Sunday, February 6, AM

Baptist this morning. It's a blessing to be able to worship together today. Before we get started with worship, we've got a few announcements to go over. First of all, come back tonight for our evening service at 530 this evening.

Looking ahead, we'll have regular schedule, Lord willing, on Wednesday. Our meal's at 545 in the fellowship hall, and then after that, prayer meeting for the adults and tag for the kids at 630. Looking ahead to the end of February, communion during the morning service, and then truth group for the young adults in the evening, after the evening service that night.

This week's fighter verse comes from the Psalms, Psalm chapter 103, verses five through seven. Who satisfies you with good, so that your youth is renewed like the eagles. The Lord works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed.

He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel. It's a good verse to memorize this week. We wanna thank you for everyone who extended the hospitality to the Wilcox while they were here.

We will be taking up a love offering, the plates will be at the back of the auditorium. But feel free to give freely to the Wilcox, as we continue to support them in their ministry. If you would, just write a note on the envelope and designate that accordingly.

We just thank you for your generosity and support of them. Also, regarding truth group, if you would be willing to volunteer to kind of help with a meal throughout the year with truth group, it needs to feed about 20 to 25 people, you don't have to create it from scratch.

I think pizza or fast food or something, those kids will be eat about anything, so I don't think they're gonna complain. But let someone know there's in the bulletin, there's also a link that you can use and take them a meal to sign up for that as well.

And then we continue to give for Operation Christmas Child throughout the year, this is a good time to find winter items, accessories on sale, hats, gloves, mittens, things like that. Any other announcements before we begin worship today?

Thankful for the Lord sustaining us through the recent winter weather. As we pray, just be thankful for each other, pray for each other, and then pray that the Lord would work this morning in the preaching of the word and in our worship of him.

Opening Prayer and Call to Worship

We come before you today and we have gathered to agree in this, that you are God, that you are our maker. You have sent your son as our savior. By your spirit, you bring us life. Your word is true and matters always.

We thank you for your love and what you have given to us, what you provide every day, your patience with us. Thank you for your mercies. We thank you that you bring joy into our lives and hope. We thank you that we can gather here today and sing your praises and pray together and encourage each other and hear your word that we may live accordingly.

So thank you for everything that you have given to us this last week. Thank you for everything that you will give us today. Thank you for being our God yesterday, today, and forever. We pray these things for the sake of Jesus Christ, your son, in whom you are well pleased.

Amen.

Would you stand with me for our call to worship? Continuing today in Psalm chapter 74, if you would read with me Psalm 74, verses 7 through 12. They set your sanctuary on fire. They profaned the dwelling place of your name, bringing it down to the ground.

They said to themselves, we will utterly subdue them. They burned all the meeting places of God in the land. We do not see our signs. There is no longer any prophet. And there is none among us who knows how long.

How long, O God, is the foe to scoff? Is the enemy to revile your name forever? Why do you hold back your hand, your right hand? Take it from the fold of your garment and destroy them. Yet God, my king, is from of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth.

So if you would turn to your Psalms for worship hymnal, and we'll sing out of page 74A, we'll sing verses 4, 5, and 6. The last two verses are at the bottom of the page.

In addition to Isaiah chapter 14, verses 24 through 32. Lord of hosts has sworn, saying, surely, as I have thought, so it shall come to pass, and as I have purposed, so it shall stand. That I will break the Assyrian in my land, and on my mountains tread him underfoot.

Then his yoke shall be removed from them, and his burden removed from their shoulders. This is the purpose that is purposed against the whole earth, and this is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations.

For the Lord of hosts has purposed, who will annul it? His hand is stretched out, who will turn it back? This is the burden which came in the year that King Ahaz died. Do not rejoice, all you of Philistia, because the rod that struck you is broken.

For out of the serpent's roots will come forth a viper, and its offspring will be a fiery flying servant. The firstborn of the poor will feed, and the needy will lie down in safety. I will kill your roots with famine, and I and it will slay your remnant.

Wail, oh gate, cry, oh city, all you of Philistia are dissolved. For smoke will come forth from the north, and no one will be alone in his appointed times. What will they answer the messengers of the nation?

That the Lord has founded Zion. His people shall take refuge in it. As you have purposed, it will happen. Thank you for this word, this promise, same surety that broke the hand of the Assyrian and crushed the remnant of Philistia.

