Daniel 9:2-3 “in the first year of his reign I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years specified by the word of the Lord through Jeremiah the prophet, that He would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem. (3) Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.”
Another example that we can look at in the Old Testament regarding the principle of praying according to the promises of God is the prophet Daniel. In the passage of scripture quoted above we see that Daniel had seen in scripture that God had stated that after seventy years in exile that Israel was to petition Him to bring them back from captivity. And so based on God’s revealed word on the subject Daniel began to petition the Lord in prayer to fulfil His promise to Israel. Daniel had the sure foundation of God’s word in his prayer request, and if you read the full account you will see that God answered his prayer. Scripture reveals to us that in the intervening seventy-year period from the time Israel was taken into captivity until the day that Daniel prayed, that many Jews had been praying daily to God to restore Israel back to their homeland (Zechariah 7:4-6), but none of those prayer requests were heard by God. So why is that? The reason their prayers went unheard is simple, because they were praying outside of God’s will, for God had given Israel His word that they would be in exile for seventy years. And so under the New Covenant the principle remains the same, i.e. if we pray according to God’s will we know that He hears us. To pray in line with the written word of God is to have the full assurance that our prayers will be heard by God. And if we know that our prayers are heard we also know that our prayers will be answered by God our Father.
Michael E.B. Maher
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