The Book of Daniel: Daniel's Prayer
Pastor Fletcher preaches about Daniel’s prayer from Daniel 9. Discussion points: The book of Daniel is like a prayer journal for us to learn from, Daniel didn’t hesitate to ask God for things that were already promised him, our righteous God shows us both discipline and mercy.
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Scripture reader: [Daniel 9:1-10] In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, descent a Mede, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, perceived in the books, perceived in the books the number of years that according to the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet must pass before the end of the desolation of Jerusalem, namely 70 years. Then I turned my face to the Lord seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.
And I prayed to the Lord my God and made confession saying, oh Lord, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, we have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and rules. We have not listened to your servants the prophets who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes and our fathers and to all the people of the land. To you, oh Lord, belongs righteousness, but to, but to us open shame. As at this day to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to all Israel, those who are near to those who are far away and all the lands to which you have driven them, because of the treachery that they have committed against you, to us, oh Lord, belongs open shame to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers because we have sinned against you. To the Lord our God belongs to mercy and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against him and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God by walking in His laws which he set before us by his servants, the prophets.
This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Preacher: All right, good morning. It's good to see everybody this morning. My name is Fletcher. I'm the lead pastor here at the church. it's a joy to be with you this morning. let me just start in this way. Do you ever wish that your prayers could feel more genuine and meaningful? I'm sure that many of us feel that way. Many of us feel like our prayer life may be on life support, like our prayer life might not be what it's supposed to be. I think that is a very common thing for Christians today to actually feel like they're writing a letter to some distant rich relative, as opposed to talking to a father who loves them. They, we might pray in such a way where we say, dear God, thank you for this and that. I will use it in this and that way. Please help me with this and that other thing. Amen. Sincerely me.
And that might be the way that we think about how we pray, writing this letter to God. We hope that it gets there, almost like a letter to Santa Claus. You just stick it in the airmail and hope that it gets there some way that God might hear your prayer and might answer you. Our prayers feel distant, they feel formal, they even feel transactional at times, do they not? Like, you know, God, I haven't scratched your back enough yet. Maybe if I do a few things, then you could give me these things that I'm asking for. And friends, I, I'm really here to tell you, it's not supposed to feel that way. It's not supposed to be that way though that way is so normal. I feel that it's, it's just a normal way that we that we struggle as Christians to really get this idea of what is prayer.
So I want to invite you just for a moment to imagine in your mind, each person might have a different person here who in your life has the most vibrant prayer life that you can imagine. Maybe it's a friend, maybe it's like an older grandparent that's just been a faithful saint for years and years. Maybe it's like a famous Christian, you know, you, you've got like your John Piper's and your your, your, I don't know, Elizabeth Elliott or, or you've got like your, Tony Evans, whoever it might be. Imagine that this. holy person who walks with the Lord. has collected their prayer journals for years and years. And inside of their prayer journals is their heart toward the Lord, what their prayer life actually looked like. They wrote down the way that they related with God. And in their will, when they go to be with the Lord, they've left it to you. What a sacred, what a sacred treasure, is that not? Because in that prayer journal, you don't only get the heart of this person that you love, you get to see what they valued and what they cared about, but you, you also get like a little bit of a picture of the heart of God, do you not?
Because these people who we know and we can imagine with these vibrant prayer lives, we feel like, and we actually kind of deep down know that they have a greater understanding of the character of God than we do. One person for me that I might think about with this is is a pastor named Eugene Peterson. Some of you might be familiar with Eugene Peterson. He is most famous for writing a book called The Message, which was kind of his way of taking the Bible and putting it in modern day language. It got a lot of flack, mainly because people were like, it's not the Bible, and Eugene Peterson said, I know it's not the Bible, it's not meant to be the Bible. It's the way that I imagine what it means. Means for me, it's just a a paraphrase in my own words of what the Bible says. He wrote many other things. I just think that Eugene Peterson is the type of person. I read his biography not that long ago, who's just got this sacred presence about him.