We know that one day we'll be utterly destroyed. We're in the hands of the enemy, slaves to doing his will. But you freed us, given us a city. Thank you for the refuge we have in Christ. Not only from the wicked one, but also from out justly against those who oppose you in unrighteousness.

Help us to live lives worthy of your calling and saving those in the darkness by telling them the good news. The good news of your kingdom, that it has come. And this Mount Zion is growing in the reach of Christ's kingdom.

Help us to remember that it shall never end. God and Savior, the Lord Jesus, I pray this, amen. You may be seated.

Our next songs are in our little black hymnals, hymns modern ancient. Page 14 is before the throne of God above. And then also page 25, come look to Jesus. Now as we sing these, just remember, we do have the advocate is with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

And he's there at the right hand of the Father at the throne of God. And we can cast all our cares upon him because he cares for us. He is worthy to be worshiped, worthy to be praised. He is the king of kings and the Lord of lords.

So join me together as we sing for his praise and his glory before the throne of God above. Father, I thank you for gathering us together today.

Thank you for the provisions that you have made for us already, to worship you, to rejoice in your truth, to put our attention upon your son, Jesus Christ, where it needs to be. Lord, I pray that you would help us today as we read your word, as we look at the prophet Daniel and his faith in you and his hope in Christ.

And I pray that you would give us a clear view of Christ in your word, that we would look like him as we live in this world. We thank you for these many mercies and we pray these things in the name of Jesus, amen.

I don't know if Kyle mentioned it, I failed to mention it to Kyle. But we have a meeting after the morning service today for anybody interested in gathering at the Capitol on Tuesday, 10 o 'clock, for Abolition Day.

What is Abolition Day? Well, it has to do with the abolishing of abortion, which is not the same thing as pro-life, which is basically fundraising. Abolition wants to stop abortion, okay? So that's gonna happen at the Capitol, 10 o 'clock, Tuesday.

If you're interested in going, go. If you wanna coordinate with those who are going, then we can have a meeting after the church service, back in the fellowship hall. Additionally, we'll also be talking about if you're interested in regularly showing up to the abortion mill down the street from our church, hold signs, counsel with people, talk with folks, so on.

You can sign up for a day of the month or a day of the week. We're gonna try to organize our efforts. Okay, so I wanted to mention that. Let's open our Bibles and turn to Daniel chapter nine. We'll be reading verses one through ten, again this morning.

Daniel chapter nine, we're reading verses one through ten. Last week, we began looking at Daniel chapter nine and thinking about the significance of verses one and two. Daniel nine is the most critical chapter in the whole book.

If you wanna know about Daniel, things he's concerned about, what he sees is very important. If you would like to get a consolidated, concentrated prophecy out of Daniel, that is the heartbeat of every other prophecy in the book.

Daniel nine is where to go. So what we find in Daniel nine is an old covenant believer, Daniel. He is a saint and he is an exile away from his homeland of Israel, away from his hometown of Jerusalem. But he has hope for the future and that hope is in the promised new covenant, the promised Messiah who is to come.

And we find in the scriptures that the nature of God and the word of God is not different from the Old Testament to the New Testament. But what he has promised, this he performs and his covenant faithfulness that he sticks true to his word, that he loves his people based on who he is and not who they are.

His covenant faithfulness is shown in Christ. And whether an old covenant saint looks at Christ's shadows, or a new covenant saint looks at Christ and his substance, either way, there we see the covenant faithfulness of God.

And Daniel nine, most of it is a prayer. We get to see a prophet of God in prayer. If there is one subject that all of us can always grow in, it is in the matter of prayer. And when we look at Daniel's prayer in its old covenant context, we will be amply instructed in our new covenant prayers, because all of our hopes are pinned upon the same savior.

Daniel chapter nine is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and instruction to adequately equip us for the good work of prayer. Let me read, please stand with me as I read Daniel chapter nine.

Reading verses one through ten. Daniel chapter nine, verses one through ten. In the first year of Darius, the son of Ahasuerus, of the lineage of the Medes, he was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans.

In the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years specified by the word of the Lord through Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish 70 years in the desolations of Jerusalem.

Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications with fasting sackcloth and ashes. And I prayed to the Lord my God and made confession and said, Lord, great and awesome God who keeps his covenant and mercy with those who love him.

And with those who keep his commandments. We have sinned and committed iniquity. We have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from your precepts and your judgments. Neither have we heeded your servants, the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings and our princes, to our fathers and all the people of the land.

O Lord, righteousness belongs to you, but to us, shame of face, as it is this day. To the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and all Israel, those near and those far off in all the countries to which you have driven them, because of the unfaithfulness which they have committed against you.

O Lord, to us belongs shame of face, to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, because we have sinned against you. To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against him.

We have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God to walk in his laws, which he has set before us by his servants, the prophets. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated. Because we are made in the image of God, every single one of us has some conception of what is holy and what is common.

We all have a sense of what is holy and what is common. You know this every single time you're part of a church service, or perhaps you go to a funeral, or even a wedding. And somebody's phone is set to volume ten, and it blazes forth some horrid tone.

And the collective cringe sweeps over the crowd. And if you really want to profane the event, answer the call. And start having a conversation. Nothing wrong with phone calls. Nothing wrong with somebody calling you up and wanting to chat.

It's a common occurrence. As soon as you try to do what is common in the midst of what is supposed to be special and set apart, something that is holy, that's when you profane the holy. When you take what is common and you seek to displace what is holy with that common, that's where we get our term profanity.

Now, made in God's image, we're given that sense. It's evident even in Eden. There was Eden, and then if you'll read very closely, there was the garden within Eden, a set apart place. In that garden, there were trees, and then there were trees, two in particular that were set apart as something distinct.

There were the watches of the day and the night, but then there was that time in the cool of the day of walking and talking with the Lord. So the conception of holy and common is universal to all of those who are made in God's image.

It gets a little confusing in our paganized society, as there is great effort to deconstruct what is holy and common and has been received as holy and common in all of Christendom. But the sense of holy and common remains.

For instance, the state is seen as holy, and its subjects are common. The academy is seen as holy, and the uneducated are seen as common. Sexual abominations are seen as holy, and the non-divergent are common.

It's not whether we're going to have a majority religion, it's which majority religion we're going to have. And when the holy is treated as common, or even, dare we say, challenged by the common, how dare the subjects challenge the state?

How dare the non-credentialed challenge the academy? When the holy is treated as common or challenged by the common, that is what is meant by profane. And all you have to do is listen to the rage of politicians and the rage of professors and the rage of the perverse.

For these are the ravings of priests and priestesses, insisting that the holiness of their temples and their doctrines not be blasphemed. It's the same as if you were to visit a pagan culture elsewhere and fail to follow the standards of holiness set forth in those cultures.

Rightly orienting our holy and common compass, rightly orienting or ordering our affections, as Augustine would say, means that we must come to the word of God. And if there is any practice that would be tremendously profitable for us to begin to orient ourselves properly, is that in terms of prayer.

Prayer. When we pray, are we aware of the holiness of God? Are we aware of the holiness of God when we pray? Or do we treat his name in a profane way, breaking the third commandment? And what will help us in approaching prayer?

I don't know a single saint, either newly come to the faith, or been worshiping the Lord for a long time, who wouldn't say that they have room to grow in their prayers. And what will help us, I think, is seeing God's character revealed in his word, remembering his holiness, cataloged in his deeds, that we would submit to his glory that is weighed out in his name.

God's covenant faithfulness manifests in Christ for all the saints. Now, I'm being rather ambitious when taking Daniel 9. I think it's a great opportunity for us to not only learn about prayer, not only see what the prophecy of the 70 weeks has to do at the end of the chapter, which has received so much attention throughout so many generations.

But it's also a good opportunity for us to think about how things were different in the old covenant versus the new covenant. And how there is harmony, but there is still some differences. And I think it's difficult for Christians to relate to the Old Testament.

I mean, there are passages which seem to be impassibly far away. The case laws of Moses, the land surveys of Joshua, the genealogies of Genesis, I mean, it's kind of hard to relate to those. But in other passages, there seems to be an immediate connection.

These gritty stories of old covenant heroes in the historical books, David and Goliath, it's the hope-filled promises in the prophets, the prayers of the saints in the psalms. And there almost seems to be an immediate connection with those passages.

One type of Old Testament scripture, one type of Old Testament scripture seems impractical to the new covenant saint, and then the other type seems undifferentiated from the new. But both of those approaches are incorrect.

The distant passages are brought near to us in Christ. And those that we seem immediately arm in arm with are set out a bit further from us for their proper perspective. Isolating parts of the Old Testament and then allegorizing other parts are both improper approaches.

