set your heart to understand and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard.”
– Daniel 10:12
────────────────🛡️────────────────
✨ Introduction: When praying feels hard — and you keep going anyway
There are prayers that come easily. Words of gratitude, short requests, familiar phrases. But there are also prayers that are heavy. Prayers that cost strength. Prayers where you wonder whether they are heard at all. You pray, but nothing changes. You hope, but heaven stays silent.
That’s when doubt often rises — not always about God, but about our own praying. Does it even make sense? Does anything get through? Daniel knew this experience well. And his story shows that God is often already at work, even when we can’t see it yet.
────────────────🛡️────────────────
🛤️ Devotional — Prayer that breaks through walls
When we meet Daniel in chapter 10, he is no longer a young man. Decades are behind him. He has lived through political upheavals, watched kings come and go, and experienced God’s intervention again and again. Yet now we see him weary, heavy on the inside, and physically weakened — not because of outward persecution, but because of an inner struggle.
Daniel had begun to pray. Not superficially, not out of routine, but with a serious heart. He fasted for three weeks, gave up everything pleasant, and focused his whole attention on God. It wasn’t a spectacular prayer, but a persevering one. And that’s exactly what made it so exhausting.
Day after day, seemingly nothing happened. No vision. No answer. No sign. Daniel kept praying even as his strength faded. And in this waiting endurance was a spiritual depth he himself could not yet recognize.
Then, after 21 days, the unexpected happens. A heavenly being appears to him. The encounter is so overwhelming that Daniel falls to the ground. His strength leaves him. But the angel lifts him up and speaks words that change everything.
He tells Daniel that his prayer was heard from the very first day — not after three weeks, not after extraordinary effort, but immediately. Yet between the prayer and the visible answer there was a spiritual battle. Powers Daniel could not see had resisted. Only through God’s intervention could the answer break through to him.
This revelation is both sobering and deeply comforting. While Daniel thought nothing was happening, heaven was in motion. While he doubted, a battle was being fought. His prayer had set processes in motion far beyond what he could perceive.
Daniel knew nothing of this conflict. He only saw the silence. But God was working. This shows us: prayer is not ineffective just because it feels that way. There are spiritual realities hidden from our view. And sometimes breakthrough takes time — not because God delays, but because resistance is being overcome.
────────────────🛡️────────────────
💭 What does this mean for us?
We too experience seasons when prayer is hard — seasons where we stay faithful without feeling anything. Daniel’s story invites us to understand prayer anew: not as an instant problem-solver, but as spiritual movement.
Your prayers are not too small. They are not too quiet. And they are not lost. Even when you see nothing, more may be happening in the background than you can imagine. God hears. And God acts — often differently, often deeper, often greater than we expect.
────────────────🛡️────────────────
💎 What we can learn from Daniel
Perseverance in prayer is spiritual strength. God’s silence does not mean God’s absence. Spiritual battles are real, even when we don’t notice them. And faithfulness in the hidden places moves things in heaven.
────────────────🛡️────────────────
🪜 Practical steps for today
Stay in prayer, even when it feels hard. Don’t let the lack of feelings discourage you. Remember that God hears from the very first moment. Ask God not only for quick answers, but also for perseverance and trust for the road in between.
────────────────🛡️────────────────
❓ Questions to reflect on
Where am I tempted to give up because I don’t see change? How would my prayer change if I knew God is already at work? Do I trust God even while waiting?
────────────────🛡️────────────────
🙏 Prayer
Lord, you see my praying, even when it is hard. Strengthen me when I grow tired, and help me to trust you even when I see nothing. Teach me to persevere, and give me confidence that you have already been at work. Amen.
────────────────🛡️────────────────
🔑 Key thought of the day
Your prayers are heard. Even when you see nothing, heaven is in motion.