The, the biography starts with the story of his son coming to get Eugene for a, a time of eating for like a dinner or something like that. So his son goes. He goes over to his father's office, and I imagine his son probably being 7 or 8 years old, and peeks into his father's office and he sees his father there with his, he said that he has a Jewish prayer shawl laid over his lap. He's in a rocking chair and then he has his Bible open and he sees that his father's eyes are closed and he's praying, and his son Eric says the moment is just too holy to interrupt him. And so I go back down, I tell my mother, my father is still praying. Now, I don't care if Jesus himself is in my office. My kids would not mind interrupting that moment. But it's still like this great impression upon me. That he had this connection with God that I aspire towards. I wish that I could have that sacred moment with God in that way.
Maybe you've had moments like that, and it just doesn't feel regular. Well, here we have one of the saints, who is known as one of the greatest men of God, one of the people that walked with the Lord. Honestly, one of the greatest men of prayer in the history of the world, and that is a man named Daniel. And we know that because we've already learned this about Daniel. He prayed 3 times a day, he would kneel in front of his window, no matter what. And at this point in his life, we know he's old. He's an old man, he's been doing this for a long time. And at this point in the book, we know these things about Daniel, but we don't know what his prayers actually looked like.
But here in Daniel chapter 9, it's as though we get a look into Daniel's prayer journal. We get to look and see how did he actually relate with God. And so here's what I want to offer to you as we walk through this. We're just going to walk through the very first, the, the first half of Daniel 9, OK? So this is Daniel's prayer, and then next week, God answers his prayer in this really kind of powerful, profound and weird way. Anybody ever had a weird response to a prayer? Well, Daniel certainly did. An angel named Gabriel came and and revealed it to him in an apocalyptic vision. It's kind of nuts, so come back next week as we go through the answer to God's prayer, to Daniel's prayer that God has for him.
But today we're just going to walk through Daniel's prayer, and I just want to make several observations along the way for us that I think can help our prayer lives to look a little bit more like his. If you were to read your, you know, your grandparents or whoever that sacred person's journal is, what would be some observations that you would make? And I think that we can do that as we walk through Daniel's prayer here today. So. 6 observations for us, 6, honestly, shifts. It's, we pray normally in this way, but look at how Daniel is doing it. And as we go through it, I think that this will be helpful for your prayer life as well. So 6 different ways to go.
First of all, just before I jump into that, last week we did Daniel chapter 6, or we did Daniel chapter 7, should I say, and I love Daniel chapter 7. It's one of my favorite books of the Bible. I got really excited about it. I got really excited about the Son of Man and this title, and I just loved that, and I got so excited about it. I was supposed to talk about Daniel chapter 8 as well, which is very similar to chapter 7, and I just forgot. OK, so it's not. That I'm skipping chapter 8. I wrote it about it in the newsletter. If you're not signed up for the newsletter, this is my plug for the newsletter. I gave you all the information that I think is necessary to know about Chapter 8, so you can sign up for that, just fill out a connection card. But anyways, we're gonna do chapter 9 today. It's not that I'm trying to avoid anything in Chapter 8. Verse 1, Daniel chapter 9. And you know, most of you guys probably didn't even notice that we skipped chapter 8, so. In the first, yeah, if you didn't notice and now you're offended, I think you just need to check your heart, OK?
In the first year of Darius, the son, I'm so glad that Alex looked up how to say this word because as he did, I was like, I have not read that out loud. I get to it and I say, in the first year of Darius son of some king by descent a Mede, that's what is in my mind, but whatever he said is the way you say it. At least to me, so in the first year of Darius, the son of somebody, by descent a Mede, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans.
OK, so we need to pause just briefly before we get to all these lessons about prayer because, Daniel is a complicated book. It's not in sequential order. A lot of times when we pick up a book, one thing that we expect is that it is in order, but Daniel's kind of written like Slaughterhouse 5 if you know. Slaughterhouse 5. It's like nothing is in order. What is happening here? I've got no idea. I'm lost. And with Daniel, you kinda need to stop and and take a second. He does orient you at the beginning of every chapter what's going on, but it's not always easy to tell.
So here we have the in the first year of Darius the Mede. So if we remember Darius the Mede was the king when Daniel was thrown into the lion's den, this is after what we learned in chapter 7. but it's before the acts of chapter 6. So things are a little bit out of order here. It's before it gets thrown to the to the lions.
