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Recap of the June 26th sermon (Daniel 9:1,2):
1. One writer said the following about Daniel 9: “This is another one of those remarkable chapters in Scripture. Dr. Philip Newell evaluates it, ‘The greatest chapter in the book and one of the greatest chapters of the entire Bible.’ The double theme is prayer and prophecy. If one were to choose the ten greatest chapters of the Bible on the subject of prayer, this chapter would be included on any list. If the ten most important chapters on prophecy were chosen, this chapter would be included on any list.” (J. Vernon McGee)
2. Daniel was a student of Scripture. While studying the prophecy of Jeremiah he came to understand that the exile of the people of Israel would last 70 years. This meant that the termination of the exile (and thus God’s discipline upon His people) was at hand. This prompts Daniel to pray.
3. Prayer and the reading/study of Scripture should go together. Too often we separate them into two separate things. We read the word and then pray our list. Or we read and study Scripture for teaching or Bible study but don’t see its connection to prayer. A lot of teaching on prayer encourages that kind of division. But what if before praying our list we prayed the Scripture? We could read and mark our Bible using our Bible reading schedule, and then pray back to God what He is teaching us. Or another way to do that is to pray our “Season of Life.” For example: if we are going through a time of trial we could read Job or Psalms and pray what we learn back to God; or if a time of restlessness, we could read Ecclesiastes and pray back to God what we learn there; or if we are wondering what service we should be involved in, we could read the Gospel of Mark (where Jesus is portrayed as the Servant in action) and pray back to God the things we see there; or if we must make an important decision we could read and pray back the Proverbs (especially chapter 16) or Romans 12:1,2. Whatever our Season, we search Scripture and pray it back to God.
