So I gave my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth and ashes. I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed and said:
“Alas, O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and lovingkindness for those who love Him and keep His commandments, we have sinned, committed iniquity, acted wickedly and rebelled, even turning aside from Your commandments and ordinances. Moreover, we have not listened to Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings, our princes, our fathers and all the people of the land. Righteousness belongs to You, O Lord, but to us open shame, as it is this day—to the men of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, those who are nearby and those who are far away in all the countries to which You have driven them, because of their unfaithful deeds which they have committed against You. Open shame belongs to us, O Lord, to our kings, our princes and our fathers, because we have sinned against You."
"To the Lord our God belong compassion and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against Him; nor have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in His teachings which He set before us through His servants the prophets. Indeed all Israel has transgressed Your law and turned aside, not obeying Your voice; so the curse has been poured out on us, along with the oath which is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, for we have sinned against Him. Thus He has confirmed His words which He had spoken against us and against our rulers who ruled us, to bring on us great calamity; for under the whole heaven there has not been done anything like what was done to Jerusalem."
"As it is written in the law of Moses, all this calamity has come on us; yet we have not sought the favor of the Lord our God by turning from our iniquity and giving attention to Your truth. Therefore the Lord has kept the calamity in store and brought it on us; for the Lord our God is righteous with respect to all His deeds which He has done, but we have not obeyed His voice."
"And now, O Lord our God, who have brought Your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand and have made a name for Yourself, as it is this day—we have sinned, we have been wicked. O Lord, in accordance with all Your righteous acts, let now Your anger and Your wrath turn away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain; for because of our sins and the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people have become a reproach to all those around us. So now, our God, listen to the prayer of Your servant and to his supplications, and for Your sake, O Lord, let Your face shine on Your desolate sanctuary."
“O my God, incline Your ear and hear! Open Your eyes and see our desolations and the city which is called by Your name; for we are not presenting our supplications before You on account of any merits of our own, but on account of Your great compassion."
“O Lord, hear!
O Lord, forgive!
O Lord, listen and take action!
For Your own sake, O my God, do not delay,
because Your city and Your people are called by Your name.”
Now while I was speaking and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God in behalf of the holy mountain of my God, while I was still speaking in prayer, then the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision previously, came to me in my extreme weariness about the time of the evening offering.
He gave me instruction and talked with me and said, “O Daniel, I have now come forth to give you insight with understanding. At the beginning of your supplications the command was issued, and I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed; so give heed to the message and gain understanding of the vision."
Because this is such a long passage, I am just soaking in and defining some things instead of rewriting the whole thing in my own words.
By studying Scripture, Daniel knew that the 70 year captivity was coming to a close, so he came to God in confession and petition, with fasting.
By the way, the next year, God answered Daniel's prayer because Cyrus issued a decree that permitted the Jews to return to their land, take the temple treasures, rebuild the temple, and restore worship.
While this is a great model of confession and petition, with fasting, I kept seeing the words, "Listen and obey" something my friend and I have been terming the "LO" lately.
I WILL
God keeps on telling me to just "listen and obey in the day-to-day." This goes along with what I am reading in In Search of Guidance (Hearing God): Developing a Conversational Relationship with God by Dallas Willard and God Guides by Mary Geegh.
I will continue to have a daily "listening time" with pen and paper in hand (unless God speaks to me in the shower like he sometimes does, but I will get out and write so I will not forget) writing down and acting upon what He tells me to do. I will also continue reading these great books. God has me on such a learning journey since the fall, being struck by the obedience of people like Noah, Abraham, and Moses who did "all that the Lord commanded them to do" even when it seemed strange. Dallas Willard contends that God speaks just as he did to them, and Mary Geegh has example after example of listening and obeying that resulted in wonderful things.
Life with the Lord is so good.
Also, please pray for the estranged husband of a friend of mine who was in a serious motorcycle accident yesterday. She is by his side. Pray God speaks to him in as he has come out of surgery and is in for more later on today. Pray for my friend, Jenna, and her two kids too.
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