Daniel 9 is one of those passages that we are tempted to allegorize, to immediately say, this is about me, or this is about our nation, or this is about our culture. And the thing we've got to remember about the Bible is that it's not about you.

It's not about us. Time and again, the scriptures testify that it's about Christ, who is the light of the world. So we need to interpret this text according to Christ, remembering that Daniel is in his shadow, and we currently live under his session.

And in the preeminence of Christ, we will meet both the meaning and the application of this text. So we talked about last time in verses one and two that Daniel went to prayer in the first year of King Darius the Mede.

And what were the major influences in Daniel's prayer had to do with the promises of God, that God said 70 years and some good things will begin to happen for his people. His people had rebelled against him.

He brought judgment in the form of Nebuchadnezzar and the armies of Babylon. In 586 BC, Jerusalem was destroyed. And the people of Israel were either killed or they were brought in exile to the land of Babylon.

But there was a promise by the prophet Jeremiah that after 70 years, God would bring them back to the land and restore them in the land, that they would be able to worship him again as they once did. And this is what concerns Daniel the most, not the fact that the Babylonian Empire had just failed and the Medo-Persian Empire had just taken over the job of being the superpower.

That didn't matter to Daniel as much as this. The authority of God's word and the timing of his promises. Those were manifestly more important than what fragile beast currently roared atop the heap of shattered horns.

In verses 3 through 10, we see that there's shame for Israel's covenant breaking. And Daniel prays on behalf of all the people, of all the exiles, and he prays from this position of corporate shame. More than once, we heard him say, as we read through that text, that shame belongs to the children of Israel.

Why? Because they have a history of going against their word, of covenant breaking. And the fact that they are presently in exile and the whole history of the rebellion against God are pillars upon which their arch of shame is made apparent to everybody.

So Daniel begins his prayer with confession. Confession. Knowing what it means to confess, how to confess, and what to confess matters a great deal in our prayers. Confession is one of the major themes of prayer in the scriptures.

And we see in verse 3 the humility of Daniel before God in confession. The humility before God in confession. And we're gonna think about the direction, the definition, and the demonstration of Daniel's humble confession.

As we do that, we're reacquainting ourselves with some themes that we tend to gloss over. Maybe some words that we say, yeah, that's a Bible word. What does it mean? What does that look like in Daniel's life?

And then what does it look like in our life as we follow Jesus? So first, the direction of this humble confession. Verse 3 says, Daniel says, then I set my face toward the Lord God. Then I set my face toward the Lord God.

Now what direction would that be? East for us, west for Daniel, cuz he was already in the east. It's a good guess. But obviously, doesn't it make sense that when you talk to someone, when you talk to someone, it would be both practical and polite to face them when you talk to them?

Don't you do that when you wanna talk to somebody? And what if you wanna have an important conversation? So important that you actually turn off your phone. Like this conversation is gonna be one where there's eye contact and everything.

And that's the kind of special communication that we should have with the Lord God, our maker. That we would wanna set our face toward him. Daniel set his face toward the Lord God. Prayer is the most immediate and consistent way that we relate to communicate with God.

Makes sense that we would face him when we speak to him. So how do we do that? Do we look up? Do we look down? Do we close our eyes? Do we stare at the Bible as we pray? How do we set our face toward the Lord God?

Heaven is his throne, and the earth is his footstool. Darkness and light are both alike to him. Omnipresent and omniscient. Where is the face of this omnipotent God that we may turn to him? Daniel set his face toward the Lord God to make request.

What Daniel does is nothing new for him. We read earlier in the same book about Daniel's prayerful habits. We are given the answer to this most important question, where is the Lord God, that we may set our faces toward him.

Daniel chapter six verse ten. Daniel chapter six and verse ten. Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went home. And in his upper room with his windows open toward Jerusalem, he knelt down on his knees three times that day and prayed and gave thanks before his God as was his custom since early days.

So, which direction? Toward Jerusalem. Well, there you have it. It's toward Jerusalem. Daniel would have been facing west as he was out in the east. Does that mean that we should face east when we pray?

Is that all it takes? Now, we have to dig a little deeper. Why is Daniel looking at Jerusalem at all? I mean, why is he, why is he, when he sets his face toward the Lord, why is he looking at Jerusalem at all?

What's the point? We must remember this is an old covenant prayer. Daniel knows where God had determined to place his name, to manifest his glory, to direct the faith of the saints. Daniel looks toward Jerusalem, because that was where the temple was built.

