Settle This First

Daniel 9:3 (KJV)
And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes:

There are reasons to set our face to the Lord in prayer.

Daniel began his prayer where I think we have lost it in prayer so often today. We don’t see ourselves as unworthy. Rather, our culture has taught us to see ourselves as deserving:
We deserve a new car
We deserve the best things
We deserve a nice vacation
We deserve to be happy
We deserve a living wage
We deserve a good cup of coffee and, in most people’s opinion,
We deserve for God to answer our prayers the way we want

Truth is, we don’t deserve anything.

The very best of us (remember, Daniel is one of the very best of us we have record of) have sins to confess. As Daniel expresses it,
Daniel 9:5-6 (KJV)
We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments:
Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, which spake in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.

I know we have reasons to set our face to the Lord in prayer. But I call believers everywhere first to stay in the presence of God until we have settled this in our hearts,
Daniel 9:7 (KJV)
O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, that are near, and that are far off, through all the countries whither thou hast driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against thee.

We are a mess these days because, while most Christians would say these words with their mouth, we don’t believe it in our hearts.

To my readers:
First of all, thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word.
Secondly, I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

For this and more than 4500 earlier Daily Visits with God visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2006.

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Daniel 9:3 (KJV) Settle This First

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