DCLM Daily Manna 29 January 2023 Devotional By Pastor W. F. Kumuyi — Plea For Mercy
TOPIC: Plea For Mercy (DCLM Daily Manna 29 January 2023)
KEY VERSE: “We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments:” (Daniel 9:5).
TEXT: Daniel 9:4-10 (KJV)
4 And I prayed unto the Lord my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments;
5 We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments:
6 Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, which spake in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.
7 O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, that are near, and that are far off, through all the countries whither thou hast driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against thee.
8 O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee.
9 To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him;
10 Neither have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets.
MESSAGE:
Belonging or associating with a group makes us collectively liable to whatever happens to the group. A team shares the praise for success and the blame for failure together irrespective of who was primarily responsible for the success or failure. This is the principle of collective responsibility and it is what makes or mars a group.
Daniel, by virtue of being a Jew, recognized this. Even though as an individual, he was righteous and enjoyed a special privilege with God as His prophet, he did not fail to fully identify with the sins and failures of the Jewish people which brought them into the Babylonian captivity. Our text focuses on his intercession and plea for God’s mercy, pardon and restoration of the Jews. In his prayer, Daniel collectively confessed the sin of the whole nation without any air of aloofness or a ‘holier-than-thou’ attitude.
Christians cannot afford to be indifferent to whatever goes on in their nations and world generally. A lot is going on in our world and nations at the moment that needs the gracious and merciful intervention of God. Many of these things are due to the sins and moral failures of the whole society. As nations turn their backs to God in sin and rebellion, we are experiencing the catastrophic consequences of such rebellion. What we need now is the mercy of God that will stay the hands of evil and bring reliefs to our lands. And this can only come if we turn to God in prayer of repentance.
As we plead for God’s mercy, we cannot completely exonerate ourselves from the sins of the land. Like Daniel, we have to take the lead in confessing the sins of our lands and asking God for mercy and forgiveness. If we will collectively and sincerely plead for mercy with humility and earnestness, God will certainly hear our prayers and heal our land.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:
True intercession is not just a third-party transaction
BIBLE IN ONE YEAR:
Matthew 1-3
Deeper Life Daily Manna was written by Pastor W. F. Kumuyi; is the founder and General Superintendent of the Deeper Life Bible Church situated at KM 42 on the busy Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Nigeria.