Daniel's Prayer

At a later time, I will write a more complete post on the fascinating book of Daniel. But in this post, I'd like to focus on Daniel's prayer of remorse. Recognizing that Babylonian exile is Israel's punishment for abandoning God, Daniel, praying on behalf of Israel, confesses to God and asks for forgiveness.

The following parts of the prayer come from Daniel 9 (ESV),

O Lord ... we have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and rules. ... all this calamity has come upon us; yet we have not entreated the favor of the Lord our God, turning from our iniquities and gaining insight by your truth. O Lord, according to all your righteous acts, let your anger and your wrath turn away ... For we do not present our pleas before you because of our righteousness, but because of your great mercy.

Note the wording in the middle few sentences copied above. Although sin certainly angers God, what really angers God is coldness of heart that leads us not even to acknowledge our sins. This same theme appears throughout the Bible, including in the book of Revelation.

So what's the lesson? We all sin, but we shouldn't compound our problems by ignoring our sins, or by trying to justify our sins according to earthly terms. That sort of attitude leads to coldness of heart. Rather, we should maintain an open heart through contrite, and never-ceasing, prayer.