In the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, perceived in the books, the number of years that according to the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet must pass before the end of the desolation of Jerusalem, namely 70 years. So what's happening here? Daniel. he's reading his Bible. That's what's happening. He's got his, he's got his scroll open, his codex, whatever he's got at that point, he's got it open, and he's reading in Jeremiah. And, and Jeremiah chapter 25, we see the prophet Jeremiah predict from the Lord, give this prophecy that Israel will be in exile for 70 years. And now Daniel's looking at that and he's like, It's been about 70 years. He got hauled away when he was a young man, and now he's been sitting there and so he's like, Where is God? It's been almost 70 years now and it's just dawned on me that we need to return to the promised land, that this should not continue like this anymore.
And so here we find the first thing that we need to shift in our prayer lives and it's this number one, we hesitate, we hesitate to ask God for things, but Daniel asked for things that were already promised. We hesitate to ask God for things, but Daniel. Ask for things already promised. Isn't that true of you and me that oftentimes when we go to God and prayer, we just feel embarrassed maybe to ask for things like we're being too needy or maybe too selfish, or even worse, we look at the Bible and we say, well, God's promised this, and so I shouldn't have to pray for it. But we look at Daniel. And God had promised to take his people home after 70 years. But what does Daniel do? He starts pleading and asking God to take them home.
Now what is it? Why, why do we even pray there? If God is sovereign, if he's gonna do what he's promised to do, why even pray? And look, there's a divine mystery here. I will just say that there is tension. That there's tension that God is always sovereign, He is always going to come through on his on his promises, but there's also this real life thing that our prayers do matter and that God loves accomplishing his means through the prayers of his people. God loves accomplishing his means through the prayers of His people. And so even if God has promised something to you, peace that transcends all understanding, whatever it might be that you read and you're like, this is what I should be having, it's not an invitation to sit back and let God do His work. It's an invitation to lean in. To lean into it.
I, I love the quote. Now I would be more on the reformed side of things theologically, very open about that, but I love the quote that's pray like an Armenian and sleep like a Calvinist. And that's what I believe here, OK? Like I pray like it's all up to me and I sleep like it's all like up to God. And that's just kind of where I stand on that issue. I think that I have to pray things forward, and God loves to use my prayers to accomplish his means, but at the same time, I rest easy because I know that God is sovereign. And that's the tension that we have to walk in as Christians.
Another shift just from this verse in verse two that I want to point out is this, the second shift that we have is we pray from the poverty of our hearts, but Daniel is praying from the richness of God's word. What prompts Daniel's prayer? He's in his word, right? He's got the Bible open, he's reading Jeremiah, and it dawns on him. God, you've promised to bring us home. Would you bring us home, God? And it prompts him to pray that could he have said that prayer without reading Jeremiah first? Sure. But it came alive to him as he was reading in the scriptures, it just opened up God's life to him. He saw it, and this thing that we say at the prayer meeting all the time is this quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and he says this, the richness of the word of God ought to determine our prayer, not the poverty of our heart.
And so if you don't know what to pray, if you're looking for something to stoke the flames to get you going, I just recommend that you open your word and you open your word not to, OK, you can, if you're good, you can do this anywhere in the entire Bible. Leviticus, it's all, it's all good, OK? You can do it from anywhere. It takes a little bit more work, OK? But open it, if you're newer to this, I would open it to a New Testament passage or to a Psalm. And this is what I think that you have to do sometimes. It's like. The word is this water and your soul is like a teabag and you just have to steep in it for a minute. You just have to steep in it for a few minutes. So open it up, read the passage, read it again, ask God to bring a certain verse to life for you. And as you do that, don't be afraid to take anything that's coming into your mind to prayer. Allow it to take you to prayer to spur you forward. This is the way that the the scripture itself can move us to prayer. You need to steep in the passage like a bag of tea and hot water, and as you do that, God will show you what you need to pray.
Verse 3, let's continue, and before we haven't even gotten to Daniel's prayer yet, we're just looking at his posture before God, before he starts to pray. And it's this, the 3rd, the third verse is this. Then I turned my face to the Lord, seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. There's Old Testament saints, they have a flair for the dramatic, don't they? What would we do? What would you do right now if someone came in here wearing a potato sack with ashes all over their face? I think that some of us might be calling the authorities because a crazy person obviously just walked into our church service, especially if they're wailing and crying. But here's what Daniel does, that we don't always do very well. And I think there is something to learn here, even if I think he might be a little bit more dramatic than what our modern culture does.
