Portrait of a Powerful Prayer

 

Portrait of Powerful Prayer Daniel 9:1-19

Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the prophet Daniel paints a compelling portrait of a prayer that has “great power” (James 5:16).

 As I read through the prayer, there are at least 6 things that stand out to me, 6 things that are regularly seen in powerful prayer.

1. Rooted in Scripture: To begin with we see his prayer is rooted in the never changing truths of God’s Word “according to the Word of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet” (Vs. 2). Additionally, we see God’s Word referenced in Vss. 4, 5, 10, 11, 12, & 13. 

2. Resigned before the Lord: “Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking Him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.” (Vs. 3) All these things listed in verse 3 give evidence of Daniel approaching God with a heart of deep humility. 

3. Replete with Adoration: Throughout the entirety this prayer, he brings praise and adoration to the Lord; “O Lord the great an awesome God” (Vs. 4); “To You, O Lord, belongs righteousness” (Vs. 7; “To You, O Lord, belong mercy and forgiveness” (Vs. 9) “… for the Lord our God is righteous in all the works that He has done” (Vs. 14)          

4. Recalls God‘s Goodness and Power: “Who keeps covenant and steadfast love” (Vs. 3); “He has confirmed His Word” (Vs. 12);  “…the Lord our God is righteous in all the work that He has done” (vs. 14); “And now, O Lord our God, Who brought Your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty Hand” (Vs. 15); Additionally in these verses we see that He is a God of mercy, a God Who hears, and a God Who forgives.

5. Repents and Confesses: “… we have sinned and done wrong” (Vs. 5); “We have not listened to Your servants” (Vs. 6); “…because of the treachery... committed against You” (Vs. 7); “… we have sinned against You” (Vs. 11); “… we have sinned, we have done wickedly” (Vs. 15). 

6. Relishes in God's Glory: Continually seeks to bring glory, not to the ones confessing and repenting but to the Name of the Lord. “O Lord, according to all Your righteous acts” (Vs. 16); “Now therefore, O our God, listen to the prayer of Your servant... for Your Own sake, O Lord” (Vs. 17); “… and the city that is called by Your Name” (Vs. 18); “Delay not, for Your Own Sake, O my God, because Your city and Your people are called by Your Name”  (Vs. 19).

Interestingly enough, while this isn't the case for all powerful prayers, in this instance, we see in verses 20-23 that even before Daniel said "Amen", God was already providing a visible answer to the prayer.

Worshipping God in Spirit and in truth...

Jeremiah 17:12

“A glorious throne set on high from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary…”

 

 

For 7 years the nation of Israel had worked tirelessly on Solomon’s temple, employing 30,000 split up in 3 groups working 2 months, then having 1 month off. When it was completed, it was a wonder to be seen. God was most definitely pleased with this magnificent temple. There was a unity of worship and allegiance to God so significant it brought about the blessing of God’s hand on the nation. 

 

Unfortunately, something happened between the days of Solomon and the time of the Prophet Jeremiah. While the temple remained, while sacrifices continued, the worship that was taking place was half-hearted at best. A religious checking off the boxes, while at the same time worshipping the false gods of the land God had given them.  As a result, the days of the magnificent temple in Jerusalem were coming to an end. In a short time, King Nebuchadnezzar and his army would descend upon Jerusalem and completely destroy the city as well as the temple. The physical sanctuary was soon to be gone.  For people with a half-hearted allegiance to and worship of God this was devastating.  For them much of their worship revolved around the building rather than on the Most High God.

 

 

Perhaps that is what was in the mind of God when He inspired Jeremiah to pen, “a glorious throne on high from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary”. The worship of God never was, is not, and never will be dependent on any building.  God is omnipresent, abiding everywhere and, as Jesus made it clear to the woman at the well in John 4, “true worshippers worship the Father in Spirit and in truth”.

 

In Jeremiah 17:13 we read

“LORD, the hope of Israel, all who abandon You will be put to shame.  All who turn away from Me will be written in the dirt, for they have abandoned the LORD, the fountain of living water.”

  

Jeremiah is prophesying and speaking to the nation of Judah, the southern kingdom of Israel, God’s chosen people, as a result when He writes, “…all who abandon You will be put to shame.”, He is writing to a people who at one time had a relationship with God.  The word “abandon” in the original Hebrew is a very strong word, used frequently in Jeremiah, starting in 1:16 where God says the nation of Judah, they “abandoned Me to burn incense to other gods and to worship the works of their own hands”.

