Daniel 9:18 Give ear, our God, and hear; open your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears your Name. We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy.

    I think most of us can remember a situation where we, or someone we knew, found ourselves in a position of favor that was based upon behavior or some type of merit. We understand that sort of thing. A person who is always behaving a certain way is rewarded for it. We have seen that sort of system in school, for example. It makes perfect sense.

    Daniel was a Jew living in exile. His homeland was Judah, but Jerusalem had been conquered and his people carried away to Babylon. Though he seemed to get along where he was, he longed for a return to home; if not for himself, at least for his people. He had been reading the book of Jeremiah when he (re)discovered that the exile was to last 70 years. This inspired him to pray. 

    Now Daniel was a praying man. He prayed every day. His praying had landed him in a lion’s den and his praying had kept the lions’ mouths shut! He knew about praying! Others would have said that he was ‘good at it.’ Daniel would have been one that other people came to when they’d gotten bad news. “Hey Daniel, could you pray for my…”

    In Daniel’s prayer of chapter 9, he is praying about the end of the exile. He is, in a sense, reminding God of what God has promised. And he is making requests of God based upon what God has promised. The people will be going back, but Jerusalem is a wreck! Daniel is praying about that. Isn’t it interesting how Daniel speaks to God in this verse? 

    We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy.

    That’s not how we’re used to operating. We often think it is precisely because of our righteousness, our goodness, that we can make requests to God. We think the ones who pray are the ones who are good all the time. The ones who never break God’s rules. Those kind of people must earn God’s special favor. But if anyone deserved God’s notice it was Daniel! Yet he knew it was not about him, but about God! It was God’s mercy that Daniel appealed to. 

    A lot of people think that before they could ever come to God they’d need to ‘get their act together’. ‘Get cleaned up.’ But that’s not the case. You can’t earn favor with God like you might have earned Student of the Month. But you don’t have to. God wants to hear from us. He loves us. His mercy is great and He desires a relationship with those He’s created. If you ever doubt that God loves you, just look at the cross! He sent His son to die for you, long before you ever cared about Him. Today would be a good day to pray. Just talk to God. Not because you’ve been good. Because He is so good!

 

Blessings,   

Pastor Russ