Grace Bible Church
Pastor-Teacher
Robert R. McLaughlin
Thursday,
June 11, 2020
Pastor Rick Kabrick
JER 9:24 let him who boasts boast that he understands and knows Me.
JER 15:16 “Your words were found and I ate them.
JER 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked …
JER 29:13 “You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.”
On at least three different occasions, GOD told the prophet not to pray for the people. (JER 7:16; 11:14; 14:11).
Is it beyond the realm of possibility that GOD desires us not to oppose this decision…in prayer…on their behalf?
ISA 5:20, Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.
When Criminals are honored as heroes. And true heroes are ignored or treated as criminals.
When authority kneels with anarchy.
It’s time to look up. It’s time to cry out. It is, my friends, time to pray.
– Freedom is disappearing as quickly as a virus appears.
– We have defied and mocked GOD’s institution of marriage. – Same with the institution of family.
– Nationalism is viewed as a dirty word by the MSM.
– As a nation we are in danger of abandoning the nation of Israel.
There’s only one solution. When faced with GOD’s righteous judgment, there is nothing, no President, no Government or agreement, Institution, nothing will turn our nation around except prayer and the strength of the pivot.
So, the chapter is divided into two parts, the prayer and its answer. And while the prayer occurred at one point in time, one day in the life of Daniel, the answer extends to the kingdom of Christ.
GOD does not desire us to be so attached to the future that we lose sight of the present.
JER 25:11-12, This whole land will be a desolation and a horror, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years. Then it will be when seventy years are completed I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, declares the LORD, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans; and I will make it an everlasting desolation.
That marvelous and exciting discovery is what set up Daniel’s prayer. And it is a tremendous truth that we want to see as we look at this prayer.
Daniel understood the Word of GOD, and he began to pray.
I prayed to the LORD my God and confessed and said, “Alas, O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and lovingkindness for those who love Him and keep His commandments, we have sinned, committed iniquity, acted wickedly and rebelled, even turning aside from Your commandments and ordinances.
Humility, confession and reverence (honor), that’s the proper attitude of prayer.
Daniel’s prayer was born out of an understanding of the Word of GOD. Unless we understand the Word of GOD, we do not understand the purposes and plans of GOD in order to govern and properly guide our prayers.
Prayer and the Word are inseparably linked.
So the goal isn’t to change GODs mind in matters as much as it is to have GOD give the understanding to align our thoughts with HIS.
So I gave my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth and ashes.
Israel had committed spiritual adultery, by worshipping the false gods of the heathen people around them. GOD is holy. Israel was driven out of their homeland, because they trespassed greatly against their GOD. Their “confusion of face” meant they did not know what to believe anymore.
The curse against Israel, if they were disobedient, which God ratified by oath is found in LEV 26:14, DEU 27:15, 28:15- 29.
He somehow felt the responsibility for his people. He was after all just one man, and maybe he didn’t have to, but he did and some 2500 plus years later we are reading and marveling at his prayer. Perhaps learning from it.
But really the key is why the friend was asking, he had the right motivation…He was asking for others. And when your prayers align with GOD will, you can ask anything.