“O Lord, pay attention and act. Delay not, for Your own sake, O my God.”
Daniel 9:19 ESV
For today’s message, we took a closer look into the context of the above
Scripture Pastor Batterson chose to head this chapter. In Daniel 9, Daniel is interceding for his
people, after learning they would remain in Babylonian captivity for 70 years. He demonstrates how to pray with both power
and confidence. The focus is on almighty God and His character, and includes
confession, repentance, unselfishness and dependence on the Word of God. Such a prayer has great power! In Daniel’s
case, God sent the angel Gabriel with His answer before the prophet had
finished his prayer! (verse 20)
The Lord does not always answer our prayers “as soon as possible”,
according to our timetables. Batterson writes that there is the tendency to
mishandle the blessings that come too easily or too quickly; so the focus needs
to be “Do Lord, whatever will bring You the glory.” Switching from ASAP prayers
to ALAT (as long as it takes) means getting in our prayer circles and staying
there until God answers. By no means does this suggest we can force God’s hand;
for we cannot. It is praying with confidence, knowing that God delivers on His
promises. When we know we are praying the promises of God IN CONTEXT, we can
pray with holy confidence because we know God’s Word doesn’t return to Him void.
And how many of us can testify that He is always right on time?
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