Daniel 9:18 “O my God, incline Your ear and hear; open Your eyes and see our desolations, and the city which is called by Your name; for we do not present our supplications before You because of our righteous deeds, but because of Your great mercies.”
As Daniel is fervent in prayer (see Daniel 9:3-16), he will ask God to restore Israel, especially Jerusalem and the sanctuary. Picking up his prayer at verse 17, he prayed, “Now therefore, O our God, listen to the prayer of your servant and to his pleas for mercy, and for Your own sake, O Lord, make your face to shine upon your sanctuary, which is desolate.” He then prays in verse 18 with what I call bold humility. There is the boldness of O MY GOD incline your ear, OPEN your eyes. Strong words to God. Yet, with boldness comes humility, as Daniel says he is not presenting these requests based on his own righteousness and goodness. He does not appeal based on anything he has to offer, but rather, he humbly says it is because of God’s great mercies.
Spending time in the school of prayer, where we hardly get past the 1st grade, we learn from Jesus that we are invited to ASK. Matthew 7:7-8 says, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 “For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.”
As we ask, we learn from Hebrews 4:16 to come BOLDLY to God. You may recall it says, “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
From Daniel, we can’t help but see HUMILITY. Standing out is his plea for God’s MERCY based on God being merciful.
Oh that we might learn to humbly approach God with boldness and ASK!
“And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!” Luke 18:13
Continue Strong with bold humility,
And remember to DATE the Word