Daniel's Great Prayer, Part 1

Father, thank you for today and the opportunity we had to study your Word. You are a great God and you alone are worthy of praise. And we are grateful that in the middle of the week we can take some time and just open the Word and realize the greatness of who you are. Tonight, Lord, as you look at Daniel's great prayer, we realize how important it is for our lives to be able to commune with the living God.

May we learn His principles this evening, Lord, a man who inspires us to pray and to commune in intimacy with the living God. We pray in your name, Amen. Daniel chapter 9. Daniel chapter 9. Daniel's great prayer. Now you know, I would think, you know, you would think that, you know, whenever you talk about prayer, that people want to come and understand how to pray, right? But they don't. We'll have a prayer and praise night, but people don't want to come to that because they don't want to pray. But to be able to talk about prayer is so significant because it deals with every aspect of our lives.

In fact, prayer is the barometer for where you are spiritually. How you pray, when you pray is so important. It indicates where you stand with the Lord. And yet so many people don't want to hear sermons on prayer, don't want to pray. But prayer is taxing work. It's hard work. It's a discipline. And we need to be involved in that on a regular basis. And tonight we're going to look at a man who prayed all the time.

And Daniel is as great as he was because he was a man of prayer. Now Daniel chapter 9, it's a very familiar chapter, not because of the prayer, but because of the prophecy in the chapter. But the prophecy really is the answer to Daniel's prayer. Daniel goes to prayer and the answer comes by way of a prophecy. And the prophecy that is given to him is the most specific prophecy in all of Scripture because it prophesies the exact day that the Messiah will come into Jerusalem. In fact, to the exact moment, 173,880 days, as we will see in a couple of weeks, how that's all calculated and why the prophecy was so important.

But before you get there, there's a prayer, a prayer by Daniel that helps us understand where he is and what he's doing. Now Daniel was a man of an uncompromising spirit. He was unparalleled in his commitment. He was unashamed of his God. He would serve his God faithfully. And when you come to Daniel chapter 9, he's in his 80s. So he's not a young pup anymore, right? And it'd be very easy for Daniel just to sit back and retire, you know, collect money from his 401K and, you know, buy a Persian shawl and put it around his neck and sit in a rocking chair there on the banks of the river of the Euphrates, or maybe even buy a boat and travel up and down the Euphrates and just enjoy retirement.

But Daniel's not a retiring kind of guy. He's going to maintain his ministry to the very end. In fact, he is like the premier person in Babylon. He's like a prime minister in Babylon at this point in his life. And so you realize that this man is constantly at work for the Lord, and he's going to be used by God in a mighty way. So chapter 9 is one of the great prayers of the Bible. In fact, we're told that there are three chapter 9s in the Bible that record great prayers. We're going to look at all three in tonight, Ezra 9, Nehemiah 9, and Daniel 9.

And all those chapters have a prayer by those men that exemplify the nature of their walk with the Lord. So a good study for every one of us would be to study those prayers in great detail in order to understand why and how we need to pray. And Daniel's prayer is about the restoration of a nation. He begins to realize that time is short, the nation is going to be restored, and he gets really excited about that. But the answer to the prayer is not about Israel's immediate restoration, but the answer to the prayer by way of prophecy will be the restoration when Messiah comes, and the redemption that will be offered to them as a result of the Messiah coming.

So he's going to get an answer that he's not expecting, but he's going to get an answer that will give hope to the nation of Israel. That's very important as you begin to study chapter 9. On top of that, you must remember that Daniel is not chronological. And so the prayer, and this prayer in chapter 9, does not follow chapter 8. You would think that it does, well it does in terms of how it is we're reading the text, but Daniel is organized thematically, not chronologically. So you've got chapter 1, 2, 3, 4, remember that?

Then you've got chapter 7, then you've got chapter 8, right? Then you have chapter 9, then you have, sorry, chapter 7, 8, then you have 5, 9, 6, 10, 11, 12. So why the book itself is not organized chronologically, it's organized thematically, because there's a certain theme that needs to be given all throughout the book of Daniel. So when you're reading this, you need to understand that, because when you come to chapter 9, you're really where chapter 6 is at the time of Cyrus and the Medo-Persian empire taking over the Babylonian empire.

