We can learn to enlarge our prayers by rooting them in a pursuit of the fame of God’s name throughout the nations. Yet he comes boldly, imploring God to act. Daniel spends the bulk of his time confessing his sins and the sins of his nation, and affirming the righteous character of God. Our posture in prayer ought to be one of humility, acknowledging that we don’t deserve anything from God, but that he is a gracious God and delights to give good gifts to those who don’t deserve it.
Prayer ought to be directed toward the God who is, as he has revealed himself to be, not God as we imagine him to be. Our prayers ought to be pursuing God himself, intimacy with him, not just gifts from him. Prayer ought to be born out of meditation on God’s word. We are not under the same circumstances, so we can’t pray this prayer directly, but there is much we can pattern our prayers after. We’ve been listening in to Daniel’s prayer in Daniel chapter 9, learning how he prays.ĭaniel 9 is a Jewish prayer from an exile in Babylon asking for the restoration of Jerusalem and God’s holy temple. You’ve written Rachel’s biography.Ĭhoose one of the people in Rachel’s story and develop a visual presentation about them for your Bible Study Group.08/21_Daniel 09:20-23 Prayer Interrupted Audio available at: Polish your material by editing out unnecessary words or phrasesĬongratulations.Read your responses from start to finish, to make sure you have the correct sequence of events and to spot any important bits you might have missed.Answer the questions, making each answer a paragraph or set of paragraphs you must have grounds for arguing your point if it is contentious.Write a list of questions for each section.Divide Rachel’s life into separate sections.Write character outlines for each person.Read these texts carefully, noting the nuances of the passage and jotting down questions as you go.Match a Bible text to each time sequence or subject.Organise it into time sequence or subject matter.Write a short biography of Rachel, or at least an outline of her life (see Bible Text: Rachel for help with this). We can’t know the answers to these questions for certain, but we can have opinions. What was it like for him when she died?.Did she ever have doubts about Jacob, or was she privy to his thoughts all the time?.How much did she and Jacob plan events when they escaped?.What happened to her on the wedding night, when Jacob made love to her sister Leah?.We know quite a lot about her, but intriguingly there is much that must be imagined. Rachel herself became a byword for womanly beauty, loyalty and steadfast love. The story of Rachel and Jacob is the most famous love story in the Bible. Make lists of these items, and compare the items with someone else’s – or just spend some quiet time thinking about it by yourself.Were there things you thought were important that turned out to be a disappointment?.
What has been left out of the story that you would like to know?Ħ. The narrator has chosen to tell some things and leave other things out. What is happening on either side of the story, in the chapters before and after it? Does this help you understand what is happening?ĥ. What is God’s interaction with the main characters? What does this tell you about the narrator’s image of God? Do you agree with this image?Ĥ.
In the story, who speaks and who listens? Who acts? Who gets what they want? If you were in the story, which person would you want to be friends with? Which person would you want to avoid?ģ.
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