A Prayer of Confession

Reflection from the book of Daniel 9:4-15

Source
Great prayer must begin with a sense of the greatness of God. We note here that prayer is not a trite exercise, but that in prayer we are addressing the King of the universe and therefore we must choose our words carefully.

Daniel appealed to the character and attributes of God. He is great and awesome; he keeps covenants and steadfast love with his covenant people.

Daniel made confessions for their sins and identified with the sins of his people. In this day when confession of sin is no longer taken seriously, we need to learn from Daniel that before a holy God, we are unworthy. We can only approach his presence through the atoning death of Christ our Lord.

Daniels confession began by, we have sinned, we have done wickedly note how he ended. He accepted total responsibility for their actions and admitted that they deserved the visitation of Gods wrath which they have experienced.

Today, we hardly admit responsibility for our actions; rather we play the blame game. Hardly, does anyone look himself in the mirror and say, I am responsible for this and should be punished.

May we learn from this great man of prayer that true prayer includes the admittance and confession of sins.

Word for Today:
"We have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and rules"v5

Prayer:
Dear Lord, help me to accept responsibility for my sins and be quick to confess and repent from them, amen.