And that's where chapter 9 picks up, where chapter 6 is. And chapter 9 happens before chapter 6. And so that's important too, because Daniel's a man of prayer, and so this happens before the lion's den, okay? And maybe this prayer is one of the prayers he prayed before he actually was thrown into the lion's den. So chapter 9 happens before chapter 6 chronologically, but thematically it follows what has already taken place in chapter 8. Remember what it says back in verse number 27, that I, Daniel, was exhausted and sick for days.

Then I got up again and carried on the king's business. But I was astounded at the vision, and there was none to explain it. He was overwhelmed by the vision. As he received more and more answer to what was going to happen in the future, it overwhelmed him to the point where he was sick. He would eventually get up and go back to work and do what it is he does. But that would lead him more and more into a life of prayer. And so chapter 9 happens following chapter 8 to show us that Daniel was a man who committed his life to prayer and was committing Israel's future to the Lord and asking God to do great and mighty things.

So as you read this, I want you to remember something. That your prayer life is only rich and rewarding as you recognize primarily what God has revealed in His Word. Your prayer life is only as rich and rewarding as your recognition of how God has revealed in His Word. You must understand that. You're going to see this in the prayer. That if you don't recognize God and all that He is, your prayer life is going to be stagnant. Your prayer life is going to be, at best, mediocre. Your prayer life is going to be extra work for you.

But if somehow you recognize God in His revelation and come to understand who He is, everything about your prayer life is revolutionized. Because prayer is a byproduct of knowing my God. Now, prayer must be something that flows out of my understanding of who God is. For instance, if I don't know who God is, I don't know how to pray. I'm going to ask for things I don't need to ask for that I've already got. But I need to know what I need to ask God for. What I need to pray about in order for my prayer life to be rich and rewarding.

I get asked all the time, define for me what prayer is. Can you define prayer? Prayer is simply aligning your will with God's will. Okay? If you can remember that, you're on your way to an effective prayer life. Prayer is aligning my will with God's will. Simply because when I go to prayer, I have a will. And sometimes I want that will and the needs of that will to be met. Not knowing that God has another will. And that will takes precedence over my will. So if I'm able to align my will with God's will, that's what prayer is.

So let me show you an example. John 14 verse number 13 says this. Whatever you ask in my name, that will I do so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. Whatever you ask in my name, I will do that. So that the Father will be glorified in the Son. Why does God answer prayer? To meet your needs? No. He answers prayer so that the Father is glorified. You see that? There's a big difference there. You need to understand that. We want God to answer our prayer because it meets my need. God says, no, I'm going to answer your prayer so the Father is glorified.

And then he goes on to say this. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. In other words, what is the name of God? You need to ask in line with who I am. The name of God is His character, His nature, His attributes. So if you're asking in line with who I am as the God of the universe, you're aligning your life with my life. You ask whatever you want and you'll receive it. Why? Because you're asking in the will of the Lord. The problem with us is that when we go to prayer, we have all these different things we want to see happen.

But none of them are going to glorify the Lord. So if it doesn't bring glory to the Lord, guess what? The answer is always going to be no. If it glorifies the Lord, it'll be yes. It's got to be about God's glory. So prayer is aligning my will with God's will. So the psalmist says it this way. Psalm 145 says, the Lord is righteous in all His ways and kind in all His deeds. Verse 18, the Lord is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth. So when you call upon the Lord, you call upon Him in truth.

And what is the truth? His Word. Verse 19, He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him. He will also hear their cry and save them. The Lord keeps all who love Him. The psalmist makes it very clear that when you call upon the Lord, you call upon the Lord in truth. That is, you call upon the Lord in line with what His truth is. He is the God of truth. He's given us the Word of truth. So if you're going to call upon God in truth, you must know what the truth is. When you do that, He fulfills the desires of all those who call upon Him.

So you need to understand this at the outside. Prayer is aligning my will with God's will. When you get up tomorrow morning and you go to your knees and you begin to pray, you've got to pray, Lord, I want Your will to be done. I want to align my thoughts, my actions, my desires, my will with Your desires, Your will and Your actions. That's what I want to do, Lord. So whatever is on the agenda for me this day, however you're going to be glorified, I want you glorified. I want you honored. We like to pray for healing if we're sick, right?

Maybe God's going to be better honored and glorified in your death than in your healing. I don't know that. If you die, well then I guess so, right? If you're healed, well then I guess it's the other way. But a lot of our needs are all physical needs. Think about this. When we ask for prayer, most of the time, what are they about? Well, I've got a surgery next week, I've got to see the dentist next week, my grandmother's sick with this, my aunt's got this, so-and-so's got this. It's all physical needs.

But study the prayers of the Bible. They're all about spiritual needs. And so, therefore, when Daniel goes to prayer, it's about the spiritual needs of Israel. It's not about their physical needs. It's about their spiritual needs. It doesn't mean you don't pray for your physical needs. I'm not saying that. Please don't go out of here saying, well, the pastor said I can't pray about my sick grandma anymore. That's not the point. The point is you're aligning your will with God's will, and you want to do what God wants you to do.

You want to follow Him and honor Him and serve Him in the process. And prayer is rich and rewarding only as it aligns with the God who is revealed in His truth, in His Word. So therefore, you need to be a master of the Bible in order to master your prayer life. The reason our prayers are as insipid and weak and impotent as they are is because we don't know the Lord as we should. That's why Daniel could say in chapter 11, those who know their God will display strength and take action. How can he say that?

He can say it because he knows his God. He can say it because he knows how to pray to the God that supplies strength in order for him to take action because he knows the will of the Lord. And that's revealed in Daniel chapter 9. So let me read the first six verses for you because that's as far as we're going to get this evening.

And then we're going to draw some principles from that. We're going to look at the reason for the prayer and then the requisites for prayer.

Okay? The reason for the prayer and the requisites for prayer. It says, Daniel chapter 9, verse number 1, in the first year of Darius, the son of Azareus of Median descent, who was made king over the kingdom of the Chaldeans.

Now remember Darius is just a title that means the one who holds the scepter. Darius is Cyrus. Okay? I'm going to show you that in a minute. In the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, observed in the books the number of the years which was revealed as the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet for the completion of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely 70 years.

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, oh Lord, the great and awesome God who keeps his covenant and loving kindnesses 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.

Now note, Daniel's great prayer. The reason for his prayer is because he was simply reading in the scroll of Jeremiah. In other words, because he was reading, he knew how to pray. Because he knew what God was doing, he knew how to pray. And so he makes it very clear that as he was reading the scroll of the book of Jeremiah, he realized something, that now that he's in his 80s, he's been in captivity for 65 years, right? He knows that the 70 year captivity is coming to an end. So whether you count the 70 years from 605 BC, when Daniel was carted off to Babylon, or 586 BC, the third deportation, when the temple was destroyed, however you count it, you're getting toward the end.

And Daniel recognizes that the 70 years is almost up. And so that would draw him and drive him to pray. So what was he reading? Well, if you go back in your Bible to the book of Jeremiah, the 25th chapter, it says in verse number eight, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, because you have not obeyed my words, behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, declares the Lord, and I will send to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land and against its inhabitants and against all these nations around about, and I will utterly destroy them and make them a horror and a hissing and an everlasting desolation.

Moreover, I will take from them the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones and the light of the lamp. This whole land will be desolation and a horror. And these nations will serve the king of Babylon 70 years. Then it will be when 70 years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon. And that nation declares the Lord for their iniquity and the land of the Chaldeans. And I will make it an everlasting desolation.

So he reads that and he realizes that the king of Babylon has been destroyed. That happened in chapter 5. He reads that and realizes that Cyrus is in charge. So he's lived the fulfillment of Jeremiah's prophecy. Go to Jeremiah 29, Jeremiah chapter 29, maybe this is what he was reading. Verse number 4, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. God makes it very clear. I have sent you into exile. I have banished you to Babylon.

You're there because of me. I put you there. You rebelled against me. You despised my word. You turned against my laws. You didn't listen to my prophets. I told you what I was going to do and I did it. I put you where I said I was going to put you. Verse 10, for thus says the Lord, when 70 years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill my good word to you, to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for calamity, to give you a future and a hope.

Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile. So think about this. You're Daniel. You receive the scrolls. You're reading the book of Jeremiah and all of a sudden as you read this, all this just pops off the page at you as if, wait a minute, Babylon's done.

The king of Babylon's over. They've been destroyed by the Medo-Persian empire. Cyrus is now in charge. Cyrus is ruling. And now we're taking back to the book of Isaiah, right? We read this last week, the book of Isaiah chapter 44. It says in verse number 28, it is I who says to Cyrus, he is my shepherd. He will perform all my desire and he declares of Jerusalem, she will be built and at the temple, your foundation will be laid. Now remember, Jeremiah is prophesying on the cusp of the Babylonian captivity.

