Own It, I

Jeremiah 50:^4-5 “Then my people will join together in tears to seek the Lord.  And they will ask the way to Jerusalem and they will start back home again…” (emphasis added).

Daniel 9:³ “…So I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him…” (ESV, emphasis added). When you are in a face-to-face conversation with someone. your face shows your emotion and vice versa. Let me give you a quick secret, a tip that can help you. I discovered that when someone is talking to me or I want to talk to someone and I leave what I am doing turn towards, give them person my full attention, they usually like it. This tip is for both men and women, husbands, and wives. Your husband is talking to you and that is when you want to wash the dishes, you are walking around fixing this, fixing that. It communicates disrespect, and you need to fix that.

Daniel turned my face to the Lord, seeking Him. Turn your face to the Lord in prayer even physically. Repeatedly, the Bible talks about how Jesus looked up and said, ‘Father, I thank You…’. For example, by the tomb of Lazarus, Jesus looked up and said, ‘Father, I thank You…’ He looked up; Jesus turned His face physically toward heaven. When I express my desires with emotions, it becomes clear to me that the best I can bring starts on my knees. The best you can bring starts on your knees.

The fifth thing you should do in praying through a crisis is, Ask For Mercy. Own the issue and stop pointing fingers. We need mercy as a race right now. Go to God and ask for mercy. Stop pointing fingers at anyone, any system, any government, any nation, and the list goes on and on. Own it, ‘I need help, God have mercy on me’. Remember, Daniel was fifteen years old, he was just a teenager when he was taken into captivity. So, he could not have done anything major to offend God like his father and his forefathers had done. And he was in captivity paying for the sins of his fathers and his forefathers that he did not contribute to till he was eighty-five.

But hear Daniel’s prayer – Daniel 9:^5-6,13-14 “We have sinned and done wrong. We have rebelled against you and ignored your commands and rejected your laws! We have refused to listen to your servants, the prophets… We kept on sinning, never giving you a second thought, oblivious to your clear warnings. So you had no choice but to let disaster loose on us since we persistently and defiantly ignored you.” (MSG, emphasis added). Wait a minute, but he did not do anything. But still, he owned it. That is big! You need to own it when you stand before God to ask for mercy.

Prayer: Father, it is against You that I have sinned, have mercy on me, in Jesus Name. Amen!