Old Jerry

Not only did Daniel and his friends have to experience a culture shock they also had their names changed. In Jerusalem they were from some kind of a royal family but in Babylon they are now slaves. The changing of names was probably not more than an inconvenience because they stilled worshiped the one and only God. Making them a eunuch would have had a terrific impact on them but they still worshiped God knowing that He had everything in control.

I have made a rapid transition between my cultures to a new one. When I was working overseas I was having to do that. It felt different and I was an outsider which was difficult to contend with. I was able to take my faith with me but if I wanted to go to church I had to go to another country. I think that my faith grew during this time because I had to go out of my way to be with people of my own faith.

God can receive more glory in my local congregation be giving him more praises. We can work together to glorify him. We talk more about the wonderful things that He is always doing in our lives.

Verse 3:20 should energize us because we know that we are asking for God’s power to help us and His power is unlimited. When we limit God by our own ability to comprehend then we are saying that He can’t do more then what we could on our own. We can get past this failing by asking and trusting in God and all his power.

I have prayed for a fellow believer that he or she might be “filled with all the fullness of God” especially my loved ones. I would be praying for them to understand God’s love and that they except this love. This pray relates to Ephesians 5:27 and Colossians 1:28 in that Paul wants all believes to be presented to God with blemish.

Paul prays that the believers grasp the fullness extent of Christ’s love for them because we have got to know that if he loves us he will be with us at all times. We will be able to turn our lives over to him because we trust him. Knowing this love we will be willing to do the things that God asks us to do and we can trust that He is with us always. There is no end to Christ’s love for a person because he died for us on the cross because he loved us.

The reason that Paul prays for strengthening of the inner man is because that is where everything that we think and act on is there. He is saying that we need to change the way that we think. We would prayer today that this would change our hearts. The reason that he prays that Christ dwell in our hearts is because this is what makes us do what we do. If we have Christ in there then we can be doing the things that he wants us to be doing.

We have got to know that “his incomparably great power for us who believe” because we need to know that we are not powerless. We can make some great changes when we know that we have this power. We can develop this faith in yourself by believing in the Bible. We have got to stay focused on what the Bible is telling us. We can pray that others might also have faith that we have “his incomparable great power”.

The result in prayer and faith that if we think that God is poverty-stricken is that we won’t be praying to Him. We will always think that somebody else is going to beat us out of our inheritance. The knowledge of a “glorious inheritance” motivates my life because I know that if I keep the faith I will be going on to a better place.

The way that Christian “hope” has changed my way of living is that it helps me to put up with the day to day things that go on. I know that this life here on earth is not the ultimate existence. I know that I will be going up to Heaven when the time comes. People that have only meager or minute hope are usually down cast people because they see things happening and think that this is all that there is. I do pray of others to have the hope so that they can have a bright life.

The thing that I leaned from Paul’s manner of prayer for the Ephesian believers is that we need to be earnest in our prayers for others. If Christians stopped praying for people to receive a revelation of God they would not know him on their own. It is important to tell people about God but is just as important or more important to pray for them for only the Holy Spirit can get them to understand God. I think that God’s work is in all humans from the time that they are born. They know right from wrong. But for them to know God they need the Holy Spirit. So this kind of prayer is really important.

I don’t think that Jesus got “special treatment” because he was the Son of God because we can all have angels at our side when we are struggling. We may not always see them because they are disseized as our friends or just a stranger that walks up and encourages us.

When Jesus prayed “not my will, but yours be done,” the Father was pleased. If we are passive and uncaring and dispassionate in our prayers that his will be done then we are only wanting God to do our will. So we should tell God what our will is and then we should listen to what His will is and do what He guides to do.

Jesus prayed that the Father take the cup from him because he knew that it would be very painful for him to die for the world. He wanted to make sure that there was no other way for sin to be forgiven. Jesus knew that he and the Father were going to be separated and Jesus wanted to get as close to God as humanly possible. I don’t that that Jesus was resisting the Father’s will he was just hoping that there would be another way to get rid of the world’s sins.

Jesus asked his disciples to pray so that they would not fall into temptation. The temptation that Jesus knew that they were going to fall into was one that would deny him and that they would abandon him. They did not actually pray this prayer diligently because they fell asleep. The Lord’s Prayer asks that we not be led into temptation. I think that Jesus wanted to be alone during his own prayer because he is the one that went on farther.

Daniel’s essential prayer is that they had sinned and have deserved the punishment that God poured out to them but because of God’s love for them, Daniel wanted God’s forgiveness. Daniel’s prayer is answered by God sending the man Gabriel to him and gave Daniel insight and understanding.

Daniel identifies himself with the sins of his people so that he isn’t blaming everything on somebody else. He wanted God to know that he is interceding for the people. The way that this is compared to how Jesus sought forgiveness for his people is that Jesus did not sin but still took all of our sins to the cross. Daniel probably sinned because the bible says that we all have sinned and he was stating that he was involved in the people’s sins.

Daniel’s demeanor as he prays is one of being humble. He prepares by fasting and putting on sack cloth and sitting in ashes. This is so important in this case because he is praying for the nation to be returned to their home land. The way that I can prepare for intercession is too fast and cutting of the outside world for that time.

Daniel is seeking God for the forgiveness and restoration of Israel to its homeland because he had been reading the scripture that said that they would return in seventy years and that time was about up. The trait on Daniel’s part brings this encouragement to pass is that Daniel included himself in the sins of the people.

I think that the prayer of surrender to God is so difficult to pray because we don’t want to give up any of the control that we think that we have. We want to be our own boss and don’t want anybody telling us what to do. I don’t know the first time that I prayed this kind of prayer to God but I do know that the results have been fantastic. We have to turn our lives over to God so we need to pray this kind of prayer.

God’s involvement in my prenatal development means that He is always with me and I am exactly the way He wants me to be so I should go out and be myselves. For a young women carrying a child it means that God is at work within her to putting the baby together. This knowledge is the greatest thing that has ever happened to us.

God’s hand is touching the psalmist be leading him in the way that he should go. I have felt God’s hand on me in a special way. He was guided me through a difficult time that the outcome was good.

I think that people sometimes want to flee from God so that they can perform their favorite sin and they don’t want God to watch them. The reason that people imagine that God doesn’t know what they are doing is because they are trying to hide from Him. I know that I have felt that way sometimes.

The basis on which Hezekiah asks for healing is that he had walked before God faithfully with wholehearted devotion and did well in His eyes. I think that personal righteousness and holiness is important in getting our prayers answered is because God likes to give us good things when we are in harmony with Him. I think that unrighteousness prevents answered prayer because God doesn’t want to pour out his grace to those that don’t obey Him.

The basis on which Hezekiah asks for healing is that he had walked before God faithfully with wholehearted devotion and did well in His eyes. I think that personal righteousness and holiness is important in getting our prayers answered is because God likes to give us good things when we are in harmony with Him. I think that unrighteousness prevents answered prayer because God doesn’t want to pour out his grace to those that don’t obey Him.