So when Daniel reads Jeremiah, he realizes that Jeremiah was sent to bring the people of Israel back to repentance, but they would not listen to anything he said. So God put them into captivity exactly as he promised. Isaiah, in turn, would prophesy 150 years before all this takes place. And so he would know all these things, put two and two together, and that drives his prayer life. It governs how he prays. It governs what he talks to the Lord about. Why? Because in it, he sees God. He sees the hand of God.

He sees the fulfillment of prophecy. Now he knows how to pray for his people Israel, that God will restore them and take them back. God answer your prayer, or not answer my prayer, according to your prophecy. You've already said you're going to do it 70 years later. We're on the cusp of that. Now's the time, Lord, and he begins to pray for the nation of Israel. So the whole reason behind his prayer was that he was reading Scripture, he was getting to understand the Scriptures, and it propelled him to pray.

Listen, God's Word, my prayer life is motivated by God's Word. It's measured by God's will. In other words, my prayer life is measured according to the will of God as it is revealed in the Word of God. But the more I read the Bible, the more I want to pray, the more I see my need to pray. The less I read my Bible, the less I pray, because I don't sense my need to pray. But whenever I open the Scriptures and see my God, it drives me to him all the more. That's why when people say, well, when you get up and do you pray first, do you study first, do you study first, and do you pray, you know, I just think that your prayer life is more vital when you realize it stems from what is written in the truth of God's Word.

And so you begin to study that Word that you might learn to pray and seek the face of the living God. So important. So the reason simply was this. He was reading the Word of the Lord, and he began to understand exactly what God was doing. He knew, as Jeremiah says, then you will call, then I will listen, then you will seek with all your heart. And that's where Israel is. He's asking God to fulfill his promises. So from there, let me give you the requisites for prayer.

These are the necessary elements for your prayer life, okay? There are five of them. They're in the text. Let me explain it to you.

Number one is this. My prayer life is only as effective as my conviction about God's authority. There needs to be a conviction about God's authority. That is, His Word is authoritative. His Word is true. Everything He says is true. God's Word is absolutely authoritative because it's His words. If you recall back in chapter 8 of Daniel, it says, The vision of the evenings and the mornings which has been told is true. Daniel was absolutely convinced that the visions he received, the dreams that he had, came from God and were absolutely true.

And as they were being fulfilled in front of him, right before his eyes, it only accentuated the authority of God in his life. But if I don't have a conviction that God's Word is absolutely authoritative, that I am required to follow everything He says, because it's not just a requirement, it truly is a privilege, because God's not going to ask you to do things that are harmful to you. He's going to ask you to do things that will benefit your walk with Him and your testimony in the world. But I have to be absolutely convinced that God's Word is authoritative.

If it is, it drives me to prayer. For instance, Psalm 119. Psalm 119 says this. Psalm 119, verse number 24. Your testimonies also are my delight. They are my counselors. God's Word is His testimonies. God's law, God's ordinances, God's statutes are His testimonies. And the psalmist says, they are my delight and they are my counselor. Now, why do you need a counselor? Because you need wisdom, guidance, direction. You need to know what to do, right? So you go to a counselor to receive guidance as to what to do next.

Well the psalmist says, my counselor are your testimonies. So if you go over to Psalm 119 and you read verse number 97, Oh how I love your law, it is my meditation all the day. Why is His law His meditation all the day? Because His testimonies, His ordinances, His statutes are His counselor. Well, if God's Word is my counselor, I'm going to meditate upon the Word of God. I want to know what God's Word says. So it says this in verse number 98, Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever mine.

I have more insight than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the aged because I have observed your precepts. I have restrained my feet from every evil way that I may keep your word. I have turned aside from your ordinances, for you yourself have taught me. How sweet are your words to my taste, yet sweeter than the honey to my mouth. For from your precepts I get understanding, therefore I hate every false way. So when God's testimonies are my counselors, I learn when and where to turn.

I learn how to have insight, understanding, so that I can make proper decisions. God's Word does this for us. So when I have a conviction that God's Word is absolutely authoritative, I want to know what God has to say, because God's going to direct me in the way that I should go. It always leads me to prayer. It always leads me to seek His face. Book of Ezra. Book of Ezra says this. Ezra chapter 9. In fact, Ezra chapter 1 I think is very important. Now in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, so that he sent a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing, saying, Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia, The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and has appointed me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah.