When Solomon built the temple in Jerusalem, he did so upon the threshing floor of Arianna, which David, his father, had purchased and made propitiation for the sins of the people, while the angel of the Lord stood poised with the sword of God to strike Jerusalem dead.

This is the same place upon Mount Moriah that Abraham's hand with a knife was stated upon his son Isaac, and God provided a substitute, Ram. Solomon knew in his wisdom that this temple that he built there was no container of God, but it was the shadow of a mediator.

1 Kings chapter 8, 1 Kings chapter 8, verses 27 through 30. But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain you, how much less this temple which I have built.

Yet regard the prayer of your servant in a supplication. O Lord my God, and listen to the cry and the prayer which your servant is praying before you today, that your eyes may be opened toward this temple night and day, for the place of which you said, my name shall be there.

That you may hear the prayer which your servant makes toward this place, and may you hear the supplication of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place, here in heaven, your dwelling place, and when you hear, forgive.

So the old covenant saint was to pray toward the temple, the place where God had determined to reveal his name, to manifest his glory, and they by faith knew that when they prayed toward the temple, that God in heaven, his dwelling place, would hear.

And what are they praying for? They're asking for mercy and forgiveness. Daniel does pray for mercy and forgiveness here in Daniel chapter 9. And he also prays that God would be in his mercy, so kind as to bring him and his people back to the land, so that they may return and worship God in the way that he had prescribed.

This too was a promise from 1 Kings 8 verses 33 through 34. When your people Israel are defeated before an enemy because they have sinned against you, and when they turn back to you and confess your name and pray and make supplication to you in this temple, then hear in heaven and forgive the sin of your people Israel and bring them back to the land which you gave to their fathers.

Daniel knows 1 Kings 8. He knows what direction to pray. He knows they need forgiveness. He knows they need the mercy of God. He knows they need to be returned to the land. So what does the scripture say?

What does the word of God say? How has Daniel been instructed to pray? To turn his face toward Jerusalem to the temple where God had revealed his name and pray and trust that God would hear in heaven and show mercy and forgiveness.

So that's why Daniel opens his window toward the West. He's praying according to the word of God. He knows what direction to turn his face as he wants to secure the attention of his maker. Of course, some of you know what the problem is.

There is no temple out West. There is no city of Jerusalem out West. It's a big pile of ash-covered ruins. There's no Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies where there's a mercy seat, the throne of God on earth.

There's no altar of incense spanning the gap between the holy place and the Holy of Holies where the prayers of the saints are symbolically laid so that the Holy of Holies is filled with the prayers of the saints, the incense.

There's no altar in the courtyard where sacrifices may be offered up to the Lord God. There's no high priest or even a cast of priests. Jerusalem and the temple are in ruins. That bothered Daniel. Yeah, it bothered Daniel.

That's why he's praying. He's praying that God will keep his promises and that Jerusalem and the temple will be rebuilt. Just because the temple is not there doesn't mean that God is an honest throne in the heavenly temple.

You see that Daniel understood, now watch this, Daniel understood that the shadow was not the substance. Daniel, dude, the temple is destroyed. Why are you opening your window to the West? Especially when you know there are spies watching you, trying to throw you in the lion's den because you're praying.

Why even bother with it? Because that was how God had revealed the hope of Christ in the shadows of Jerusalem and the temple and the sacrificial system and the priesthood and so forth. And so Daniel knows what direction to turn his face that he may set his face toward God.

Daniel understood the shadow was not the substance and the other saints knew it too. Think about Jonah. Remember Jonah? Daniel was a great prophet. Jonah was not a great prophet. Jonah comes to his senses after he's inside the fish.

And in Jonah chapter two, verse four, this is what he says as he's been, as he started to pray about a situation. Then he said, verse four, Jonah two, verse four. Then I said, I have been cast out of your sight, yet I will look again toward your holy temple.

How does that work exactly? He's in a fish. He's underwater. He doesn't have a smartphone to figure out the compass. How does he turn his face toward the temple? By faith, by faith. Jonah two, seven. When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord and my prayer went up to you into your holy temple.

It's not a new idea when you get to the New Testament that the shadow on earth in Jerusalem was a copy of the heavenly things. And the true temple is in heaven. So Jonah covered in fish bile, didn't know what direction the temple was.

