Today’s Reading Daniel 9: 20-27
This passage in Daniel, is an echo from Jeremiah, where we are communicating with God and listening intently to what he has to say. Prayer is not a one time thing but it is a continual communication between God and us. It can be structured, it can be improvised, or it can be short, or long. The main thing we have to remember is that it is a connection with you and God. On Saturday, Stephanie did a great job of prefacing today’s continuation of the prayer of Daniel.
It is so interesting that in my last blog, I spoke about Jeremiah and his prayers while he was in prison and how Jeremiah followed God‘s word through God‘s voice. In this passage from this week Daniel actually references Jeremiah‘s prayer. Daniel also reflects on the 70 years for Jeremiah foretold. Then Daniel tells of the “Seventy sevens”. We look at the seventy sevens is actually a reference to the years not weeks before Christ comes in to the world 490 years.
But the main thing from what we see with Daniel is when he prayed, he prayed in such a way that God answered him with the angel Gabriel. This is Major. God does not send angels to speak to us in this fashion often.
The context of this prayer is: Daniel is after exile, after the fiery furnace, after his early visions, and this is after the lion’s den. Daniel is about 85 years old when he is praying on behalf of the people of Israel and asking for their salvation.
What we can get from this and how we can use this passage of prayer and petition is how to pray.
We can get into a place where we are completely quiet where we have no distractions. A lot of times in the Bible that you referenced going to a closet or a shut-off room. For most of my life I was really skeptical about being in a closet, being secluded, being scared. But for the past couple weeks I’ve actually found rooms to be in silence and in the dark and quiet for about five minutes and the response that I have received in my daily life has been tremendous.
The next thing that we can take away from Daniel’s prayer is how to communicate with God through the acts of prayer. A. C. T. S.
- A is for adoration of God. Opening with an attitude of praise of God being God. Reflecting on how He contains the universe and still thinks of us.
- C is for confessing to God. Acknowledging that we have committed something against God’s hope for us. Have we doubted his love and will for our lives? This is one that I’m continually asking for forgiveness. I am flesh and spirit, these two sides constantly battle for my thoughts.
- T is thanking God for whatever he has done for us.
- S is for supplication or the request to God.
This model of prayer can take a minute or as long as an hour but it really takes us out of the prayer and puts God in the prayer.
So with this new update on our prayer life, we actually have something that Daniel and Jeremiah had… a relationship with the Spirit of God. This relationship gives us access to the intimate space with God the Father and allows for intentional communication.
Be blessed