Whoever there is among you of all his people, may his God be with him. Let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of the Lord, the God of Israel. He is the God who is in Jerusalem. Every survivor, at whatever place he may live, let the men of that place support him with silver and gold, with goods and cattle, together with a farewell offering for the house of God which is in Jerusalem. So what you have in the book of Ezra is the fulfillment of Isaiah 45 verse number 28. So Ezra is telling us exactly what's happening as we begin to understand the fulfillment of prophecy.

Isn't it interesting that Cyrus, God's servant, his heart was in the Lord's hand, and the Lord would turn it however he chose to turn it. And isn't it interesting that every time God sent his people to build or rebuild the temple of the tabernacle, he always used the spoils of their adversaries. Remember when Moses left Egypt to build the tabernacle? He left with gold and silver from Egypt. Remember when Solomon built the temple? He used it, according to 1 Chronicles 26, from the spoils of all of David's enemies.

And now, as they go back to rebuild the temple, the people there in the land of the Chaldeans, the Babylonians, where Israel's been held captive for 70 plus years, are going to go back and use the silver and the gold of the people who captured them to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. God can do anything he wants, however he wants to do it, but very important. Turn back one page to 2 Chronicles 36. Again, verse 22. Now in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, saying, He sent a proclamation throughout his kingdom and also put it in writing, saying, Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia, The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has appointed me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah.

Whoever there is among you of all the people, may the Lord his God be with him and let him go up. That's just absolutely amazing, that God shows us the fulfillment of prophecy in his word and how Cyrus was going to be used by God to accomplish his purposes. Now think about this. Not everybody in captivity left. The majority of them stayed. Now think about this. I think there was something around 46,000 that left to go back to rebuild the temple. But everybody else stayed. After all that God had done to bring about his purposes and to show them how everything was going to fall into place exactly as he said in the timetable in which he said it, they still were unmotivated to leave where they were and go back to Jerusalem.

Some of them had become too comfortable where they were. Some of them might have felt too old to move anymore. Who knows? But this is why Daniel would stay behind. And as we go through the rest of Daniel, he's going to stay behind. He never goes back to Jerusalem. He stays behind to keep preaching and teaching and motivating people to leave from their captivity to go back to Jerusalem. He had such a burden for the people. Such a heart for the people of Israel. He felt a need to stay to teach them, to motivate them to leave where they were and go back.

But he had a great conviction about God's authority in his life. Number two, the second requisite for prayer.

Not only conviction of God's authority, but a capitulation to God's sovereignty. A capitulation to God's sovereignty. In other words, I must have an absolute desire to submit to the sovereignty of almighty God. Whatever his plans are. If I don't have that, my prayer life is going to be hindered. So let me say it to you this way.

Daniel is seeing God's sovereignty at work. He sees it in the visions, in the dreams, right? God is spelling everything out for him. From chapter two in Nebuchadnezzar's dream to the visions that he himself received of all these animals and coming up out of the sea and everything that just overwhelmed him. He sees God's plan at work. And he's willing to submit himself to God's sovereign plan. Even when he was 15 and taken off into captivity. And when he reads the book of Jeremiah, he sees God's sovereignty at work.

That God has his plan, that God has his purpose. And he's already spelled it out for his people in Israel. I want you to seek me. I want you to search me with all of your heart. And then you're going to call upon me and I'm going to answer you. But that's only after the 70 years of captivity. He was willing to submit himself to the authority of God's word and to the sovereignty of the plans and purposes of God. Remember Matthew chapter six, when disciples asked the Lord to teach them how to pray, right?

Matthew six is that very familiar prayer. We call it the Lord's prayer. It's really not the Lord's prayer. It's really the Lord's teaching on how prayer should be. And you know how it goes. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. That little phrase, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven is very important. It's probably one of the most paradoxical phrases in all of Scripture. Why should I pray for God's will to be done if God's will is going to be done anyway?

If God is sovereign, has a plan, then why am I going to pray for God's will to be done? I can't thwart God's plan. I can't change God's plan. I can't change God's mind about His plan. His plan runs right on course. And the Bible speaks very clearly about that. In fact, Nebuchadnezzar said back in Daniel chapter 4, what did he say? He said these words, All the inhabitants of the earth are counted as nothing, but he does according to his will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and no one can ward off his hand or say to him, What have you done?

