That was my prayer this morning.

We have to fight the human urge for self-preservation. In our flesh, we will never naturally want to fast, pray and spend extended time in God's presence. We will always lean towards comfort over discipline.

Discipline and comfort are not enemies. They can coexist.

From the fall, sacrifice has been central to the way humanity approaches God. In Christ, that sacrifice is now our own lives, offered back to Him.

The progressive spiritual life we are meant to live will only ever ask for more consecration and devotion, not less. As we grow in love, in intimacy and in revelation of our purpose, we will see more of Him, and our communion with Him and our fellowship within His kingdom will reach further into every part of our lives.

I had to come to the realisation that the path God has curated for me cannot be walked by accident.

I have to be intentional.

I have to set and keep appointments with God.

My heart must be in tune with His Spirit.

I must ask, seek and knock.

If I am not practically intentional about these things, I am living my life by chance.

I am always reminded of Daniel. Heaven respected his discipline.

Even when prayer was made a crime, he kept his appointments.

Think about the environment he was in. It mirrors our existence in today's Babylonian world system. How did a man like Daniel serve, and hold influence, in the highest courts of a globally dominant pagan empire without compromising his worship of the Holy One of Israel?

Daniel's routine was not religious. It was spiritual.

He kept his divinely inspired appointments, the prayers and the fasts, not out of mere religious observance, but because he understood his need for communion with God.

The same book says:

The Hebrew word for “know” here is yada: to know, to recognise, to know through experience. The people who did exploits did not just have knowledge of God. They knew Him through experience, and that shaped the way they lived.

The world is set up to keep us carnally minded, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace (Romans 8:6). That has to show up in our everyday routines and habits.

Set and keep appointments with your Maker.

Listen as much as you speak, for He has much to say.