Lord, Hear Our Prayer
Notes
Transcript
So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes.
I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed:
“Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and keep his commandments, we have sinned and done wrong. We have been wicked and have rebelled; we have turned away from your commands and laws. We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes and our ancestors, and to all the people of the land.
“Lord, you are righteous, but this day we are covered with shame—the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, both near and far, in all the countries where you have scattered us because of our unfaithfulness to you. We and our kings, our princes and our ancestors are covered with shame, Lord, because we have sinned against you. The Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against him; we have not obeyed the Lord our God or kept the laws he gave us through his servants the prophets.
Now therefore, O our God, listen to the prayer of your servant and to his supplication, and for your own sake, Lord, let your face shine upon your desolated sanctuary. Incline your ear, O my God, and hear. Open your eyes and look at our desolation and the city that bears your name. We do not present our supplication before you on the ground of our righteousness, but on the ground of your great mercies. O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, listen and act and do not delay! For your own sake, O my God, because your city and your people bear your name!”
God’s people felt disrupted in their lives with God
God’s people felt disrupted in their lives with God
They have been in captivity for 70 years as Jeremiah predicted:
“But when the seventy years are fulfilled, I will punish the king of Babylon and his nation, the land of the Babylonians, for their guilt,” declares the Lord, “and will make it desolate forever.
This is what the Lord says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place.
Daniel has been marking the days and senses that the time is drawing near. But his thought was to cry out to God. He didn’t just say: presto, time’s up, God so let us back in! No, he begins at the beginning. He acknowledges the sins of the people and their deep need of spiritual renewal.
READ portions of PAGE 20 of Lenten Postcards
we have sinned and done wrong. We have been wicked and have rebelled; we have turned away from your commands and laws. We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes and our ancestors, and to all the people of the land.
They have sinned, done wrong, been wicked, rebelled, turned away and not listened. A list that makes obedience impossible. Calendars too full. Minds too preoccupied. Bodies pointing in the wrong direction. It had led to no good and Daniel knew a change was required to move into a new day.
We feel disrupted by unexpected circumstances
We feel disrupted by unexpected circumstances
If your job changes and you need to adjust it can be a challenge, especially if we didn’t see it coming. Our responsibilities may change or our scenery may change. Either way it brings stress.
The prospects of the coming election have had many people on edge with what to expect. Seeing political ads and constant news coverage can trigger feelings of uncertainty and frustration.
Lately, the news of a scary new virus has been pervasive. You can’t pick up your phone or turn on TV without being updated with new details that still don’t have much context. Is this is a brief interruption that will only affect a few people and soon be in the rear view mirror? We hope so. Or is this going to descend into a protracted battle where life will be disrupted as it has been in China, Iran, or Italy?
When things like this happen we grow weary after a few days and realize how much we want to be in control of our circumstances and feel untouched by the suffering of the world. We may cry out to God for wish fulfillment and instant gratification. Come on, Lord, put a stop to these circumstances!
Folks surely we know we are hardly victims in this world. Surely we understand how absolutely blessed we have been. Surely we get how faithful God has been to all of us a million times over. Our nation’s struggle to govern itself is due to our own sinfulness and lack of focus and commitment to what we know to be most true. Even the plagues of the earth that come in every generation are a result of sin in the world. Romans 8 tells us our sin has contributed to the decay of the natural order and sometimes that comes home to roost and we struggle and realize how fragile life is.
But we have an option to respond like Daniel did.
God Restores His Praying People
God Restores His Praying People
I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed:
“Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and keep his commandments,
Daniel had come to know God’s heart by means of worship, prayer and obedience over time.
The faithfulness that God has shown to his people throughout their time in captivity has emboldened him to believe again. But it has also demonstrated the contrast between God’s faithfulness and their carelessness. And he doesn’t just throw others under the bus (under the chariot?) Even thought God empowered him to be a righteous man, he says we when he confesses to his God. This is godly wisdom.
If you were here for the Ash Wednesday service you saw how deeply we need the grace of God. How powerful it is when we admit we will one day die unless Jesus returns and even then things will change in a massive way. We are confessing God’s truth by his grace so it prepares us to receive the grace God wants to provide.
Now therefore, O our God, listen to the prayer of your servant and to his supplication, and for your own sake, Lord, let your face shine upon your desolated sanctuary. Incline your ear, O my God, and hear. Open your eyes and look at our desolation and the city that bears your name. We do not present our supplication before you on the ground of our righteousness, but on the ground of your great mercies. O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, listen and act and do not delay! For your own sake, O my God, because your city and your people bear your name!”
God is faithful. God restored his people. Eventually they did return to the land. And some of Daniel’s prophecies about the Messiah lead us up to the time of Jesus. God is so good and faithful. But part of God’s unfolding of grace began with Daniel on his knees in response to God’s faithfulness and the great need of the people. Daniel could have walked away. Daniel could have washed his hands of the whole messy situation. Who could have blamed him? But God is longsuffering and faithful and that rubbed off on Daniel’s heart. So he was patient and waited for his moment and prayed on behalf of the people. God used Daniel and his prayer to help God’s people turn a page toward restoration.
God Restores Us
God Restores Us
Isn’t it time for us to be able to see like Daniel did? To see the only way forward is on our knees? Right at this fragile time in our world we have a tremendous opportunity to begin on our knees crying out to God, not just for relief (it’s only natural to want that). But God stands ready to do so much more! God stands ready to restore us.
No matter how the election turns out. Regardless of how this virus spreads and whether it threatens and disrupts our lives we have an advocate with the father who also prayed on our behalf.
My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.
and he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.
But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves.I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one.They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.
“I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word,
And so it goes on and on in each generation in answer to Daniel’s prayer and Jesus’ prayer and the prayers of confession, repentance and commitment of God’s continuing people. May we be a faithful generation who will also cry out to God and remember God’s faithfulness and see our land and our churches restored.
God has done his part and his offer remains. Will we come to our knees and ask him to keep his promises one more time? I hope so… Let’s pray....