And Daniel bearing the shame of an exile knew what direction the temple was, but it wasn't there anymore. But in either case, by faith, they humbly faced the shadow of Christ because it was by his mediation that their prayers are brought before God to his throne in the true temple.

In prayer, Daniel set his face toward the Lord, his God. Now that wasn't the exclusive privilege of one of the greatest prophets, one of the best of the saints. If anyone has ever prayed to God and been heard, if anyone has ever called upon the name of the Lord and been answered, it has been because that man or woman has found by faith Christ as their mediator.

There is one mediator between God and man, the man, Christ Jesus. Why would God ever listen to me? Great question. Not because God is so in love with you. He can't get enough with you. He can't sleep at night journaling about how much he likes you.

No, God is not your girlfriend. God almighty, holy and righteous, eternal, immutable, and all wise. He sets his affection upon us according to his son, Jesus Christ. For God loved the world in this way.

For God loved the world in this manner. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. That's how he loves us through his son, Jesus Christ. Just like the old covenant saints humbled themselves and looked toward the shadows of Christ in order to turn their faces toward God, we in prayer must humble ourselves and look to Christ by faith.

You know, this little ditty that we have and we were taught from a long time ago and that we end our prayers in Jesus name. Why is that there? Why is that stuck around? The meaning behind it is this. I'm not praying and asking for you to listen to me based on my own performance and my merits and what I've accomplished or the promises that I'll do better.

I'm not bringing my common into your holy. I'm not trying to profane your name or your presence. The only reason why I can be here and praying to you and communicating with you is because of somebody else.

Somebody else's record. Somebody else's righteousness. Somebody else's perfection. And that's Jesus Christ. The only one whom you've ever said, I am well pleased. That's why that little ditties and the end of our prayers in Jesus name.

That's not some magical word. There's meaning behind it. And even as Daniel set his face to the Lord, putting his face to the west towards where the temple was once constructed, we must turn our eyes to Christ.

So we might lift up our eyes. We might bow our heads. We might close our eyes when we pray. But if we would speak with God, it must be through Christ. It must be through our mediator, Jesus Christ, who called himself the temple.

Turning to him means turning our faces toward God. Our prayers are taken up by the spirit and presented by the son to the father. We don't approach on our own merits. We don't come on our own worth. We turn our faces toward God as our hearts lay hold of Christ by faith.

That's how we turn our face to God. Now, what is prayer? Daniel put his face toward the Lord to make requests by prayer and supplication. What's a good definition here? Now, notice there's going to be some difference between Daniel and us.

We're on different sides of the incarnation, but the nuts and bolts of prayer have always been the same. Three key words here, request and prayer and supplication. Now, if you take up those word pictures from the original, what do we find?

We find that Daniel sought God's goodness according to his desires. He entreated the Lord's attention. He wanted the Lord to answer with specific requests. In prayer, Daniel is like a nomad, not only seeking permission to pitch his tent upon the Lord's favor, but also he hospitably invites the Lord to abide with him in that same tent so that Daniel may, through humble and ample entreaties, secure the Lord's decision.

Those are the word pictures of these words in prayer. How do we think of prayer? How do we think of prayer? Are we perfunctory and businesslike? Do we send off memos to the Lord's attention? Are we pharisaic, seeking flowery attention for our eloquence?

Or are we pagan in our prayers, seeking attainment by mantra and repeated magic words? Are our prayers rare, stumbling, unsure, without faith, memorized, immediately forgotten? Do we think of prayer as Daniel and other saints of scripture, as a matter of abiding in the same tent, of humbly entreating our master for his favor?

And how did Jesus teach us how to pray? Not as professional mystics, not as professors, not as repeating mantras. He taught us to come to God as children to a father, as children to a father. That's far better than a nomad to a king, though that image should not be lost to our minds.

We come as children to a father, seeking good gifts. And as Jesus said, if an unjust judge will award a nagging widow, and if a sleepy neighbor will help a persistent host, and if evil fathers know how to provide for their own kids, how much more should we expect to be received with all welcome and all favor when we come to the father by the grace of the spirit in the name of the son, by whose righteousness we stand in the presence of God.

By his spirit, we are adopted as the children of God. So don't be bashful. Don't be bashful about treading upon the royal carpets of the king's palace. His very own son has entreated you to come there.

Do not fear to stain his hallowed walls with your quavering voice. He compels you to speak. Do not fail to make all of your requests known to him. He's already made provision for your every last need, even those you know nothing about.