Prayer Day 8 of 8???   A Word from THE WORD!!! #284

Today is the last day of our prayer emphasis and I simply want to share Daniel’s prayer in Daniel 9.  It is one of the most humble, powerful and convicting prayers in all of scripture, I truly believe.  We get so haughty sometimes, thinking we are more spiritual, more holy or closer to God than others, yet here is a man who was totally devoted to God and yet he takes on the sins, failures and shortcomings of his people as his own.  I truly believe that when our heart is ready to join Daniel in this mindset, we will see things happen.  I have no other comments to make other than to ask you to ponder this message of love, compassion and empathy, from a repentant heart for his people.

“And I set my face unto the Lord God,

to seek by prayer and supplications,

with fasting,

and sackcloth,

and ashes:

4 And I prayed unto the LORD my God,

and made my confession, and said,

O Lord, the great and dreadful God,

keeping the covenant and mercy

to them that love him,

and to them that keep his commandments;

5 We have sinned,

and have committed iniquity,

and have done wickedly,

and have rebelled,

even by departing from thy precepts

and from thy judgments:

6 Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants

the prophets,

which spake in thy name

to our kings,

our princes,

and our fathers,

and to all the people of the land.

7 O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee,

but unto us confusion of faces,

as at this day;

to the men of Judah,

and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem,

and unto all Israel,

that are near,

and that are far off,

through all the countries

whither thou hast driven them,

because of their trespass

that they have trespassed against thee.

8 O Lord,

to us belongeth confusion of face,

to our kings,

to our princes,

and to our fathers,

because we have sinned against thee

9 To the Lord our God

belong mercies and forgivenesses,

though we have rebelled against him;

10 Neither have we obeyed

the voice of the LORD our God,

to walk in his laws,

which he set before us

by his servants the prophets.

11 Yea, all Israel have transgressed thy law,

even by departing,

that they might not obey thy voice;

therefore the curse is poured upon us,

and the oath that is written

 in the law of Moses the servant of God,

because we have sinned against him.

12 And he hath confirmed his words,

which he spake against us,

and against our judges

that judged us,

by bringing upon us a great evil:

for under the whole heaven

hath not been done as hath been done

upon Jerusalem.

13 As it is written in the law of Moses,

all this evil is come upon us:

yet made we not our prayer

before the LORD our God,

that we might turn from our iniquities,

and understand thy truth…

….16 O Lord, according to all thy righteousness,

I beseech thee,

let thine anger

and thy fury

be turned away from thy city Jerusalem,

thy holy mountain:

because for our sins,

and for the iniquities of our fathers,

Jerusalem and thy people

are become a reproach

to all that are about us.

17 Now therefore, O our God,

hear the prayer of thy servant,

and his supplications,

and cause thy face to shine

upon thy sanctuary that is desolate,

for the Lord’s sake.

18 O my God, incline thine ear,

and hear;

open thine eyes,

and behold our desolations,

and the city which is called by thy name:

for we do not present our supplications before thee

for our righteousnesses,

but for thy great mercies.

19 O Lord, hear;

O Lord, forgive;

O Lord, hearken and do;

defer not,

for thine own sake, O my God:

for thy city

and thy people are called by thy name.”                  Portions of Daniel 9:3-19

Amen and Amen!!!