I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed…

Daniel 9:4

O Lord, You are a great and awesome God! You always fulfill your covenant and keep your promises of unfailing love to those who love You and obey Your commands.

I plead for _______. Because of Your great mercy, forgive him/her. Have mercy on him/her. He/Her doesn’t deserve it because he/she turned his/her back of you, but out of Your unfailing love, look down and give _______ what he/she doesn’t deserve. Give him/her mercy and reveal Yourself to him/her. Pour out Your love. Open his/her eyes to recognize You. I bear some of the responsibility. I _____ (name your own sin). Don’t hold this against him/her. He/she is weak and lacks understanding in part because of me. I wasn’t always faithful. I repent and ask for Your mercy. You are a good, good Father.

Lord, You are in the right; but as You see, our faces are covered with shame. You speak tenderly to us and tell us that our sad days are gone and our sins are forgiven. But we can’t hear You saying it. O Lord, we are covered with shame because we have sinned against You. But You are the Lord, our God, and You are merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against You. We have not obeyed You. We have not listened to Your voice. And now we have gotten what we asked for… a life apart from You. We have refused to seek mercy from You, the Lord our God, by turning from our sins and recognizing truth. (identifying with the sins of our children/grandchildren)

O Lord our God, You brought lasting honor to Your name by rescuing Your people. You rescued the Israelites in a great display of power when You brought them out of Egypt. And again when You brought them into the promised land. They defeated their enemies and took the land You promised them. And even though they rebelled again and again, You never forgot them or gave up on them. You loved them through and through. You sent Your only Son, Jesus, to the earth to rescue them from the Kingdom of darkness and bring them into the Kingdom of Light. You grafted us into Your family and made it possible for us to enter Your kingdom.

O our God, listen to Your servant’s prayer! Listen as I plead. For Your own sake , Lord, smile again on _________. O my God, lean down and listen to me. Open Your eyes and see our despair. See my family—a family that bears Your name—that lies in ruin. We are helpless without You. We make this plea, not because we deserve Your help, but because 0f Your mercy. O Lord, hear. O lord, forgive. O Lord, listen and act! For Your own sake, do not delay, O my God, for our family bears Your name.

(From Daniel 9 & Isaiah 40)

Daniel was faithful to God. He was a righteous man. He prayed three times a day as was his custom and when it got him in trouble, he continued to pray. He was thrown into the lion’s den, but God rescued him. So when we see him identifying with the sins of the people, it’s natural to wonder why he did it. He was nothing like them. He didn’t rebel against God or become complacent or just leave God out of his life. Yet he took their sins on himself so to speak so he could truly intercede for them. Intercession is costly. Daniel wore sackcloth, sprinkled ashes on his head, fasted, felt the grief of sin, was overwhelmed by the burden, and humbled before God. And he prayed. He did what the people couldn’t do. He fulfilled the condition and promise of 2 Chronicles 7:14:

If my people who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

We are in a position to do the same thing. I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed…