In the model of so many prayers recorded for us, we come before God lifting our eyes to His glory, reciting His character, recounting His awesome deeds.  We move on to lay out our concerns, casting our cares upon Him.  Then we conclude with plaintive, desperate, importunate expressions beseeching our God.

Now therefore, O our God, listen to the prayer of your servant and to his pleas for mercy, and for your own sake, O Lord, make your face to shine upon your sanctuary, which is desolate. O my God, incline your ear and hear. Open your eyes and see our desolations, and the city that is called by your name. For we do not present our pleas before you because of our righteousness, but because of your great mercy. O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive. O Lord, pay attention and act. Delay not, for your own sake, O my God, because your city and your people are called by your name (Daniel 9:17-19).

This passage concludes Daniel’s magnificent prayer of confession and repentance for himself and the other Babylonian captives of ancient Israel.  Notice the words and expressions Daniel uses as he wraps up his prayer: listen, make your face shine, incline your ear and hear, open your eyes and see, hear, forgive, pay attention, act.

We don’t often pray like that.  Confident of God’s hearing and responding to our pleas, we just take it for granted that God will listen and that He will act.

And that confidence is not without warrant.  As we come in the name of Christ, we do so at the invitation of God and with the assurance that if we seek, we will find; if we ask, we will receive.

But didn’t Daniel also have those assurances?  As he prayed three times a day toward Jerusalem (Dan. 6:10), wasn’t he taking God up on His promise to Solomon to be receptive and responsive to the prayers of His people?

If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place. For now I have chosen and consecrated this house that my name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will be there for all time (2 Chronicles 7:14-16).

Aren’t our assurances even greater through the mediation of Christ and the intercessions of the Holy Spirit?

Nor is it a matter of pursuing an unwilling God, like a child whining for something his father refuses to buy him. God delights to give good gifts to His children. He is eager to save. He freely offers forgiveness and comfort.

There is another dynamic going on here, one that is often missing in our own prayers.  Daniel’s pressing God as he does illustrates for us passion and urgency and utter dependence on God.  His cry to the Lord comes from an overarching concern for God’s glory and a profound awareness of his own helplessness, waywardness and inadequacy.

Perhaps this is something we should start doing in our petitions.  In the model of so many prayers recorded for us, we come before God lifting our eyes to His glory, reciting His character, recounting His awesome deeds.  We move on to lay out our concerns, casting our cares upon Him.  Then we conclude with plaintive, desperate, importunate expressions beseeching our God.

It’s hard to fully grasp why Daniel and others conclude their prayers by urging action as they do. But I think we can get a taste of the benefit and propriety by praying in that manner ourselves.

Stan Gale is a minister in the Presbyterian Church in America, and is the author of the newly released book, A Vine-Ripened Life: Spiritual Fruitfulness through Abiding in Christ. This article appeared on his blog and is used with permission.