Repent like Daniel

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O Lord, listen! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, hear and act! For your sake, O my God, do not delay, because your city and your people bear your Name. Daniel 9:19

What does it mean to “stand in the gap?” 

The basic meaning is one of “intercession,” or the act of intervening for another. Very quickly, when we begin to unpack the details of interceding for our state or “our people,” we find ourselves face to face with one of the most difficult concepts for all people on the planet: repentance. Repentance means more than sorrow and regret; it means a complete turn around, a change of direction away from our own ways and toward God.

However, as difficult, as humbling, as repentance is, there is no escaping it. II Chronicles 7:14 says if we turn from our wicked ways, He will forgive our sins, and then – only then – will He heal our land. The truth is, genuine repentance is a bitter pill. We try to weasel, like a child caught with a hand in the cookie jar. We deny, we deflect (he made me do it), we plead extenuating circumstances, we depreciate and minimize and whine. 

That’s just for our own mess-ups. As warriors who stand in the gap and intercede for a nation or state, we are tasked with repenting for the sins of the people we identify with, for “our people.” 

How unfair is that?

Image by Mariusz Matuszewski from Pixabay 

Our role model in this is Daniel. When, from reading scripture, he realized the 70 year exile to Babylon was nearly up, he began interceding for the return of the Jewish people to Israel. One point taken from this is that prayer is necessary for God to act. Just because it was written that they would return after 70 years, Daniel did not kick back and say, “What will be will be.” He took an active part in bringing it about, and a huge part of that was identifying with the sins of his people. Daniel himself has a sterling reputation as a righteous man, but in this he identified with, and repented of, the sins of others.

So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes. I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed: 'O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with all who love him and obey his commands, we have sinned and done wrong. We have been wicked and have rebelled; we have turned away from your commands and laws.' (Daniel 9:3-5)

Ancient church

Are we ready to intercede on behalf of the people of Oregon? Repentance is where we begin.

To read the full account of Daniel and his prayer go to Daniel 9:1-19. 

Margaret Mills

Lord Jesus, too often I take for granted what you did for us. You took on our sins -- my sins. I can't do that in exactly the same way you have done it for me, but teach me to be an intercessor for my own family, church, people, and nation. Teach me to identify so that I might be a vehicle of your salvation. Teach me to intercede. In your holy name, I pray. Amen. From Jesuswalk