Nebuchadnezzar realized that. God is sovereign. He does whatever He wants. So, why pray God's will be done if God's will is going to be done anyway? Simply because you have to learn to capitulate your own life, submit your own life to the sovereignty of Almighty God. Man's responsibility is to pray. All right? Man's responsibility is to pray. God's sovereignty works in conjunction with man's responsibility. How that happens, I have not the foggiest idea. That's irrelevant. God commands us to pray.

We know that prayer works, right? We know that when Joshua was defeated in Ai, after winning the battle of Jericho, he went to God, he prayed, asking why, and God told him he got to sit in the camp. So he had to be able to sit in the camp in order for him to gain victory. But he prayed, and God answered. Hannah, verse 71, was barren. She would pray vehemently. God answered her prayer, gave her a son. So she prayed, God answered. Zacharias and Elizabeth, same thing. They were barren. The great patriarchs we see on Sunday morning, all their wives were barren.

What did they do? They prayed, and God answered. Sometimes right away, sometimes 20 years down the road, but God answered. When Peter was in prison, the early church got together and prayed. Peter was released from prison. So we know, all throughout Scripture, we pray, God answers, because God's commanded us to pray. And yet God is sovereign, and his plan cannot be thwarted, and goes exactly as he has ordained it to happen. And yet God commands us to pray. So when the Lord says, when you pray, I want you to pray this way.

Pray, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Now, there are two words for the word will. Boulamai and Thelema. Boulamai is God's decrees. Thelema is God's desire. God has a decreed will. God has a desired will. Boulamai is not the word used in Matthew 6. It's the word Thelema, which means God's desire. God's decreed plan runs right on course. It never changes. It cannot be thwarted. It's been planned before time ever began by God himself. You can't change it. Isaiah 45, 44. Isaiah chapter 46.

Daniel 4 verse number 35. Who can change the mind of God? Who can ward off the hand of it? Nobody can, right? Those are God's decrees. God's desire is part of his decreed plan, but just because it's God's desire doesn't mean it always happens. Right? For example, 1 Timothy chapter 2 verse number 4. God desires all men to be saved. Are all men saved? Nope. Because that's not part of God's decree. But his desire is that all men be saved. His desire was that Israel would come to him in Matthew chapter 23.

He would gather them together as a mother hen gathers all of her chicks, but he says, you are unwilling. This is what I wanted to do. This is my desire. Right? He wept over Jerusalem because he wanted them to realize that he was their Messiah. That was his desire, but it wasn't his decree. See? He prayed in the garden. Let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. If there's any other way to accomplish redemption, let it happen. But if not, I submit myself to do your will.

That's the high point of prayer. When you go to God and you begin to pray, Lord, I want this. This is my desire, Lord. My desire is for this. But nevertheless, Lord, I want your will to be done. I want you to be glorified. I want you to be honored. So whatever it takes for you to be honored, let that happen. You know my heart's desire. Right? And so when we talk about God's desire, we realize that this is the will of God, even in sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality. God's desire is that you remain sexually pure, right?

But within his decree, there are many people that are not sexually pure. But his desire is that you remain pure and holy before him. His desire, according to Ephesians 5.18, is that you be spirit-filled, that you walk in the Spirit, that this is the will of God, that you are controlled and filled by the Spirit of God. Is every Christian controlled and dominated by God's Spirit? Yes, we're involved by God's Spirit. But do we walk under the control and power of the Spirit of God? Not always. That's God's desire, but it always doesn't happen that way.

Our desire is to do that. It doesn't always happen that way. So you need to understand the difference between God's decrees and God's desire. That's why the Bible says in 1 Peter 5 that we are to humble ourselves, right?

Humble ourselves and submit ourselves under God's mighty hand of destiny. 1 Peter 5, 5 and 6. We submit ourselves under God's predetermined destined hand. We told you that the phrase mighty hand is a phrase used in the Old Testament to refer to Israel's discipline or Israel's destiny. We are submitting ourselves to God's mighty hand of destiny. If you are unwilling to capitulate to God's sovereignty, you will wrestle with God every time you fall to your knees. You will fight with God. You'll get angry with God.

