Daniel 9: 3-4,  “I turned to to the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.  And I prayed to the Lord my God, and made confession, and said, “O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep His commandments,”

If there is one thing most everyone knows about Daniel it is that he was a man of prayer, even if it cost him his life!  How seriously do you take prayer in your everyday life?  Daniel was devoted to prayer!  He is such a great example to us on so many levels, but today let’s just think about prayer for a moment.  I would like to encourage you to take the time to read the full chapter of Daniel 9 because in this prayer he is praying for his nation and no matter where in the world you may live I am certain that your nation needs prayer!  What else in your life needs some serious prayer ~ your finances, your children, your pastor and church, your marriage, all of those you know who need to accept Jesus as their Savior?  

Daniel was praying about the fact that they were still captives and the prophesied time of release was close and he was praying for God to forgive them, the whole nation, not just himself, but the Jewish nation!  Daniel was a man of faith and that was even a part of his prayer, “great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy…”. We need to be praying for those we love that God will show them mercy and draw them into a life that honors Him.  Intercessory prayer is so important and too often is neglected.  Pray for those you love and pray for those that maybe you find very difficult to even like let alone love.  How much better would your world be if those people who drive you crazy were to get their hearts right with God because they were forever in your prayers?!

Life can be downright overwhelming at times but we have been given this tremendous opportunity to talk to God ~ God!  Take the time to read Job chapter 38 and remind yourself of just who it is you get the opportunity to go to for every little thing! (I will put it at the end of this study so you don’t even have to look it up).  Several years ago after watching the movie, “War Room” I decided that having a designated place to spend time in prayer was a great idea!  My closet at the time was quite small so that wouldn’t do so I used a spare bedroom.  The house I live in right now has a HUGE closet in my bedroom s that is it.  I would encourage you t find a quiet place and time each day even if you don’t have space that you can rearrange, it is just doing it that makes the difference.  If you do have space then by all means set it up.  Something  I have set my mind to do this weekend is to take every prayer request and person on my list and find scripture to pray over them and I am going to print it out and put it on the wall in my prayer closet so it’s right there in front of me!  When you are using the word f God in your prayers then you can pray with the confidence of “His Word says….” We can’t twist the scriptures, but we can pray that He will show us His promises for our situation and that He will guide us into all He has planned.  Take the time to ask Him what His dreams are for your life!  Psalm 37:4 says, “Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of our heart.”  I believe that there is a twofold message in that verse:  1) If you ‘delight yourself in the Lord then the desires of your heart will line up with His!  2) In my Jewish study Bible verses 3 and 4 say, “Trust in ADONAI, and do good; settle in the and, and feed on faithfulness.  Then you will delight yourself in ADONAI, and He will give you the desires of your heart.”  When you are walking with Him and obeying Him then you can know that He hears your prayers and He will always do what is best!  

I wish I could say that there was a way to get those prayers answered quickly but that just hasn’t been my experience most of the time but just persevere and trust Him and His heart and timing.  He loves you!  Now, here’s how Daniel ended his prayer and I believe that if we are praying prayers that line up with His Word, promises and a heart that loves Him and wants to serve Him then it is a great way to end our prayers :  

Daniel l9: 18-19,  “…For we plead with you not because of our own righteousness, but because of your compassion. ADONAI, hear!  ADONAI, forgive!  ADONAI, pay attention, and don’t delay action ~ for your own sake, my God, because your city and your people bear your name!”  Pray for Him to show up mighty in your life so it will bring Him glory!  Pray for His desires to become yours and for His will to be done in every situation because you can trust Him!  Don’t take prayer lightly it has the power to change everything because of who He is!!!  When we pray and we give it all to Him and we learn to trust Him with it all then we’ll know that truly His best is yet to come!

Quote:  “Prayer is a path where there is none.”  ~ Noah benShea

I would say that it is ironic that this Bible Study this morning on prayer and now I REALLY NEED YOUR PRAYERS because it isn’t ironic it is all out war! My laptop, which is only 2 years old has gotten to the point that it gives me such issues trying to type that it literally took me 3 hours to type what shouldn’t have taken more than a half hour, so if you find letters missing or random letters thrown in that is why ~ THEN ~ I couldn’t login to my website so I couldn’t post the Bible Study on here until now. I NEED YOU TO PRAY PLEASE!!!! L