The Best Prayer

Daniel 9

The best prayer is the one that is offered. [and heard!]

The ninth chapter of Daniel is well known to many, and we have been referring to it often in these last days because of some key content that very much applies to our understanding of prophecy. Sadly, we are most familiar with the back half of the chapter and not the front half. You see, the latter portion is of vital importance for us…it’s the very backbone of prophecy. But the prophecy that came to Daniel was essentially an answer to a prayer in the first half of the chapter. And it’s a model prayer for us.

Daniel is in great distress, as evidenced by the last verse of chapter 8. Sometimes what’s going on in our world can be so overwhelming as to make us physically sick. Daniel was suffering from what he was hearing from God. He knew that the children of Israel were under current judgment. That’s why they were in captivity. That’s why he was there. He knew Jerusalem was destroyed, the temple was destroyed, the sanctuary was desolate. He knew all that. And he knew this was a judgment for sin. And he knew that there was more judgment coming in the future against the people of Israel because he had had a vision of that.

But he also knew that there was a coming kingdom. He had a vision of that. And all of this was colliding in his mind. And so he was distressed by not being able to understand fully what they meant. There’s a big burden in his heart, and that burden is over his people. And it is that burden that he discharges before the throne of God in this ninth chapter.

vv. 1-2     We don’t have to wonder what he was reading. It had to be this…

Jeremiah 25:11-12

¹¹ And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. ¹² And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith the LORD, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations.

Jeremiah 29:10-11

¹⁰ For thus saith the LORD, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place. ¹¹ For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.

So he knew that at the end of the seventy years there would be the destruction of Babylon, which had happened. And there would also be the restoration of the people of God. That’s what he was reading in the books. Seventy years, for all intents and purposes, was up. He knows what’s been promised to happen. Babylon will be destroyed. It was. The people will be restored to the land. That hadn’t happened yet but that was what God promised.

Generated by God’s Word

v. 3          We see here the first characteristic of prayer. It is best when in response to the Word of God. Prayer is to be in accord with, in agreement with, in harmony with, and in response to God’s Word. Some may wonder why it is necessary if God’s gonna do what He’s gonna do regardless. But actually, prayer is to get US in line with God. It’s not to get our will done in heaven, but His will done on earth, and for us to be on board with it.

Think about John at the end of the book of Revelation. He’s had, like Daniel, visions of the future coming of Christ. And at the end of the book of Revelation in the final chapter, Jesus says, “Behold, I come quickly.” And what is John’s response? “Good.” Is that what he said? No. He says, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus.” And that might seem to you like a strange prayer because Jesus said He was coming. But that is in essence the nature of prayer. Prayer finds its foundation in the purposes of God. Prayer is when you align your heart to God’s purposes. It’s when you say, “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” even though you know it will be. We pray in response to God’s revealed plan. We pray primarily to line our hearts up with divine purposes.

My best prayer times are with an open Bible. We have difficulty praying because we’re sort of done in a few minutes, you can’t think of what to say…well, just try praying through a text of Scripture, identifying with what God is revealing there. And when you need to confess, confess. And when you need to praise, praise. And when you need to thank Him, thank Him. And when you need to seek understanding and wisdom, ask for that. And when you see something that dishonors God, cry out of your concern for His dishonor. And when you see something that glorifies Him, give Him glory. The Word really teaches us how to pray because it reveals God’s agenda and God’s character.

And Daniel is reading the scrolls and out of the scrolls came the plan of God. And once he knew the plan of God and that it was coming to fruition and it was ready to take its next turn and restoration was to come for the people of God, he was motivated to pray.

Grounded in God’s Will

Secondly, we pray not only generated by God’s Word but grounded in God’s will. He knew God’s will. Seventy years, verse 2.

Once you know the will of God, you know how to pray. Whatever you ask according to His will, He hears. Whatever you ask according to His will, He hears. So says John 14:13 and 14, 1 John 5:14 and 15. We can’t live in some kind of gray area. We can’t live in some kind of bland neutral posture saying, oh well, God’s going to do what He’s going to do and what’s my prayer going to have to do with anything? That is a mark of spiritual immaturity. Prayer in God’s will is a form of rebellion, on the one hand, rebellion against the world, rebellion against its fallenness, rebellion against its sinfulness. Prayer according to the will of God is affirmation. It is celebration of the divine purpose. Daniel would not accept the way things were. He wanted the fulfillment that God had promised. And so that’s how he prayed. In fact, that’s really the only safe ground to pray on. Peter said,

1 Peter 4:7

⁷ But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer.

You better think seriously about prayer, the end is near.

Daniel prayer was generated by the Word of God and it was grounded in the will of God.

