Daniel 9:17-19 (NASB)
So now, our God, listen to the prayer of
Your servant and to his supplications, and for Your sake, O Lord, let Your face
shine on Your desolate sanctuary. O my God, incline Your ear and hear! Open
Your eyes and see our desolations and the city which is called by Your name;
for we are not presenting our supplications before You on account of any merits
of our own, but on account of Your great compassion. O Lord, hear! O Lord,
forgive! O Lord, listen and take action! For Your own sake, O my God, do not
delay, because Your city and Your people are called by Your name.
A good
friend whose family is going through many trials and tribulations wrote how
much she loved Daniel 9:18. The emphasis
of verse 18 is that believers pray knowing that God has great compassion on us
even if we are not righteous, i.e. have any merits of our own.
The 9th
chapter of the book of Daniel contains Daniel’s prayer for himself and his
people. Daniel writes in verse 3 that “I
gave my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and supplications, with
fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.” I’ve
written, taught and preached several times that I’m fascinated by the meaning
of the word “seek” and the phrase “seek the Lord”. Here Daniel gives the key to seeking the Lord
by praying and fasting. The wearing of
sackcloth, a rough cloth made of camel or goat hair with hemp, cotton, or flax
and the sprinkling of ashes on one’s head, were done to express humility over
the need for repentance, being deeply remorseful for sins and wrongdoing. And, indeed, Daniel’s words recorded in
verses 4-16 show his confession and remorse for all of his nation’s wickedness
and rebellion against God.
Then verses
17-19 describe Daniel’s final plea for God to hear and accept his prayer of
confession and repentance for his nation and for God to demonstrate His
compassion sooner rather than later to shine upon His “desolate
sanctuary”. Yes, he is referring to his
city, Jerusalem, that has been in captivity by Babylon for 70 years, but his
prayer can be applied to any individual situation. Yes, your life might be like a “desolate
sanctuary”. If God was willing to answer
Daniel’s prayer for a city that had been so rebellious and unfaithful for
decades, don’t you think that he is willing to answer your prayers even if you
are like a desolate sanctuary? He does
not look back at what you have done wrong, no matter what it is, He looks at
the condition of your heart right now.
If He sees sincere remorse, regret, confession and a willingness to
repent, He will answer your prayers.
Why? Because He is a
compassionate God, a loving and caring Lord who wishes all His human creation
to love Him and serve Him. He calls
sinners to repentance (Matthew 9:13), He desires humility in recognizing and
confessing your sins (Luke 18:13), He
desires to forgive you (Matthew 18:21-22, I John 1:9) and He wants you to
flourish in your life through your faith in His Son (John 10:10).
In verses
20-27, Daniel’s prayer of confession and petition is answered but not what he
expected. The angel, Gabriel, came to
give Daniel “insight and understanding” about the vision he had received, a
vision that prophecies the coming kingdom of God on earth. This prophecy includes the first coming,
suffering and death of the Messiah (verse 26).
May this
example of Daniel’s prayer for his city be a model for your prayer if you know
in your heart that you need to change your life. It also serves as a model for prayer whenever
you are needing God to help you through any circumstance you are bearing
without worrying about anything you might have done against Him or needing to
do anything to earn His favor. He will hear
your prayers if you pray like Daniel did with all sincere humility and
remorsefulness.
“Ask God to
work, not because we deserve anything, but because of who He is and what He is
committed to.” -- Bob Stone
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