In our day the professing Church of the living God is really the “church of self.” The church is not thought of as the dwelling place of God in Christ, but as the place where people go to feel better and get help for various things. The “church” is thought to be the building and the place where therapy in various forms is available. It is the place where one goes to be internally massaged and to get various bits of information on how to feel better and live a better life. One way to feel better about life is to think of God as very focused on helping people and their self-perceived needs. Another way is to make people feel that God is on their side and eternity will be wonderful because God loves them. While this is one way to get the buildings full of people, it is a completely different picture of God than that of the Bible. In our day we think that God should send a revival because of our problems. In the Bible God was called upon to come down because of His own name’s sake. After all, that is how Jesus taught us to pray when He told us to pray for God’s name to be hallowed as our primary desire in prayer.
Daniel 9 shows us the heart that is needed to seek God for true revival. We can utter the proper words and think we have prayed, but our hearts must be turned back to God so that the proper or correct words will be the expressions and desires of the heart. In the modern day as we are wrapped in the blankets of self-esteem and fed from the bottle of self-love we think of God as focused on us and as salvation being God’s efforts to save men from hell as being His primary intent. As long as we continue with that type of thinking and focus, we will continue in our idolatry of self and our eyes will be on men rather than God. We will continue to think of men as the focus of God rather than the great need of man to be focused on God. If God is focused on men, then to be like God we must have the same focus. However, the Great Commandment rings out with the beautiful words that human beings are to love God with all of their hearts, minds, souls, and strengths. This is beautiful because God loves Himself that way and His love for Himself as triune is seen in Christ who loved the Father with all of His being. God does not command us to do His commands in our own strength but He commands us to do what we cannot do on our own so that we will see that we must have the life of Christ in us in order to keep His commands. The command to love God is beautiful because God Himself shares His love with believers so that they may keep that command. This should encourage us to seek the Lord for hearts to love Him in such a way that we will pray for revival in a way that He is the focus rather than ourselves.
15 “And now, O Lord our God, who have brought Your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand and have made a name for Yourself, as it is this day– we have sinned, we have been wicked. 16 “O Lord, in accordance with all Your righteous acts, let now Your anger and Your wrath turn away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain; for because of our sins and the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people have become a reproach to all those around us. 17 “So now, our God, listen to the prayer of Your servant and to his supplications, and for Your sake, O Lord, let Your face shine on Your desolate sanctuary. 18 “O my God, incline Your ear and hear! Open Your eyes and see our desolations and the city which is called by Your name; for we are not presenting our supplications before You on account of any merits of our own, but on account of Your great compassion. 19 “O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and take action! For Your own sake, O my God, do not delay, because Your city and Your people are called by Your name.” 20 Now while I was speaking and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the LORD my God in behalf of the holy mountain of my God. (Daniel 9)
We see a method of prayer in this passage and yet we see the need for God to give us hearts to really pray in this way. After all, love for God is the true language of prayer. We see a principle at work in I Kings 18:36-27: “At the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, Elijah the prophet came near and said, “O LORD, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, today let it be known that You are God in Israel and that I am Your servant and I have done all these things at Your word. 37 “Answer me, O LORD, answer me, that this people may know that You, O LORD, are God, and that You have turned their heart back again.” In this passage we see that Elijah wanted his prayer answered so that it would be known that God is really God. But even more, he wanted his prayer to be answered so that people would know that God had turned their heart back again. God does not move until He begins to turn the hearts of His people back to Himself. Judgment is when He hardens the heart, so when God is going to give Himself to a people He turns their hearts back to Himself.
The truth of that text is simply stunning in its God-centeredness and our own self-centeredness is revealed. Elijah desired for his prayer to be answered so that people would know that God was the true God and that this would show that God had turned their hearts back to Himself. Elijah was not just a showboat in this contest with the priests of Baal, he was there praying and seeking the glory of God and the honoring of His name. Where is a man like Elijah today that really and truly desires the glory of God more than anything else? Where are the people today that hunger and thirst for God to show Himself as God so that others would know God and His workings? We want God to bless us so we can go on with our lives of ease and think of God’s blessings as focused on those things. We are focused on ourselves and pray without changing our focus. We pray for the church because we are involved with it and because we want to be on the winning side. But where are the hearts for God to be truly glorified in the Church? Sure we use the words about the glory of God, but is that really our chief love and desire in our prayer?
Daniel had a heart like Elijah. He started off his prayer (Daniel 9:15) and noted the true and deepest reason that God had brought the Israelites out of Egypt. The deepest reason that God had brought the Israelites out of Egypt was to make a name for Himself. This is seen in what God said at the time as well. It is what moves and even provokes true prayer. As God’s deepest reason for bringing the people out of Egypt, this should tell us of our deepest reason to praise Him and to pray to Him.
Exodus 7:5 – “The Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I stretch out My hand on Egypt and bring out the sons of Israel from their midst.”
Exodus 9:16 – “But, indeed, for this reason I have allowed you to remain, in order to show you My power and in order to proclaim My name through all the earth.”
Exodus 10:2 – “and that you may tell in the hearing of your son, and of your grandson, how I made a mockery of the Egyptians and how I performed My signs among them, that you may know that I am the LORD.”
Exodus 11:9 – “Then the LORD said to Moses, “Pharaoh will not listen to you, so that My wonders will be multiplied in the land of Egypt.”
The short version of these statements is that God brought His people out of the land of Egypt to manifest His name and glory to the Israelites, the Egyptians, and the world. He made a covenant with the people to be their God and they were to be His people. God brought a people out of Egypt to be a people that His name and glory would be displayed through, but instead they rebelled and did not live for His glory but for their own ease and comfort. Scripture gives us the idea of sin in differing ways, though they all agree that sin is against God. Romans 3:23 says that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” 1 John 3:4 tells us that “Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness.” The law is only kept in love and love must come from God and manifest His glory. Another way to put these two concepts together would be to say that we are to love God and so manifest His glory. When we sin, however, we do not love God and so His glory does not shine in and through us.
God saves sinners to the praise of the glory of His grace (Ephesians 1:6) and “so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:7). As God brought the Israelites out of slavery and Egypt to the glory of His name, so God saves sinners from the slavery of sin to the glory of His name. As sin was defined by breaking His law and not exalting His name, so sin is defined by not doing all to the glory of His name (I Corinthians 10:31). When the Lord visited His people with judgment and sent them into captivity, their hearts needed to be turned to Him and they needed to begin to love and pray for His name’s sake as Daniel did. So now we must begin to see that we look to ourselves in terms of wisdom and strength to do what is best for us. Our hearts must be turned from all of that to looking to what glorifies the name of God.
We must begin to see God’s reasons for acting and then look at our own hearts. Do we really love God enough to desire His glory most of all in the salvation of our children, spouses, families, workplaces, friends, and in the world? Are we so man-centered in our prayers that God’s glory is but an afterthought if even that? Revival will not happen in our nation or churches until God changes our hearts and we are seeking Him as our chief love. Daniel shows us the pattern, but God alone can turn our hearts and give us true love to seek Him in prayer.
God Loves... Himself 
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