Characterized by Fervency

v. 3          Now we already know that Daniel was persistent in his prayers. He was very persistent. He prayed at intervals every single day his whole life. Back down in verse 20, he’s still speaking and praying when the answer comes. We know from chapter 6 that prayer was a life style for Daniel. That’s what got him in the lion’s den.

I set my face=I fixed my gaze. I pointed my face in the direction of God. This is an undistracted kind of preoccupation. This is resoluteness. I set my face to the sovereign one to plead with Him in prayer and supplication to the degree of fasting, wearing sackcloth and pouring ashes on my head. These are ways in which to manifest passion, brokenness, contrition, humility.

Fasting in the Scriptures is always linked with prayer, except with the Pharisee who said, “I fast twice a week,” which did him no good. He did it as a way to demonstrate his superficial holiness. But all true fasting is connected to prayer in the Bible. People fasted because they were so burdened with things that they were praying for that they had no interest in food. There was no particular virtue in the fasting, the virtue was in the preoccupation, the resoluteness, the setting of the face toward God. He set his face toward the sovereign and to seek the sovereign with such fervency that he didn’t eat. He was like Hannah in 1 Samuel 1:8. Hannah was weeping and fasting, pleading for a son. It was like Esther who was fasting and praying for life, or like the Ninevites who were under the preaching of Jonah were fasting and pleading for forgiveness.

Very often in the Bible they wore sackcloth, a sign of humiliation, unworthiness. Job, you remember, sat in ashes and threw ashes on his head as a sign of his despair and his humility. He even shaved his head. The Luke 18 Publican beats on his chest. There’s crying, throwing dust on your head, ripping your clothes, as we already read about, sighing, groaning, crying out loud. The Bible speaks of a broken heart, a broken spirit, pouring out one’s heart, rending one’s heart, making sacrifices. All of this expresses the fervency of prayer.

Daniel employs then every indication of fervency. “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man,” James 5:16. This is him. Christ in the Garden is praying so fervently. He knew what the will of the Father was. He was a Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. He knew the plan from beginning to end, that didn’t change the fervency of His prayer. He accepted God’s answer but in the prayer sweat blood, because He was praying with such fervency that the capillaries exploded. Jesus and Daniel both knew God’s will. It’s just that when you’re really caught up in the agenda of God, there’s a fervency in your life.

So true prayer is generated by the Word of God, grounded in the will of God, characterized by fervency.

Identifies with God’s People

True intercessory prayer really is not preoccupied with self. It’s very hard to find a prayer in Scripture that’s just very personal. There are a few. Prayer is more identified with praying for others. It’s very hard for the true believer, the godly person, to demand from God things that relate to him apart from any consideration of the rest.

Notice the pronouns in vv. 5-15.

This is like Ephesians 6:18 praying always with all prayer and supplication for all the saints. I mean, even Jesus taught us to pray, “Forgive us our trespasses ... Give us our daily bread.” It’s not give me mine. The focus of our prayer is to carry the needs of everyone. Galatians 6:2 says we will bear one another’s burdens.

He regards even the sins of his people and the sins of his priests and the sins of his rulers and judges and kings as if they were his own. He cannot divorce himself from his people, because he knows he’s part of the problem. I can’t pray a prayer, “Straighten Your church out, Lord,” without saying, “And straighten out me in the process.”

Prayer then is generated by the Word of God; it’s grounded in the will of God; it’s characterized by fervency; it’s identified with God’s people.

Built on Confession

I want you to catch this. He wants God to do his work. He wants God to restore Israel, Daniel does, and God said He would. He wants to see Jerusalem rebuilt, the temple rebuilt, the sanctuary restored, God’s presence to come back – that’s what he wants. But before he ever even gets close to that, look at this prayer.

Verse 5    Boy, that’s saying it every way you could say it. We sinned; we committed iniquity; we acted wickedly; we rebelled, and we turned aside – five ways to say it. And he says we’re sinful.

Prayer depends on recognizing our unworthiness. So that we always know when we pray, I have no right to ask. I have no right to enter Your presence. There’s nothing in me that makes me worthy to hear an answer and to be blessed, because I’m just a sinner. I’m a sinner like Isaiah. I’m a man with unclean lips and I live in the midst of people of unclean lips. It’s the pounding the breast again, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.”

v. 7          “confusion of face”=a distorted face that comes to one who’s under shame and distorts his face. Shame of the heart distorts the face.

Prayer is generated by God’s Word, grounded in God’s will, characterized by fervency. It is identified with God’s people. It is built on confession.

Dependent on God’s Character

v. 9          The entirety of the prayer points out God’s amazing qualities.

Consummates in God’s Glory

Verse 16-19     Here is the true man of prayer. His one consuming passion is the glory of God.

The best prayer is the one that is offered.