December 02, 2017
What do you do when you and your nation are in serious trouble? When you are in bondage and there seems no way of escape? When you are surrounded by wickedness and evil? When the people of God are in the minority? And, when God’s children themselves are unresponsive, sinful, and unrevived?
You PRAY.
Nehemiah, David, Daniel ... go right down the list and you will find their first response was prayer. And their prayers are similar, giving us a model for how we would pray.
FASTING AND PRAYING
Daniel fasted and prayed for 21 days, recorded in Daniel, Chapter 9-10. He read his Bible, which stirred and convicted him and prompted him to pray (9:2). His prayer was a prayer of confession of his sin and the sins of the people and a cry for mercy.
Read Daniel 9:4-19 and then read Nehemiah, Chapter 1 and you will see that these are almost identical prayers. And God heard and answered both.
And, it was not a momentary prayer. “I went on praying and confessing my sin and the sin of my people, pleading with the Lord my God for Jerusalem, his holy mountain,” Daniel said (9:20). It was a continual intercession flowing from a burdened heart.
GOD HEARS PRAYER
""The moment you began praying, a command was given,"" said Gabriel when he came to speak to Daniel (9:22). God send a messenger to tell Daniel that he was precious to God (repeated 3 times) and that God had heard his prayers and--at a time in the future--was going to redeem Israel and send the Messiah.
After Daniel prayed God...
Amazing things happen when you pray...and only when you pray. The man who will not give himself to prayer, of course, will not be able to see what Daniel saw nor lead in the way Daniel led. They will not have heard from heaven.
NOW WHAT?
So, what should we be doing right now? The same as Daniel, Nehemiah, David and all the great saints who have gone before us.
We must pray. We must confess our sins and the sins of the people.
And we must never, never give up.
March 27, 2025
When our faith is sufficient to lead us to actually follow God’s plan, we will always see that it is “good, acceptable, and perfect.” These words, as always, are important.
March 11, 2025
God knows what He is about. Always include in your request the greatest prayer—the prayer of surrender. “Lord, Your will be done.” This is the prayer, when humbly prayed, that will always be answered and yield the most valuable result from the God who loves us best ... even if the answer is hard.
March 05, 2025
Every created man or woman must make their choice. What will you do with God? Will you embrace or reject Him? Draw near or run away? Trust and serve Him or doubt God and serve yourself? This foundational choice determines everything.
