We are looking at what it will take for the professing Church to awaken to what it is and primarily to God Himself. Part of the spiritual judgment that is upon us now is that we lack true spiritual understanding and God has turned His face from us. The presence of God and the power of His Spirit have been replaced by activities and programs. But the only way to return is to seek the Lord in prayer for Him to turn His face back to us.
Daniel 9:3 – So I gave my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth and ashes. 4 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, 5 we have sinned, committed iniquity, acted wickedly and rebelled, even turning aside from Your commandments and ordinances. 6 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.”
In previous newsletters we have looked at how we are to give our attention to the Lord God to seek Him. Prayer is not just tossing words into the air toward the heavens, but it is to seek God Himself. Prayer is to be a communing with God in worship, adoration, confession of sin, and praise. Indeed we are to have supplications or requests, but our requests would be a lot different if they were part of communing with God and seeking His face. When God turns His face from a people, they are left to themselves and so they seek themselves. A religious people that seek themselves will use God’s name and do many outwardly good things in their seeking of themselves and their own name and honor. But true prayer is centered upon God, His glory, His kingdom, and His will.
In Daniel 9 we see that Daniel gave his attention to the Lord God in order to seek Him. He sought God by prayer. While this has been noted before, we cannot be reminded of this too many times. True prayer only occurs when it is seeking God Himself. It is not when people use the name of God or ask God for things, but true prayer is only when God Himself is sought. Prayer is how we are to seek God. A person or a church that does not pray is not a church or a person that is seeking God as He has set out in the Bible. It is true that people will say words and say a lot of words for the health of other people and perhaps ask God to save other people, but that is not a sign of true prayer either. True prayer is when people seek God Himself in their prayers. Making this point has been highly repetitious, but it must be drilled in our heads and hearts because true prayer is rarely seen. We have learned to say words in our so-called prayer meetings and yet not seek God. We can go into our meetings with cold hearts and no real love for God and say certain religiously acceptable words and leave feeling good that we have prayed. We have not prayed when we have done that but rather God is even angrier for our idolatrous prayers. Instead of seeking Him for Himself we seek Him for what He can do for us or in order to make ourselves feel religious.
Daniel also sought God by fasting. The last newsletter ended on this subject. Fasting is a way of humbling self to seek God rather than a way to earn anything from Him. God operates on the basis of grace alone and our works cannot possibly earn anything from Him. Fasting is part of what people do when they desire God more than anything else. They begin to humble themselves in order to seek Him. They desire the presence of God more than their food rather than thinking this will earn anything from Him. The sackcloth and ashes are external signs of seeking God and of mourning. The sackcloth provides a level of discomfort to the flesh as a person walked forcing them to think of their physical discomfort as a reminder of the spiritual trial they are in. The ashes were a sign of mourning. But we must be very careful at this point. The humanistic way of looking at this will do nothing but lead us to works and external things. Daniel did these things as means to seek the Lord.
How can sackcloth and ashes help us seek the Lord now? Physical discomfort is not meritorious before God, but the discomfort is to remind us to seek the Lord from the heart. Our minds and hearts are so prone to wander and so sackcloth was used to bring physical discomfort to help people to focus on seeking the Lord. The constant chafing was to be a constant reminder to pray. But why pour ashes on yourself? It was also a physical reminder that the soul that is seeking God is a soul that needs to mourn. The ashes did no good in and of themselves but they were to point to the person mourning for sin and also to bring others to mourn as well. Outward physical things can help remind others as well. We don’t need to use those things in the same exact ways now, but something that can remind us would be of help. Perhaps a rubber band or an object that constricts the skin would remind us to focus on what we must be focused on. Perhaps a smudge of dirt on our hand would tell us that we must mourn. If any person or church is truly serious about seeking the Lord, something will be done to keep our minds focused.
The text then guides us (v. 4) to the words of the prayer. Notice again that Daniel prayed to the “LORD my God.” The object of prayer is not ourselves and not anything or anyone else. We are to pray to God. But Daniel prayed to YAHWEH which is the name of the covenant God of Israel. It was the name of the God that was given to Moses when he was sent to tell Pharaoh to let God’s people go. It refers to the self-existent God who has no need at all. Everything about YAHWEH comes from Him and all of His motives and desires are from Himself and for Himself. But it is not just to the covenant name of God that he prays, but he prays to “my God.” We can pray to YAHWEH as the God of Israel without having bowed in submission to Him as my God. True prayer is not just words with the name of the true God, they are words to a personal God as well. YAHWEH was the God of Israel in the sense that He made covenant promises to them and took them for His because of His own name’s sake. But the few that truly loved God bowed in utter submission to Him and He was now “my God.”
It should bow our hearts to consider this one phrase. This refers to a God that is willing to be called upon in a personal way and calls upon people to submit to Him. It is so easy to use the name of God in prayer, but to refer to Him as “my God” refers to our submission, our acknowledgment of His utter Lordship over us, and the fact that we are His to do with as He pleases. It also refers to a personal God. “My God” refers to one that is truly God over me. True prayer begins in the heart and it does not just look to an impersonal God out there who is bigger and stronger than we are, but it starts with a bowing of the heart to “my God.” It is much the same as Jesus taught us to pray to “our Father who is in heaven.” We can just use those words, but if those are the words from a heart that knows the God behind the words they are used in reference to the God who has sent Christ and has reconciled His children to Himself by the blood of the cross. They are no longer just words, but are expressions of hearts that know this God. We can see something of the heart in this when doubting Thomas saw the wounds of the risen Lord and then said “My Lord and my God” (John 20:28). It was a pronouncement of his belief and his submission to the risen Lord of all. In much the same way we must learn to pray with a submissive heart to “my God.”
Daniel started his prayer with confession, but before he got to the actual confession he worshipped. It is true that these are more words that some might think God would be impressed by, but Daniel was praying to His God. He states what is in his heart and that was that his God was the absolute ruler (Lord) who is the great and awesome God. In light of the sin he was about to confess, he needed to pray in worship and recognition of who God really is. This great and awesome God keeps His covenant and lovingkindness for those who love Him and keep His commandments. But the Israelites had not loved God and kept His commandments. Rather than that, they had been wicked and had rebelled against Him by turning aside from His commandments.
Here is a lesson for individuals and churches across the land. We must learn that part of a true seeking of God is confession sin. It is true that all believers are in the New Covenant, but the New Covenant involves keeping the Law of God because of the life of God in the soul of the believer being worked out in love. When a believer violates the commands of God, that shows that the believer is not walking in the Spirit and that God is not working and His life in the believer in the same way. It is utterly vital in prayer to confess sin to God. Daniel confessed the corporate sin of the nation. We must learn to confess the corporate sin of the local church and of the Church in larger terms. Let us not think that God is as individualistic as we are. We sin because we are sinners, but also because we are parts of groups of sinners. Local churches sin when they allow wicked people to join and when they do not practice church discipline on those who are in sin. The church brings guilt upon itself by sinning against God when these things happen. Each person cannot just begin to confess his or her sin and call it good, but the whole church must confess the corporate sins.
We must learn that if we are going to truly seek a holy God that is always faithful to His own glory, we must confess our sins. It will not do just to state them and go on our way, but we must seek the Lord for hearts that mourn for both our personal sins and our corporate sins. Instead of looking for bigger buildings and programs, we need to be on our knees crying out to God for our sins. The professing Church is under judgment because of its sins and it must learn to mourn and confess those sins before God will turn His face back to us. We are deceiving ourselves if we think it will happen in any other way. May God give us all broken and mourning hearts.
God Loves... Himself 
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