READ: Daniel 9:1-19
“And whiles I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel…” – Daniel 9:20
Daniel’s prayer is one of the few recorded detailed prayers of the Bible. It reveals the heart of a humble man who knew his real condition. Most of us do not know our real and pathetic state of sinfulness. Our ministries, our successes and our human dignity, work together to mask our low spiritual state. We are nothing but we feel important, dignified and even superior to others.
We all preach confidently about sins we feel distant from. But we are silent about the sins that are pressing on us. We sound so righteous when we speak about things that we feel we are not guilty of. In reality, we are guilty of many of the things we rebuke others for. Indeed, the more spiritual you become the more you realise your true state of sinfulness.
All through the Bible, spiritual revelation has often revealed man’s pitiful, sinful spiritual condition. Great prophets had to fall on their knees and beg for mercy when their state was revealed. For example, this consciousness of being a sinful person happened to Isaiah, “Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts” (Isaiah 6:5).
You will notice in Daniel’s prayer that he considered himself to have equally committed the sins and iniquities he was praying about. The art of following Daniel is the art of becoming more humble about your state of sinfulness