And this is #3. The third shift we can make is we seek God with our thoughts, but Daniel seek praise with his whole being. He allows the posture of his body and his life to reflect the posture of his soul. His soul is in a place of mourning, he realizes it's been nearly 70 years. I'm so sad at what I've missed. And so what does he do? It sends him into a mode of fasting. Of prayer, of wailing, of mourning. Daniel allows his physical self to reflect his soul. Now I think that one thing that we can learn from this, and as modern people, what does this look like? I think it looks a variety of different ways, and, and you can really kind of use your creativity to for what this looks like. I'm not gonna tell you exactly what this looks like. Some of you might have more of a flair for the dramatic, like if you're a drama club kid, like go for it, you know, but that, that wasn't me, you know.
But one thing that I think I can point out is that fasting oftentimes for Christians today. It's, we use it more like a hunger strike than the way that they used it in scripture, you know, when we really want something, we're like, well, I'm just gonna fast for it. And it's like, God, I'm not gonna eat again until you give me what I'm looking for. And it's like, well, that's not really the way the scripture describes fasting. What the way the scripture describes fasting almost always. Now there's a few other situations that the scripture does describe fasting, but usually, It is to allow your body to catch up with your soul. Now it's also weaning yourself from the things of the world, and I think it's depriving yourself of that and it's a good thing in that way.
But and as we do the practicing the wake course, we're going to talk about fasting over the next 8 weeks or so as we're going through this. But I think that one of the primary things for fasting is when you're in one of these points in life where you're in a period of mourning or a period of undecision, indecision, undecision, or crossroads moment in your life, and you're like, I need this is a serious moment. And I need to allow my body to catch up with my soul. I think fasting is one of the ways that we can do that as Christians, whether that be depriving ourselves for one meal or for a day or whatever that might look like, maybe longer for some of us, but I think that sometimes we need to allow our bodies to reflect the way that we're feeling on the inside so that we can seek the Lord with our whole being. If you're extra super holy, some of us, we, we might get down on our knees, and I think that's great. Maybe we lay prostrate before the Lord, whatever that needs to look like.
And here for Daniel, it's not necessarily I think that sometimes we don't wanna do this for show either. I think that if you aren't doing that in your own prayer closet at home, please don't come in here and do it, OK, as if you're just showing off. I've got no problem with people and whatever posture and worship. I, I don't care as long as you're like home life is reflecting. What you're doing here, that's great. But I just think that allowing ourselves to have a, a bodily posture, that's why sometimes I'll just raise, sometimes I'm not even feeling it. I'm just like, I need to feel this, and I, I'm gonna raise my hand so that my soul can catch up with my body and let let myself get there. And sometimes I do that in worship. I'm not telling you have to raise your hand. We tend to have the frozen chosen, quiet type of people here, but like, maybe, maybe you allow yourself to get there, OK?
Verse 4. I prayed to the Lord, my God, and made confessions saying, oh Lord, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love Him and keep His commandments. OK, I'm just gonna, we're, we're going to move through more of this prayer. It's gonna start moving more quickly, but I have to pause again here for one more observation, and it's this, the fourth one, our prayers are letters to God oftentimes. Dear God, help me with this and this. Thank you for this and this. But Daniel's prayers are worshipful conversation. And one of the ways that we know that is just the way that he talks to the Lord. And up until this point, chapter 9 of Daniel. We've known that Daniel believes in in a God, but the sacred name of God has not appeared anywhere in the book of Daniel until right here in chapter 9.
Now, when you know, the only way you can know the sacred word of God in most translations, some translations will spell it out, but in most translations, including the ESV, the sacred name of God was too sacred for the ancient people to say. So when they would come to the sacred name of God Yahweh, they would say Adonai, which is the, a different, a different way of saying Lord. It's not his name, but it's more just like Lord, like my lord, like the owner of a property would be a lord. And so, you know, think Downton Abbey language here, OK? So here is the first time that we see the covenant name of God spoken or written in the entire book of Daniel, and the way you can tell that is when you come to it and it has Lord and it's all caps, if you've ever wondered why it's all caps, that's when it's Yahweh as opposed to Adonai. So or in the New Testament it does it sometimes as well, but the Yahweh, Lord, all caps in that way.
