An Old Man’s Prayer

An Old Man’s Prayer

Bible: Daniel 9: 3-19

Reading

I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition,
in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes (V.3).

Have you heard the story about the eighty-five year old man who was arrested for praying?

That’s the story of Daniel in the Bible, an elderly Jewish man in Babylon sentenced to death for talking to God (DANIEL 6).

Although the prayer that sent Daniel to the lions’ den is his most famous talk with God (6:11), it wasn’t the only time we see him in prayer.

In Daniel 9, we read an example of how he prayed. Daniel had been reading in the book of Jeremiah that the captivity of his people would last seventy years. The people were sixty-seven years through it (JEREMIAH 25:8-11)! He was keen for it to end.

God had told His people to live for Him, but they weren’t doing that. Daniel decided to please God despite their choice. He began to pray that God would not delay the end of the captivity.

As he prayed, Daniel focused on praising God and owning up to the people’s sin. His pattern of prayer teaches us something really important about talking to God. We are to recognise that God is “great and awesome” (DANIEL 9:4) and that “we have done wrong” (V.15).

In prayer, we praise Him and own up to stuff—and trust everything to God. Let’s follow Daniel’s example. To him, prayer was as important as life itself.

PRAYING IS AS IMPORTANT AS BREATHING

Youth Edition – Our Daily Bread Ministries