Dear Hope family,

Thought for the Week

The result of prayer to God!

Daniel 9v3-4, 10v12-13  “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 … [He replied], “Since the day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me 21 days.”

There are several things we can notice Daniel’s prayer recorded in Daniel chapter 9:

• It was based on his familiarity with what God had said in the Bible (see v1-2).
• It was with passion (note the pleading and fasting etc above)
• It was with humility (note the confession above)
• It was answered, but not immediately and not in the way Daniel may have expected
• Answering it involved some shifting of spiritual powers in the heavenly realms.

What stirs you to passion in prayer?

The apostle Paul finishes his list of “spiritual armour” in Ephesians 6 with “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.” Put Daniel and Paul together and we see that God is able to secure spiritual victory, but he often only does it in response to our prayers.

Are you passionate for spiritual victory in your life, in the life of our church, in the life of those around us? There is one place to go and seek that victory.

May God fire a passion in our prayer.

With love and blessing,

Roland