And so, we see Daniel coming to God. And the first thing he does is he just praises God. He adores him. Verse 4, I prayed to the Lord my God who made confessions saying, Oh Lord, the great and awesome God who keeps his covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments. He's just praising who God is. Before he gets to any of his needs, before he gets to what he came to talk about, he's like, I'm gonna praise you for who you are. He starts with worship, and this is another thing that we say in the prayer meeting all the time, but if you've been given 10 minutes to pray. Your time is probably best spent spending the first 8 in worship. Because our prayers and our worship are two sides of the same coin. When we come to God, we want to know him as he is, and if you see God as he truly is, if you are relating with him. That will push your prayers forward so much more than anything else.
Our worship and our prayer are two sides of the same coin. And it's going to be almost impossible for you to connect with God, to pray, to seek Him, if you're not worshiping Him, if you're not seeing him as he truly is, because if you see him as he truly is, your first thought isn't, God help me, but it's like, God, praise be to you. You're an amazing creator. You're an amazing God who rules and reigns. There's this old acronym that many people use for prayer. You might have heard of this before. Acts. Have you guys heard of the Acts prayer? You see, Daniel almost followed the Acts prayer to a T. It's almost prescriptive, although it's not, because the Acts prayer stands for adoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication. I'll use this in my prayer all the time. Almost always, I'm praying through a passage, I'm praying through the Acts prayer, or I'm praying through the Lord's prayer. That's almost That's almost 100% of my prayers are, are what I just told you. Where, where we go through that.
Now with Daniel, he goes through adoration, confession, he doesn't have much to be thankful for, and so he goes straight to supplication. It's like the, the ACS prayer. He doesn't have any of the tea in there. He's just acts with no tea. And that's OK. It's not prescriptive, and sometimes we don't have things that we can really praise God for. He's in that, that mood where he doesn't. The 5th thing that we see, but that's a shift from Daniel's prayer to our prayer, is this, we bargain with God according to our obedience. When Daniel's prayers are fueled by God's righteousness, not his own. So normally, if you want something from God, what do you do? If you want, if you want God to do something, if you really have a prayer that you would like God to answer, what do you do? You start bargaining, right? It's like, God, if you answer this prayer, I promise you I will be at church every week for the next year. Some of you might be here today because you've made that prayer, and you are so welcome. I'm so glad you're here. God, I promise, if you will answer this prayer, I will stop looking at pornography. I will stop spending so much time on my phone. God, I promise, if you will answer this prayer, I will start tithing. I promise, if you will answer this prayer, I will follow you in this or that. I will quit this, I will do that, whatever it might be. We bargain with God.
And it comes with this assumption that our obedience is driving God's faithfulness. Daniel does not found any of his prayer based upon his own obedience though. Daniel is saying, God answer my prayers because you are righteous. He spends the first half just confessing his sins, OK? He does start with confession. He, he starts with adoration, he goes straight into confession. He's confessing a sin. Listen to this, he just goes on and on. He waxes on eloquently about his sin. We have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled. How many different ways can you say that the same thing, Daniel? Turning aside from your commandments and rules, we have not listened to your servants, the prophets who spoke in the name, in your name to our kings, our princes. Our fathers and to all the people of the land. He goes on like this for a while. There's like several more verses where he is just confessing, confessing and confessing.
There's something good about confession in our heart. When we go before the Lord and we confess our sins, it allows us to be more honest and vulnerable with who he is. And honestly as a natural response to seeing him for who he is, you know that you have fallen short of that. It's a vital part of his prayer, but he does not base his appeal of God being faithful upon his own obedience. Never, not at all. He doesn't say, we will turn, we'll do better next time, God, just have, have mercy on us today. That's not what he says. He bases it on God's righteousness. It's super curious. This whole passage so interesting because he bases the reason why they're in exile upon God's righteousness. He says, God, you are righteous, and that's why we're in exile. And then two verses later, he says, God, you are righteous, so get us out of exile. How can it be? He says, You're righteous, that's why we're here. You're righteous, so send us home. It's like God's righteousness is fueling both of them.