 

 

The picture here is that the people of Judah have turned their backs, abandoned, forsaken, the God who had literally formed them with His own hands. Don’t forget, throughout the creation account God spoke virtually everything into existence except when it came to man, with His own hands, He reached down and formed him out of the dust of the ground, then breathed in him the breath of life.  Now here man is abandoning God and declaring as god, something they formed with their own hands, except they were unable to beath the breath of life into these idols. They were worshipping dead things, capable of doing nothing, instead of the living God who was and is all powerful and perfect in every way.

 

 

Jeremiah goes on to write, “all who turn away from me will be written in the dirt.” In reading this, my mind quickly was drawn to John 8:2-11 and the biblical account of the woman caught in adultery. In this passage, the scribes and Pharisees bring to Jesus a woman caught in the act of adultery.  I’m not sure where the man was, but that is a topic for another time. They were testing Jesus, to trap Him into saying or doing something they could use against Him.  Jesus initially says nothing, He simply bends over and begins to write something on the ground. Scripture does not tell us what He wrote, but I am guessing he writes some very specific sins.  Ignoring what He was writing, they persisted at questioning Him, then He stood up and said to them, “The one without sin among you should be the first to throw a stone at her.” Then, Jesus bent over and again began to write on the ground. As before, Scripture does not give any indication what Jesus wrote.  In my mind I wonder, did He begin to write names of men next to the specific sins He had written earlier?  What we do know is that as He wrote, one by one, each man left, until He was there alone with the woman.

 

This fits well with Jeremiah 17:13, because as these men were leaving while Jesus wrote on the ground, they were turning away from Jesus. In the end, the only one who didn’t turn away was the woman. She was the only one who was able to drink from “the fountain of living water” to experience the incredible freedom one obtains from the “Lord, the hope of Israel.”  He was her only hope, and He is our only hope.  Our freedom comes when we abandon our sin and turn to Him with repentant hearts, drinking from the living water.

 

Father in heaven, O that my heart would be wholly and completely devoted to You. May I never move into a position of merely checking all the religious boxes. May my worship never revolve around places, things, or people, but on You, the one true God. My hope is in You and You alone. May I, day by day and moment by moment, abandon the sin that can become so prevalent in my life, and turn to You with a repentant heart, that I might drink from the Living Water that is Jesus my Savior.

This I pray, in His Holy Name, Amen

Moving From The Natural to The Unnatural-Developing a Healthy Spiritual Appetite

 

“Why do you spend money for that which is not bread, and your earnings for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, Let your soul delight in abundance.” Isaiah 55: 2

• The natural appetite of my heart 

  • The natural tendencies of my soul 

  • The natural yearnings of my spirit 

 

All put me on the path of the worldly table, and a cuisine that ultimately does not satisfy. In Isaiah 55: 2, the prophet is calling me to do that which is not natural. However, while at the outset it may not be natural, the more this becomes the pattern of my life, the more natural it becomes. 

Towards the end of my second year of college basketball, I was upset at how little I made it off of the bench and onto the court. When I approached my coach, he challenged me to work hard on going against my natural tendency to the right hand, and instead spend time working on my left hand. That summer I worked almost exclusively on shooting with my left, as a result, the last two seasons I started almost every game.

What works in the physical, also works in the spiritual. The more we develop spiritual habits that draw us closer to the incredible spiritual feast our God has laid before us, the more natural the unnatural becomes to us. Our gracious God has laid before us an incredible feast, the choicest of spiritual foods, yet far too often when we turn from his table to the leaks and onions of Egypt.

Here are 2 books that have been instrumental in my development of Spiritual Habits, I recommend these for anyone interested in feasting on the incredible spiritual feast God has prepared for us.

Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life by Donald Whitney

Disciplines of A Godly Man by R. Kent Hughes

Come, All You Who Are Thirsty...

 

“Come, everyone who is thirsty,
come to the water;
and you without silver,
come, buy, and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without silver and without cost!” Isaiah 55:1

 

Isaiah 55 begins with a call to the desolate, a call to those who were in great despair, who in a physical sense, had little more than the clothes on their backs. It is a prophecy with a dual fulfillment, with the first fulfillment serving as a precursor to the ultimate fulfillment. In this instance, the first fulfillment was around 150 years in the future when, by a decree of King Cyrus, the Nation of Judah, returns to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple of God, and later the walls around Jerusalem (Ezra and Nehemiah). But its ultimate fulfillment is a spiritual fulfillment and it finds that fulfillment in the heart of the repentant Sinner. Isaiah begins; “Come, everyone who is thirsty, come to the water”. In reading this, my mind is drawn to John 4 and to the encounter Jesus had with the Samaritan woman at Jacobs well. She came to draw water from a physical well, Jesus directed her to draw from the spiritual well for living water. 

