I'm going through the book of Daniel atm and this morning I read his prayer in chapter 9 and as I read it, I thought this could be a prayer for our current world today!
Daniel 9:3-19
3 Then I set my face toward the Lord God
to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and
ashes. 4 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, 5 we have sinned and committed
iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from Your
precepts and Your judgments. 6 Neither have we
heeded Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings and our
princes, to our fathers and all the people of the land. 7 O
Lord, righteousness belongs to You, but to us shame of
face, as it is this day—to the men of Judah, to the
inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, those near and those far off in all
the countries to which You have driven them, because of the unfaithfulness
which they have committed against You.
8 “O Lord, to us belongs shame
of face, to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, because we have sinned
against You. 9 To the Lord our God belong mercy
and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against Him. 10 We
have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in His laws,
which He set before us by His servants the prophets. 11 Yes, all
Israel has transgressed Your law, and has departed so as not to obey Your
voice; therefore the curse and the oath written in the Law of Moses the
servant of God have been poured out on us, because we have sinned against
Him. 12 And He has confirmed His words, which
He spoke against us and against our judges who judged us, by bringing upon us a
great disaster; for under the whole heaven such has never been done as
what has been done to Jerusalem.
13 “As it is written in
the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come upon us; yet we have not made
our prayer before the Lord our God, that we might turn from our
iniquities and understand Your truth. 14 Therefore
the Lord has kept the disaster in mind, and brought it upon us;
for the Lord our God is righteous in all the
works which He does, though we have not obeyed His voice. 15 And
now, O Lord our God, who brought Your people out of the land of Egypt with
a mighty hand, and made Yourself a name, as it is this
day—we have sinned, we have done wickedly!
16 “O Lord, according to all Your
righteousness, I pray, let Your anger and Your fury be turned away from Your
city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain; because for our sins, and for the
iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people are a
reproach to all those around us. 17 Now
therefore, our God, hear the prayer of Your servant, and his
supplications, and for the Lord’s sake cause Your face to shine on Your sanctuary, which is
desolate. 18 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 do not present our supplications before You because of our
righteous deeds, but because of Your great mercies. 19 O
Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and act! Do not delay for Your own
sake, my God, for Your city and Your people are called by Your name.”
In Daniel's prayer there serious supplication where Daniel denies himself anything worldly (he fasts and puts on sackcloth and ashes - symbols of mourning, grief and sorrow).
He praises God with reminders that He is great and awesome, One who keeps His covenant. God is full of mercy with the ones He loves and who obey Him.
Daniel repents on behalf of the whole of those in captivity. They have departed from Him - i.e. from His precepts and judgements. They haven't listened to those God had sent to warn them, the prophets. They were a disobedient people.
Daniel asks the Lord to hear him, to shine upon His sanctuary which lays desolate. The supplications weren't presented because of any righteousness in the people of Israel, but because Daniel knew the Lord is merciful - slow to anger, but swift to hear.
It would do good for all Christians in the West to pray a prayer like this one. Western civilisation is crumbling before our very eyes because we are a disobedient people.
Let's pray for God to send His Holy Spirit in power and majesty, that many may have their eyes opened and see the glories of the Lord!
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