50 Days of Prayer for Fellowship CRC

Dan. 9:18, “We do not present our supplication before you on the ground of our righteousness but on the ground of your great mercies.”

We tend to think of Daniel as either as a great civil administrator who was embroiled in power struggles with the elite, or little more than a children’s storybook character. We need to see him as a spiritual giant, what we would today call a mystic, whose life was shaped by deep prayer.  We have one of his prayers recorded for us in Daniel 9. It is a prayer of entreaty for his people. It contains a thorough confession, as this man of God freely and fully includes himself with those who need God’s forgiveness and saving. Daniel is very honest in his requests.  They do not deserve to be forgiven or saved.  They are making their appeal to the Judge based only on the Judge’s mercy. Plus, the fact, as Daniel goes on in v18, that God’s swift, merciful intervention would be the best way for God’s Name to be honoured, since His Name is on his humiliated people. 

We would do well to follow Daniel’s example and, on the one hand, confess our sins and those of our people, and at the same time appeal to God’s mercies, as we pour out our supplications to Him. God is merciful and forgiving. The Bible tells us that we will sin often, will need to repent regularly, and will be forgiven freely.  God has given us His Name to wear in this world, and we can likewise appeal to that fact as we call on God’s mercies.

So we pray,
Father God, may your Name be kept holy in our prayers and in our lives.  We your people have sinned greatly and we have brought shame on the Christian name that we wear. We are in need of your swift intervention. We do not ask because of our own righteousness, but only on the righteousness of Christ, freely given.  By your great mercies hear our prayers. Amen.