![]() God listened closely to Daniel because He loved him. ![]() But that’s not why God paid any attention to Him. I am then able to find freedom from all my piddly needs and requests, which leaves time and space to be with Him on a more worshipful plane.ĭaniel dusted his sackcloth-clad body in ashes because his soul was in pain and his outward actions reflected that. But suddenly that big problem I was about to ask God to deal with seems less looming, less powerful, less likely to be the end-of-the-world disaster it appeared to be only moments ago. At that point… what was I praying about again? Who cares with such a God as this close by. Suddenly I have gone from just wanting to get some things off my mind, to an elevated belief in His generous intimacy and careful regard for my life. This pre-loaded faith in God’s sharp hearing puts me in a much better state as I bring my requests and concerns to Him. God wants us to see Him as the God who understands us so well that He only needs to be asked once. God is trying to help us understand that the gift of His full attention is fully ours just for talking to Him (which is pretty incredible, if you think about it). When one person truly listens to another, they are placing the immense value of their full attention on the person speaking. When I say something only once, I am demonstrating a belief that the hearer respects me enough to actually, fully listen. It takes a lot of trust to say something only one time to any being… God, kids, adults. When I talk to my children, I say the same thing to them several times, usually in some sort of elevated octave, because their behavior in general shows me that they usually are not listening to me. Though praying to an unseen God takes an assumed level of faith, not repeating myself while I pray takes even more. I now start my prayers, not with words, but with belief.Īnd I talk to Him, saying my concern or request or anything else once, assuming He hears me the first time.* ![]() I start my prayers, long or short, by first believing God hears me the moment I speak and that He already knows my prayers before I say them. So here’s what I’ve been doing differently since reading this passage in Daniel. It would be the saddest thing to live our whole lives missing out on the closeness of our loving God, especially when He has spoken so clearly of its overflowing availability to us in the Bible (Psalm 23, Psalm 139, Matthew 28:20, etc.) If God hears our prayers before we speak them, then that is some next level intimacy right there. He heard Daniel “the moment” he spoke in God’s general direction.Īny distance that is assumed to be there on God’s part when we pray is simply a figment of our unbelief. God already “knows exactly what you need, even before you ask Him.” If you are trying to get God to hear or respond to you by doing XYZ, you’ve approached prayer all wrong from the start. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again.” (Matthew 6:7) “When you pray, don’t babble on and on as the Gentiles do. Per usual, a lot of times I pray like I’m one of the people that Jesus used as an object lesson of what NOT to do: For those of you who don’t believe me, here’s this. It’s all up and down the Bible that God loves to hear us pray and He is absolutely and attentively listening. This forgetfulness of God’s willingness to listen to me is nothing less than completely foolish. After all, I’m not Daniel and I’m not about to receive an epic vision regarding the end of the world from the archangel Gabriel. And Gabriel plainly says why in verse 23: “for you are very precious to God.”Įven though I’ve been a Christian for a couple decades at this point, I am guilty of forgetting that God is so assiduous in His care for me that He hears my prayers as loud and clear as He says He does. “ The moment” Daniel began to pray, God responded. It was simply God’s loving favor and attention toward Daniel that caused God to hear him, and hear him fast. It wasn’t the repentant sackcloth, the hours spent praying or the application of spent embers that ensured God would answer Daniel’s cries. Yet though Gabriel came specifically to answer Daniel’s pleas, it wasn’t the outward work he put into this prayer time that triggered the appearance of an angelic messenger. If you read Daniel 9, this prayer posture is completely warranted, culturally anchored and beautiful. He was pleading with God for mercy, both for himself and for Israel. His soul was in pain over a prophecy he had read. Daniel wasn’t just snuggling a teddy bear in his pajamas, kneeling next to his bed and praying night-night prayers when Gabriel showed up at his house with a message fresh out of eternity.ĭaniel was wearing a pokey burlap sack and had sprinkled himself with cinders.
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