A Prayer for God's Mercy
"And I prayed to the LORD my God, and made confession, and said,
“O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep His commandments, we have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and Your judgments." (Daniel 9:4-5)
Daniel was known for many things...but God knew him as a faithful servant who regularly communed with Him and called out in prayer.
In fact, as soon as Daniel started praying, God gave the command for one of his leading angels Gabriel to come directly to Daniel. Imagine that...A prayer for God's mercy was the catalyst for the movement of God's spiritual armies and helpers in heaven to come. Is this powerful or what? We know in other places of Scripture that God gives His angels charge over us for our protection, provision, and guidance (Psalm 91 and Ephesians 3 & 6).
Prayer is the greatest display of our faith and trust in God because when we pray we are humbly aware of our constant need for God.
Daniel was a teenager when he was first taken captive into Babylon, but he freely lived by faith despite his difficult circumstances. He learned to bring everything to God in prayer. He developed the habit to pray and learned to pray three times each day on behalf of His people and Jerusalem from the time of his youth (Dan. 6:10).
Now Daniel was a seasoned man of prayer and faith in his upper 80s and he could see clearly just how far his people had strayed from the faith. Daniel understood that the promised time of the 70 yeasr of punishment and captivity for His people was now coming to an end.
As 2 Chronicles 36:20-21 says: "And those who escaped from the sword he carried away to Babylon, where they became servants to him and his sons until the rule of the kingdom of Persia, to fulfill the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths. As long as she lay desolate she kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years."
The Judah that he knew was guilty of all kinds of idolatry and wickedness, which even led to the sacrifice of their children to the false gods they adopted. Sadly, these sins are still very much active today throughout the nations of the world and even here in the America today from idolatry in entertainment to babies that are killed by the millions in the womb. He was convicted by the sins of his people but he was comforted by what He knew God said he would do.
"For thus says the LORD: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope" (Jeremiah 29:11).
Daniel had access to the copies and scrolls of the Scriptures that he and some of the captives had taken with them, which included the Law of Moses and the prophecies of Jeremiah.
It is always good to pray in alignment with the revealed Word of God and what God desires to do in our lives and with His people as a whole. For God is faithful even when we are faithless. He is able to be strong when we are weak and to bring good out of evil and beauty from the ashes.
Daniel based his prayers on what he knew God had already said more than what he simply wanted God to do.
Daniel Shows us a GREAT way to Pray:
Get alone with God
Remind yourself who God is
Expose and confess all your sin
Ask for forgiveness and seek direction
Trust in God’s mercy and faithfulness
Prayer should always seek to UNITE our heart with God’s Heart, to ALIGN our will with God’s Will, and to CALL DOWN God’s heavenly supply.
Are you known for being a man or woman of prayer dear child of God? Is heaven familiar with the sound of your voice? Do the demons and forces of evil tremble when you bow down to pray?
Daniel was willing to make the sacrifice necessary to pray. He combined his prayers with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. This kind of lament in prayer may seem foreign to some of us who have received so much grace and mercy through Christ but we must still learn to include the sins of others and the testimony of the church in this present time in our prayers.
James put it this way, "But He gives more grace. Therefore He says:
'God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.'
Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up" (James 4:6-10).
It is good to confess our sins and agree with God about WHAT HE SEES and WHAT HE SAYS. The Apostle John said, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9).
When we know that God's moral laws come from God alone then we must also know that our sins are an offense to God and that only HE can forgive us and cleanse us.
Since we are the problem, we cannot be the solution! We need God to come to our rescue and to cover our sins, just as He did in the Garden of Eden when mankind first rebelled and God clothed them with the skins of an animal (Gen. 3:21).
We must never approach God on our merit or righteousness. We are the ones at fault and Daniel took the responsibility to include himself in the sins of his people that he was being punished with. Daniel knew that he, like all of us, need the great mercies of God.
The Gospel Reiterates that it is GOD and NOT US…
“Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” – Peter to Jesus (Luke 5:8)
“God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ – Tax Collector in the Temple (Luke 18:13)
When all is said and done, we need to remember that it is what Christ said and did that matters. For salvation BELONGS to God and is BY God and is BECAUSE of God.
Let us all confess these same words of David now and always...
"My mouth shall tell of Your righteousness And Your salvation all the day,
For I do not know their limits. I will go in the strength of the Lord GOD;
I will make mention of Your righteousness, of Yours only." (Psalm 71:15-16)
DANIEL CHALLENGE
THE GOODNESS OF GOD IS WHERE WE BEGIN,
WITH HUMBLE HEARTS, WE CONFESS OUR SIN,
MERCY AWAITS ALL WHO TRUST IN HIS SON,
THE CROSS REMINDS US, “THE WORK IS DONE!”
Discussion Questions for Home Groups:
“O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep His commandments, we have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and Your judgments." (Daniel 9:4-5)
Daniel was known for many things...but God knew him as a faithful servant who regularly communed with Him and called out in prayer.
