"O Lord Hear"

Daniel 9:19 - "O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and act! Do not delay for your own sake, my God, for Your city and your people are called by Your Name."

Daniel...what a heart! This guy probably was doing something that many in Israel should have been doing but weren't - praying, confessing, pleading. Look at verse 13 "we have not prayed". Daniel was putting an end to that. He was going to God and pleading for the life of his people. He wasn't just going to God by himself for himself. he was going to God for his people, his nation. Even though no one else was doing this, he was going to do it. He asked God to hear him. To pay attention. To forgive. I can hear him say: "Please Lord, give attention, please listen to me, please pardon us for the sin we have committed and then do something. Please act on our behalf but not just for our sake but for the sake of your reputation."

I was at lunch the other day watching the world go by and it hit me that we are all clueless. We are all living our lives as if God is not paying attention. As if God is not involved at all. The thing is, God is very involved. God is orchestrating the very events that are going to impact our nation. The problem is, few are pleading. Few are asking God to hear and listen and forgive. The scary thing is that while we can't expect the world to pray or respond with the realization that God is in charge, we in the church should be responding that way. We in the church should be praying and pleading...but we really aren't. That is what is scary. That people of faith are not praynig, not confessing, not pleading with God for the life of our nation. At any time in history we should be doing this. With the finanacial concerns we are facing, with a Presidential election coming up, with the huge decisions that need to be made in the immediate future.

I must confess. I am not praying as I should. That needs to change. "O Lord hear, O Lord forgive, please Lord listen and act...so that the world can see that you are God. So that the church can see that you are God."