 

Isaiah goes on to write; “and you without silver, come buy, and eat!Come buy wine and milk without silver and without cost!” Moving back to John 4, we see that, similar to the recipients of Isaiah’s message, the only thing The Woman At The Well brought to the table was a bankrupt soul. She was completely desolate. Here she is desolate, with a bankrupt soul, yet at the same time her spiritual mouth was parched with thirst, tongue dry and sticking to the roof of her mouth. In a spiritual sense, her stomach was completely void of any nutrition with an unquenchable hunger and deep rumblings that come with an empty stomach. Just as Isaiah does here in chapter 55, Jesus directs her attention to… well He had directed her attention to Himself. He was and is the Living Water, He was and is the Bread of Life. Spiritually, His Blood the wine, His Body the bread. She brought nothing to the table but a bankrupt soul, He laid before her an incredible feast, which He paid for in full, on the cross. 

 

What was true of her, what was true in the returning exiles, is also true of us. All that we bring to the table is a bankrupt soul, empty pockets spiritually, parched mouths, and spiritually empty stomachs. Jesus says, Come to a feast I have prepared for you. I know what it is you bring to the table, bankrupt souls, facing a debt you have no hope of repaying. That insurmountable debt you owe, you owe to Me, and I Myself have paid the debt, with My Own Blood, with My Own Body, broken for you. Come, drink and thirst no more. Come eat and be satisfied. 

 

Have you drawn from the well of living water that is Jesus Christ? If not, why not do so today?

The Future Glory of Israel and the church-Isaiah 54

The Future Glory of Israel and the Church-Isaiah 54

‘“Though the mountains move and the hills shake, My love will not be removed from you and My covenant of peace will not be shaken,” says your compassionate LORD. Isaiah 54:10

 

On the heels of the magnificent declaration of the coming Messiah, the sacrificial Lamb Who provides ultimate and total redemption, comes a blessing. First, on the returning exiles, but second, and more fully on the coming church, when Gentiles will, by faith in the Messiah, be grafted into the chosen ones of God. We will, as the Bride of Christ, be wed to our “Maker…the LORD of Armies … the Holy One of Israel … Redeemer … God of the whole earth” (Vs. 5).

 

He will be to us our Rock, so secure that ; “Though the mountains move and the hills shake, My love will not be removed from you and My covenant of peace will not be shaken” (Vs. 10). He is our “compassionate LORD” (Vs. 10). 

 

And though we will face many a foe; “No weapon fashioned against you will succeed” (Vs. 17) 

 

and our “vindication is from” the LORD.

1“Rejoice, childless one, who did not give birth;

burst into song and shout,

you who have not been in labor!

For the children of the desolate one will be more

than the children of the married woman,”

says the Lord.

2“Enlarge the site of your tent,

and let your tent curtains be stretched out;

do not hold back;

lengthen your ropes,

and drive your pegs deep.

3For you will spread out to the right and to the left,

and your descendants will dispossess nations

and inhabit the desolate cities.

4“Do not be afraid, for you will not be put to shame;

don’t be humiliated, for you will not be disgraced.

For you will forget the shame of your youth,

and you will no longer remember

the disgrace of your widowhood.

5Indeed, your husband is your Maker  —

his name is the Lord of Armies —

and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer;

he is called the God of the whole earth.

6For the Lord has called you,

like a wife deserted and wounded in spirit,

a wife of one’s youth when she is rejected,”

says your God.

7“I deserted you for a brief moment,

but I will take you back with abundant compassion.

8In a surge of anger

I hid my face from you for a moment,

but I will have compassion on you

with everlasting love,”

says the Lord your Redeemer.

9“For this is like the days of Noah to me:

when I swore that the water of Noah

would never flood the earth again,

so I have sworn that I will not be angry with you

or rebuke you.

10Though the mountains move

and the hills shake,

my love will not be removed from you

and my covenant of peace will not be shaken,”

says your compassionate Lord.

11“Poor Jerusalem, storm-tossed, and not comforted,

I will set your stones in black mortar,

and lay your foundations in lapis lazuli.

12I will make your fortifications out of rubies,

your gates out of sparkling stones,

and all your walls out of precious stones.

13Then all your children will be taught by the Lord,

their prosperity will be great,

14and you will be established

on a foundation of righteousness.

You will be far from oppression,

you will certainly not be afraid;

you will be far from terror,

it will certainly not come near you.

15If anyone attacks you,

it is not from me;

whoever attacks you

will fall before you.

16Look, I have created the craftsman

who blows on the charcoal fire

and produces a weapon suitable for its task;

and I have created the destroyer to cause havoc.

17No weapon formed against you will succeed,

and you will refute any accusation

raised against you in court.

This is the heritage of the Lord’s servants,

and their vindication is from me.”

This is the Lord’s declaration. 

Isaiah 54