Pray for more blessing – and give all the glory to God.

“O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and act! Do not delay for Your own sake … ” (Daniel 9:19).

“O Lord” – This is prayer. We do not take our problem to everyone else but the Lord. We take our problem to the Lord.

“Hear” and “listen” – There can be a very real difference between hearing and listening. Something is said in our hearing, but we’re not listening. When something is important, we say, “Are you listening?” Why do we want to make sure that the hearer is paying attention to what we’re saying? – Because it’s important to us. When we say to the Lord, “Hear” and “listen”, we’re saying, “Lord, this is important to me.”

“Forgive” and “act” – We want to break free from our past. We want to be set free for God’s future. Don’t let my past sins hinder my future blessing. Send Your blessing, Lord. That’s what we’re praying for when we say, “Lord, forgive and act.”

‘Do not delay for Your own sake, my God’ - This is urgent prayer. Why are we to pray with urgency? Is it because we want to get blessing for ourselves? There is more than that here. There is the glory of God. The more we are learning to love God, the more we will pray that He will be glorified. Our prayers will be less about getting things for ourselves. They will be more about giving glory to God. Let the blessing come to us – but let all the glory go to the Lord.