Praying God’s Promises
June 19, 2016

Scripture: Daniel 9:1-19

Jeremiah 29:10: “For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place.”

I. You can pray with confidence by praising God for who He is.

A. God was fulfilling His promise to judge Babylon for its sins (Daniel 9:1). And so now Daniel began to pray with intensity for God to fulfill the second promise He made in Jeremiah 29:10. He prayed for God to keep His promise to send the Jews back home. And at the beginning of his prayer Daniel praised God for who He is. It is because God is who He is that Daniel knew that God would keep His promise to send the Jews home.

B. In vs. 4 Daniel praised God for being great and awesome. He remembers in vs. 15 that God had brought His people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand. He also praised God for His righteousness in vs. 7. He said there, “To you, O Lord, belongs righteousness.” And finally Daniel praises God for His mercy. In vs. 9 Daniel prays, “To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against him.” God keeps His promises based on who He is.

II. You can pray with confidence by confessing your sins.

A. When Daniel turned his attention to God’s people in prayer, he recognized that they were the exact opposite of God. So Daniel began to confess His people’s sins. In vs. 5 and 6 Daniel confessed, “We have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and rules.” Then in vs. 11 Daniel confesses, “All Israel has transgressed your law and turned aside, refusing to obey your voice.” Daniel is basically saying to God, “We are getting what we deserve.”

B. God warned Israel what would happen if it rebelled in Deuteronomy 28:64: “And the Lord will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you shall serve other gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known.” When you sincerely confess your sins and repent of them, God promises to forgive you. In vs. 18 Daniel prays, “For we do not present our pleas before you because of our righteousness, but because of your great mercy.” Daniel knew God would forgive if he confessed their sins.

III. You can pray with confidence by asking God to keep His promises.

A. Daniel asks God to keep the promise He had made in Jeremiah 29:10. In Daniel 9:16 Daniel asks God to let your anger and your wrath turn away from your city Jerusalem. In vs. 17 he asks God to make your face to shine upon your sanctuary. Then in vs. 19 he prays with great passion, “O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive. O Lord, pay attention and act.” If you are looking for a promise of God to cling to for the salvation of others, I would invite you to pray based on Jesus’ words in John 10:16: “And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.”

Application:
Pray with confidence based on the promises of God.

Sources:
The prophecy of Daniel
Commentaries on Daniel by Iain Duguid and Tremper Longman III