Press the play button to watch the video above or press 'more' to read the transcript of the daily devotion below. Please read Daniel 6:6-23 (use your own Bible or use the link above to access the in-App Bible).

‘‘Daniel, one of the exiles from Judah, pays no attention to you, O king, or to the interdict you have signed, but he is saying his prayers three times a day.’ Daniel 6:13

As a primary school headteacher I am all too familiar with having to make leadership decisions. Some decisions are easy to make; whilst others are tough and could impact on our staff, children and families.

In King Darius’ situation, his advisors and closest allies (the people who should have had the kingdom’s best interests at heart) were instead self-interested, spreading fake news, introducing false laws, and manipulating the King’s decision making for their own ends. Instead of listening to his own ‘gut’ leadership instinct and ignoring his own better judgement (led by God’s guiding voice), Darius followed the noise of others.

In Lent we journey through the ‘noise of others’ to approach the cross of Jesus. This passage tells us that Daniel was well aware of the fact that the King had signed the document forbidding him from prayer – yet he silenced the doubts and the noise and continued in his routine prayer life. Daniel knew the impact that a committed prayer routine was having in his life. He had already seen the glorious power of prayer and his rise to favour with the King, and no noise was going to come between him praising, glorifying and seeking mercy from God. It reminds me of the lyrics from the rousing worship song, ‘In Christ Alone’ which explains that, “no power of hell, no scheme of man, can ever pluck me from His hand.”

Daniel was resolute, that no matter what the consequence may be, the one thing he was not going to sacrifice was prayer! In the noise of our own lives, and in our own decision making are we as resolute as Daniel to prioritise prayer over everything else? Are we consistently loud and proud about prayer – letting those around us know that we pray regularly and are not afraid to use the power of prayer in our decisions?

The king spent a sleepless night worrying about the consequences of listening to the wrong advice. Daniel, however relied upon the power of prayer, rather than listening to the noise surrounding him (possibly a few muffled growls, snarls and roars) and found the peace, protection and courage to stand up to the fiercest of foes!

Let us pray: May this Lent time be one where the distracting noise of others is silenced, so we may hear God’s mighty roar, through the power of prayer at work in our daily lives. Amen

Victoria Gow, Headteacher, Balderstone St Leonard’s CE Primary & Pre-school.