You'll get bitter at God. Why? Because God's not answering my prayer. God's not doing what I want Him to do. Listen, God's doing what God does in His timetable. And He exists outside the realm of time anyway. We exist inside the realm of time. And so when we learn to have a conviction about God's authority, His words authoritative, what His word says I will do, I will follow, and capitulate to God's sovereignty, our prayer life begins to take wings and fly. But if we don't do that, it's not going to happen.

Daniel prayed in Daniel 6 when he was told he couldn't do it. He didn't stop him from praying because he knew God was sovereign. He knew God would rule over all. How many times? El Elyon, 12 times it's used in the book of Daniel. God most high. That's the theme of the book of Daniel. The magnificence of the mighty character of the highest of all beings, the Lord God Himself. And Daniel would submit himself to the most high God. And so he would live a life that was pretty much anxious free. He didn't fret about the lion's den.

He wasn't afraid of the lion's den. He wasn't afraid of Nebuchadnezzar to go talk to him about him when to kill everybody who couldn't tell him what his dream was and then interpret the dream. He wasn't wringing his hands trying to figure out what to do next. He would capitulate himself to the sovereignty of God. After all, he did that when he went off into captivity at 15 years of age. You see, these principles Daniel exemplified at such a high mark. They provide for us an inspiration to our prayer life.

So here's Daniel reading the book of Jeremiah, realizing that the authority of God's Word is so true and that God's sovereignty has ruled over Israel all this time. He's seen the hand of God in his own life over these 80 years and is completely submissive to the sovereignty of God, the authority of God in his life. It drives him to pray. It drives him to his knees to come to the living God. Number three, a conviction of God's authority, a capitulation to God's sovereignty, and a constitution of humility.

A constitution of humility. Listen to what the Bible says in the book of Daniel, chapter 9. I gave my attention to the Lord God. I sought his face. Seek him by prayer and supplication with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. All that's symbolic of a humble spirit. Daniel didn't have rags, okay? He was a prime minister of Babylon, or in this case, the Medo-Persian Empire, right? He didn't live in rags. He didn't sleep in a bunk bed, okay? He didn't sleep in a sleeping bag. He had the best of everything.

He didn't have to do this. But it signified the humility of his life. He was completely broken over what God was doing. He humbly came before his God. Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord, and he will lift you up, right? He'll lift you up in his timing. But one of the reasons our prayer life is so bad is because we are so arrogant. We expect God to answer us. We almost demand God to answer us. But yet, we're so unworthy. Daniel recognized his unworthiness. He recognized that he needed to humble himself, to pray, to fast, to dress in humility.

Because all of that was a sign of a broken spirit. A broken and contrite heart, God will not despise. But an arrogant and pride heart, it will. Remember that publican who prayed in Luke 18? Who beat upon his breast and said, I'm not worthy. I'm not worthy because I'm a sinner to even lift my eyes to look at the Lord.

But the tax collector, he just said, I'm glad I'm not like that guy. I'm better than him. I fast twice a week. I do the ritual thing. I do everything I'm supposed to do. But he was saying prayers. But the publican really prayed to God. There's a big difference between saying a prayer and praying. Unfortunately, for the most part, we say prayers, but we don't pray. Why? Because we just don't have the attitude of humility. That's just not part of our constitution. We are selfish, arrogant, prideful people who demand God to answer us and to fulfill all of our needs.

And when he doesn't, we get angry. Oh, by the way, that's how you know you're arrogant. When you ask God and you pray to God, he doesn't fulfill your desires and you get angry. You get bitter. You get frustrated. That's an arrogant spirit that demands God answer my way. God answers his way in his timing. So there's a conviction of God's authority, a capitulation to God's sovereignty, a constitution of humility, and a confession of iniquity. A confession of iniquity. Listen to what Daniel says. He says, I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed.

Yes, he would pray for the sins of the nation, but he recognized that he himself was a sinner and he confessed his iniquity. You see, when you read the Scriptures like Daniel did, you can't help but confess your sin because you see God in the Scriptures. You see, when you read the Bible, if you don't see God, you didn't read it right. You read it with the wrong motive. You read it with the wrong attitude. You read it the wrong way. When you read the Bible, if you don't see God, you didn't read it right because everything is about God in the Scriptures, right?

