Daniel’s Prayer CLICK TITLE FOR AUDIO
Daniel’s prayer is a prayer that ought to be prayed by every American. Maybe then we would see God’s mercy and not his judgment on this country.
Daniel’s prayer is exemplary to us in that his prayer shows us how to approach the Lord.
He faced God – v.3 – “I set my face unto the Lord God” – so often in prayer, our attention is on what we are presenting to the Lord rather than on the Lord to whom we are presenting our requests. Our time in prayer should draw us closer to the Lord not closer to the problems about which we are praying.
He prayed and he supplicated – v.3 – “to seek by prayer and supplications” – you can make a distinction between prayer and supplications in this regard – prayer is a conversation with the Lord and supplications are our humble, earnest requests – many times we supplicate and neglect prayer. We should commune with God in prayer as friend with friend. And we should present our petitions in supplication [v.16-7].
He fasted – v.3 – “with fasting” – fasting doesn’t bring you closer to God, otherwise you would pride yourself on your prayer life, like the Pharisee did [Lk 18:10-12] – fasting puts down your flesh and helps you bring it into subjection – that denial is what gives you the impression that you are closer to God – in fact, your flesh is weakened, giving the Spirit greater control [Rom 6-8; Gal 5:16-17].
He confessed – v.4 – “made my confession” – v.5 – “We have sinned…” – he didn’t cover his sins with a blanket confession of “forgive our sins” – he was specific with the Lord and he was repentant – he knew exactly what his iniquities were and he agreed with God that they were wrong – in v.8 he said, “we have sinned against thee” – and when he approached the Lord he was relying on the Lord’s “mercies and forgiveness,” [v.9] and not his own righteousness, [v.18b].
He acknowledged the Lord – v.12, 14 – ‘he hath confirmed his words” and “the Lord our God is righteous” – he came to the Lord who’s words are true and faithful and who alone is righteous – the Lord alone is the one who would extend his mercy and answer Daniel’s prayer – Prov 3:5-6.
He importuned the Lord – v.18-19 – he entreated the Lord persistently; he demanded the Lord to answer his prayer – he knew he had a personal audience with the Lord and he fully expected to stay with him until the Lord answered his petitions – and the Lord did answer [v.20] – in the millennium this prayer will be fully answered for ever!! You’ll notice that Daniel’s prayers were very abbreviated in v.19 – at this point his prayer was a lot more from his heart and a lot less from his mouth.
Conclusion: We should pray this way.