People of Prayer

The past two Sundays for us found us intent on two amazing messages from the Psalms, 29 and 32, to be exact.  Specifically, though, David's heart of repentance in Psalm 32 brought my mind to another amazing prayer by another hero of the faith, Daniel.

David, in Psalm 32, as in 51, knew he had sinned, and more importantly recognized that his sin was against God, as is all sin.

Daniel, in chapter 9 of his book, personalizes the sin of a nation, of a people, and we find some wonderful prayer elements in his conversation with God.

Daniel gives his attention to the Lord, to SEEK Him.
He confessed his sin - specifically - and properly compares men to God.  God owns righteousness, while we own shame when we are in sin.  Daniel recognized that God is faithful to His promises, even when that means carrying out judgment and justice on those He calls His own.

Daniel begs God to incline His ear, to please "stoop down and hear my plea", essentially.  He begs the Lord to hear, and then begs Him to forgive.

But why do we think we can pray to God like these men did?  OK, I realize God tells us to pray, and I agree, we most certainly should, yet why does God even care to listen?  I have read Daniel many times, and the second half of verse 18 in his prayer in chapter 9 speaks volumes of God.

Daniel says "...for we are not presenting our supplications before You on account of any merits of our own, but on account of Your great compassion." (NASB)

Another translation says, "...for we do not present our supplications before You because of our righteous deeds, but because of Your great mercies." (NKJV)

We pray to God because He is merciful, He is compassionate!  How well we just saw Jeremiah pen the foundation for the hymn "Great is Thy Faithfulness", when he wrote "Because His compassions fail not" in Lamentations 3.

There is not much to add theologically to all this.  Scripture speaks clearly as to how to pray, what to pray, and why we pray.  So today, I am simply praying for God to help mold us into the prayer warriors He desires us to be.