Look, I'll read the verses to you, verse 14. Therefore, the Lord, the, the sacred name of God, therefore, Yahweh has kept ready the calamity and has brought it upon us, for the, the Lord Yahweh, our God is righteous in all the works that he has done, and we have not obeyed his voice. So God is righteous in everything he's done, so therefore we are in exile. We are distant from Him and out of our promised land. Now two verses later, verse 16. Oh Lord, according to all your righteous acts, let your anger and your wrath turn away from your city, Jerusalem, your holy hell, because of our sins. And for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and your people have become a byword among all those around us.
So he says, according to your righteous acts, let your anger and wrath be turned away. So which is it, which is it, Daniel? Is it that we deserve to be in exile? Or is it that we deserve to go home because of your righteousness, God? And it's both. It, it's like parenting, OK? Parenting is hard, for those of you who aren't parents yet, it's hard. Those of you who are parents, just let me get an amen. All right. and those, those of us who, who don't have kids or have kids, it's, our parents, they just, you know, they're making it up, OK? so, like more grace for our parents, hopefully through this process. But With parenting, If you have a child You have to show that child discipline. You have to show that child that there's lines that you don't cross. Children are looking for lines. And you want to, and you have to, as a parent, show them those lines and show them discipline. You have to show them that there are consequences to their behavior. Because if you don't show them any consequences to their behavior. You're an unloving parent. Because life has consequences, does it not? You have to show them the right way to behave before the Lord. It is the loving thing to do.
At the same time, if you were a parent you have to be willing to overlook and absorb some of your kids' stupidness and their sin. You have to, it can't be all discipline, or you're not loving. You're not a loving parent if all you do is show them law, law, law, it has to be law and grace, and as a parent you can't be a loving parent unless you show them these strong lines. This is a line you do not cross or there will be consequences. At the same time you cross the line and guess what? I still love you. And you're still my child, and it's OK, I'll take the, I'll take the, the, the suffering on that one, child. You know, I'll, I'll forgive you and move past it. You have to be willing to eat some of it as a parent.
And that's what, that's what God does for us and, and that's what he's saying to be right, to be righteous means that you both show discipline and mercy. And how does God do that? How can a God be just yet at the same time merciful? And the way that our God has done it, is by sending his one and only Son to bear the penalty on our behalf so that he's fully just all the time, that that our disobedience has led to a consequence, and the consequence of sin is death, but Jesus Christ, our God Himself has bore that for us. And because Jesus bore the penalty of sin, we get to receive mercy. So you see, God is able to be right. All the time through mercy and justice for us. So Daniel bases his appeal on what he wants, not upon his obedience, but on God's righteousness. So when we go to God in prayer, we ask for the things that will bring God glory and are that are based upon his righteousness. Do this for me, God, because of your righteousness.
Which leads us perfectly to the last point, which is number 6. We often pray for things. That will just make us happy or great. Daniel's prayers focus on what will make God happy and great. Again, I think any prayer is no prayer is better than no prayer at all. Jesus tells us to go before him and ask for whatever we want, and if we ask for something that's not good, that God just won't give it to us, because our God is like a good father who has, who what good father would give his child a stone when he asked for bread, or God's not gonna give. is something that's bad for us. You can go to God with anything, ask him for anything. It doesn't mean you're gonna get everything, but you can go to him for anything.
But the prayers that are most effective, and the ones that he takes most delight in, are the ones that are focused on what would bring him glory. What would bring God glory the most? And if what would bring him glory is you not getting the answer to that prayer, that's what he's gonna do. Because he is worthy of all the glory. Daniel has this really God-focused prayer. Verse 17, just check this out. How many times are our prayers like this? Now, therefore, oh our God, listen to the prayer of your servant, and to his pleas for mercy, and for your sake, oh Lord, make your face to shine upon your sanctuary, which is desolate. For your sake, God. Make your face shine here. For your own sake, make your face shine upon your sanctuary, which is desolate. Deliver us. We want you to answer our prayers for your name, for your glory.
