Day #21 of my Big Thanksgiving Challenge. Excerpted from my 100 Days of Thanksgiving Devotional-Journal which you can order when you CLICK HERE.

Three Times Daily

I have known for years that the prophet Daniel prayed diligently and decidedly multiple times daily per the Bible, but not until I started writing this book and looked up verses related to Thanksgiving did I find the verse below – and was I moved to the start of tears in reading it.

I had always assumed Daniel simply prayed to ask God for what it was he wanted. What I had missed was that Daniel prayed – AND GAVE THANKS! Oh, hallelujah! How could I have missed that? Honestly? Because I am by nature so self-consumed that I have usually thought of prayer as ASKING, ASKING, and ASKING God instead of thinking of prayer as simply communing with God in a number of ways – including THANKING HIM!

While I am someone who is led to pray day and night without any set schedule, I have sorely lacked when it comes to Thanksgiving. This is an area where I need so much humility and growth. What an inspiration and encouragement the following verse is for us to spend time alone in the presence of God and to pray to Him – and to THANK HIM. Oh, praise the Lord! Let us praise, praise, praise and thank the Lord, AMEN!

“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 KJV