In fact, as soon as Daniel started praying, God gave the command for one of his leading angels Gabriel to come directly to Daniel. Imagine that...A prayer for God's mercy was the catalyst for the movement of God's spiritual armies and helpers in heaven to come. Is this powerful or what? We know in other places of Scripture that God gives His angels charge over us for our protection, provision, and guidance (Psalm 91 and Ephesians 3 & 6).
Prayer is the greatest display of our faith and trust in God because when we pray we are humbly aware of our constant need for God.
Daniel was a teenager when he was first taken captive into Babylon, but he freely lived by faith despite his difficult circumstances. He learned to bring everything to God in prayer. He developed the habit to pray and learned to pray three times each day on behalf of His people and Jerusalem from the time of his youth (Dan. 6:10).
Now Daniel was a seasoned man of prayer and faith in his upper 80s and he could see clearly just how far his people had strayed from the faith. Daniel understood that the promised time of the 70 yeasr of punishment and captivity for His people was now coming to an end.
As 2 Chronicles 36:20-21 says: "And those who escaped from the sword he carried away to Babylon, where they became servants to him and his sons until the rule of the kingdom of Persia, to fulfill the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths. As long as she lay desolate she kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years."
The Judah that he knew was guilty of all kinds of idolatry and wickedness, which even led to the sacrifice of their children to the false gods they adopted. Sadly, these sins are still very much active today throughout the nations of the world and even here in the America today from idolatry in entertainment to babies that are killed by the millions in the womb. He was convicted by the sins of his people but he was comforted by what He knew God said he would do.
"For thus says the LORD: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope" (Jeremiah 29:11).
Daniel had access to the copies and scrolls of the Scriptures that he and some of the captives had taken with them, which included the Law of Moses and the prophecies of Jeremiah.
It is always good to pray in alignment with the revealed Word of God and what God desires to do in our lives and with His people as a whole. For God is faithful even when we are faithless. He is able to be strong when we are weak and to bring good out of evil and beauty from the ashes.
Daniel based his prayers on what he knew God had already said more than what he simply wanted God to do.
Daniel Shows us a GREAT way to Pray:
Get alone with God
Remind yourself who God is
Expose and confess all your sin
Ask for forgiveness and seek direction
Trust in God’s mercy and faithfulness
Prayer should always seek to UNITE our heart with God’s Heart, to ALIGN our will with God’s Will, and to CALL DOWN God’s heavenly supply.
Are you known for being a man or woman of prayer dear child of God? Is heaven familiar with the sound of your voice? Do the demons and forces of evil tremble when you bow down to pray?
Daniel was willing to make the sacrifice necessary to pray. He combined his prayers with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. This kind of lament in prayer may seem foreign to some of us who have received so much grace and mercy through Christ but we must still learn to include the sins of others and the testimony of the church in this present time in our prayers.
James put it this way, "But He gives more grace. Therefore He says:
'God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.'
Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up" (James 4:6-10).
It is good to confess our sins and agree with God about WHAT HE SEES and WHAT HE SAYS. The Apostle John said, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9).
When we know that God's moral laws come from God alone then we must also know that our sins are an offense to God and that only HE can forgive us and cleanse us.
Since we are the problem, we cannot be the solution! We need God to come to our rescue and to cover our sins, just as He did in the Garden of Eden when mankind first rebelled and God clothed them with the skins of an animal (Gen. 3:21).
We must never approach God on our merit or righteousness. We are the ones at fault and Daniel took the responsibility to include himself in the sins of his people that he was being punished with. Daniel knew that he, like all of us, need the great mercies of God.
The Gospel Reiterates that it is GOD and NOT US…
“Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” – Peter to Jesus (Luke 5:8)
“God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ – Tax Collector in the Temple (Luke 18:13)
When all is said and done, we need to remember that it is what Christ said and did that matters. For salvation BELONGS to God and is BY God and is BECAUSE of God.
Let us all confess these same words of David now and always...
"My mouth shall tell of Your righteousness And Your salvation all the day,
For I do not know their limits. I will go in the strength of the Lord GOD;
I will make mention of Your righteousness, of Yours only." (Psalm 71:15-16)
DANIEL CHALLENGE
THE GOODNESS OF GOD IS WHERE WE BEGIN,
WITH HUMBLE HEARTS, WE CONFESS OUR SIN,
MERCY AWAITS ALL WHO TRUST IN HIS SON,
THE CROSS REMINDS US, “THE WORK IS DONE!”
Discussion Questions for Home Groups:
- What do you learn from the way Daniel prays that you can apply in your own prayer life?
- Daniel confessed not only for his own personal sins but for the corporate sins of his nation. Why do you think Daniel considered this important? How does this challenge you in the way you pray? Are there ways in which you find it difficult to earnestly pray on behalf of the people of the church or your nation today? Consider these prayers: Ezra 9 & Nehemiah 9.
- What does Daniel's prayer reveal about his understanding of God's character and promises? How can a growing understanding of God’s character and promises shape your prayer life?
- How does God’s response along with the sending of His Angel to Daniel's prayer change your perspective on the effectiveness of prayer and motivate you in the way you pray?
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