And when you see God, what do you see? Sin. Your sin. His holiness accentuates your sinfulness. So Paul would say in 1 Timothy 1, verse number 15, I am the chief of sinners. Wait a minute, Paul. You wrote 13 epistles in the New Testament. How can you be the chief of sinners? Because he was one who every time God used him to write Scripture, he saw his God, and when he saw his God, he saw how far short he fell from God. That's why the reading of Scripture is so important. Because it humbles you. You see the standard.

You're not meeting the standard. You're not there. You're unworthy to receive what God has to give you. And so here's Daniel, and it draws him to confess his sins. He knows he needs to seek after God and search God's heart. He needs to know that he needs to plead with God, but he can't do it with a sinful heart. He knows that. And here's a righteous man, a holy man, a man who couldn't find out anything bad about him on the inside or the outside, but he knew he was a sinner. And he confessed his iniquity.

Number four. Five. There's always in your prayer a commendation of God's majesty and glory. Look what he says. Daniel chapter 9. O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant and lovingkindness. Verse 7. Righteousness belongs to you, O Lord. Verse 9. To the Lord our God belongs compassion and forgiveness. Verse 15. O Lord our God, who hath brought your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand. There's that phrase, mighty hand. Okay? He recognizes God's redeeming, delivering power.

O Lord, verse 16. In accordance with all your righteous acts. He is affirming the majesty of God by saying, Lord, you putting us into captivity was a righteous act. You putting us here for 70 years was out of your compassion, out of your lovingkindness, out of the fact that you are an awesome God. He wasn't saying, it's about time you get us out of here, Lord. It's about time you're answering prayer, Lord. No. He's recognizing God in the whole process. His righteousness, his forgiveness, his lovingkindness, his compassion, his awesomeness.

He is the majestic king of the universe. And when you pray, you pray in line with the majesty of God. You are affirming all that he is. You are glorifying and magnifying all that he is. Our prayers need to be filled with God's attributes. Lord, I know that you're righteous. Lord, I know that you're a forgiving God. I'm asking for forgiveness. Lord, I know that you're an all-powerful God. Lord, I'm asking you to do this based on your omniscience to the situation. Things that I don't know you do know, Lord.

Lord, I'm asking that you be lifted up and glorified because it's your name that's being put on display. I want your name to be seen, not my name. And if your name is better seen in my infirmity, then Lord, may I keep that infirmity. That's what Paul prayed in 2 Corinthians 12, right? He wanted God's will to be done. Because there was always something that he commended about God's majesty and glory. Did I say there was five? How many did I give you, six? One, two, three, four, five. I gave you five.

Oh, number six. There's always a prayer life that has, at its culmination, fervency and frequency. He says, I seek your face. It's a phrase that signifies a tenacious spirit. Listen, if you understand the majesty of God, if you understand the authority of God, if you understand the sovereignty of God, if you understand how with humility you are to come to that God and confess your iniquity, guess what? You are running to pray. There's a frequency and there is a fervency behind your prayer life. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

It doesn't say the effectual prayer of a righteous man. It says the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man. Why? Because righteous men pray with fervency. They pray with frequency. We are to pray without ceasing. 1 Thessalonians 5, 17, right? That's the way our life is to be marked. We are to pray without ceasing. There's a frequency about our prayer and there's a fervency in our prayer that drives us, and that's all based on God's authority and what He has said in His Word. This is where Daniel was.

He reads the book of Jeremiah, and all of a sudden he bursts into this great prayer, this prayer that just rings throughout all the Old Testament of all the attributes and authority of God in his life, the sovereignty of God, and how he humbly comes before God and confesses his sin. It's an inspiration on how you and I need to pray. It inspires us to say, Lord, teach me to pray as Daniel prayed. Teach me to have a heart for the people of my church like Daniel had a heart for the people of his nation.

Teach me, Lord, to come with fervency more frequently to the throne of grace. Let's pray. Father, we thank You, Lord, for tonight and the opportunity You give us to spend just a brief moment in the Word to look at what it means to pray as Daniel prayed.

We ask, Lord, that You go before us and give us wisdom. We pray that You'd revolutionize the way we commune with You, and that, Lord, we would be willing to submit ourselves to Your sovereignty. Recognize, Lord, that You are all authoritative. Your Word speaks truth, and I am to submit to it. And that, Lord, with humility and great confession of all my sin, I bow before You and fervently petition You as my God. And, Father, we pray, as James says about Elijah, the effectual fervent prayer of that man brought about great results, may it be that way with us as a church.

We pray in Your name, amen.