Verse 18. 0 my God, incline your ear in here. Open your eyes and see our desolations in the city that is called by your name, for we do not present our pleas before you because of our righteousness, but because of your great mercy. Daniel wants what is best for God. He's praying this God-centered prayer. This is what I want, because it would bring you glory, and you are worthy of that. And so I'm just gonna end like this. What Can you seek from God that would make God happy? What would make God happy in your life? What can you pray? Not just what can you change? I'm like, what, what God sent her prayers? Do you need to bring? Cause we oftentimes come to God seeking our own happiness, and I think that God is most, he wants us to be happy, but he wants us to be happy in Him.
As we delight ourselves in the Lord, he gives us the desires of our heart. He makes us happy. So how can your prayer shift to be about God's glory and his happiness? As we, as we're just about to turn to worship God and as I said, our, our prayers begin with worship. I want to give you an opportunity. To seek God. I wanna give you an opportunity to pray for just a moment. And what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna put all 6 of the points about the prayer shift up here. And I'm just going to take a moment and let's just pray through these things. I just want to give you an opportunity to seek the Lord, and then we're going to turn to God in worship and communion, OK? So let's just take one moment. Everybody, if you would like to bow your heads, if you'd like to close your eyes, whatever posture makes sense. If you want to go on your knees, you're welcome to. But, just take a deep breath.
We hesitate to ask God for things. What are you hesitating to ask God for? Go ahead and ask him. Be bold We pray from the poverty of our hearts, when Daniel prays from the riches of God's word. Ask God to bring a scripture to mind. A word of assurance, a word of comfort, maybe it's the only scripture you have memorized. Maybe he's just calling you to open your Bible, but take a moment to ask him to bring a promise or a scripture to your mind. We seek God with our thoughts, but Daniel prays with this whole being. What steps do you need to take to better allow your. Physical posture to reflect your your spiritual posture. We write these letters to God in our prayers, but Daniel's prayer is a worshipful conversation. Maybe you just need to say hello to God. Maybe it's been a long time since you just said hi, here I am. Your child I'm willing to listen. I'm willing to receive. I'm willing to change.
We bargain with God. According to our own obedience, but Daniel's prayers are fueled with God's righteousness. Would you confess your disobedience to him, but also to confess what you're trying to be moralistic to say, if I do the right thing that God will reward me. Would you confess, where you've fallen short, but, but also just knowing that it's his righteousness that he answers prayers, not your, not your faithfulness. Lastly, we pray for things that. Will make us happier or great, but Daniel's prayers focus on what will make God happier great. So would you go before the Lord and ask him, God, would you, would you show me your glory, would you show me how to live in accordance with you.
Or maybe you just have a big God-centered prayer. For me this week, as I've been praying this, I, one thing that I've been praying is that God would build his church, and then God reveals that, you know, some of that's based upon me wanting to build myself up. As a pastor, those, those are really, so it's like good ambitions, but like my own selfishness getting in the way. Where is your selfishness getting in the way? How can you pursue the Lord? Maybe you're even afraid to ask God, this God-centered thing. I think some of us come to God and we're like, oh, if I put that before him, he's gonna do it. I just want to give you the courage that you will not regret that. You will not regret him doing. In your life. So just lay it before him.
We're gonna turn in worship and I want us to take a moment, you can continue to seek the Lord wherever you are. We're gonna, we're gonna sing a song. You can, you can seek Him. But each week we're invited to the table to enjoy the presence of God, which is what we do in prayer, enjoying the presence of God. We come to a communion table. And this is Christ's body being broken on our behalf and his blood being shed on our behalf. It represents this beautiful reality of God's love for us, not because we deserve it, but because he's given it to us. And if you're a Christian here today, I invite you to the table to experience God's presence in a tangible kind of way. I'm gonna invite us to stand if you'd like, if you're willing or able and invite the band to come back up and I'll pray for us as we continue in, in this moment of worship.
Father, we want to be people that seek you, who seek change, who seek your righteousness. God, we pray that you would give us big God-centered prayers, that this church would just be full of these prayers that want your name above all things. And would you lead us, God? Would this church be for you? Would we be seeking your name and your glory? Father, thank you for this. The wisdom that we have and the way that your servant Daniel went before us and and taught us to pray and would we seek your glory in a similar kind of way and would you bring us back from our own personal exiles as we confess our sin and seek who you are? We ask these things in Christ's name, Amen.