Praying Who You Know God to Be

Speaker: Dave Garda
Scripture: Daniel 9
Series: Daniel: Finding Hope in Our Faithful God

Discussion Questions

Download the discussion questions as a printable PDF file.

WARM-UP

  • Who is the most prayerful person you know? How has observing and knowing that person affected the way you pray?
  • Daniel was not a professional clergy but rather a national leader who had a very demanding job. What does it say about his relationship with God and his ability to prioritize time with God regardless of his other life responsibilities? How have you learned to prioritize prayer regardless of your daily pressures?

GETTING OUR ARMS AROUND THE PASSAGE

  1. Read Daniel 9:1-3. If you had never met Daniel before this moment and you read these three verses, what insights would you gain about him?
  2. What could you learn from Daniel by linking together the following two observations?
    • A national leadership transition takes place.
    • We find Daniel studying Scripture and praying.
  3. Read Daniel 9:4-6. Who does Daniel know God to be in verse 4? Can you agree and share a testimony of how you’ve come to agree with Daniel about who God is?
  4. Why do you believe Daniel enters into a confession of his and his people’s sin in verses 5 and 6?
  5. Read Daniel 9:7-11a. Can you think of any other Bible verses that would agree with Daniel’s observation about God in verse 9?
  6. Verses 7-8 and 10-11a focus on people, but verse 9 focuses on God. What can you learn from the contrast Daniel makes?
  7. Read Daniel 9:11b-14. Dave Garda remembers learning the quote from his mother (a history teacher), “One thing we learn from history is that we don’t learn from history.” How would you apply this quote to this section of Daniel’s prayer?
  8. Read Daniel 9:15-16. How is Daniel demonstrating that he did learn from history—especially when it comes to applying who God is to the current situation he and his people find themselves in?
  9. Read Daniel 9:17-19. What do you think Daniel means when he says, “Listen as I plead. For your own sake, Lord, smile again on your desolate sanctuary” (v. 17, NLT)?
  10. Daniel apparently studied and still studies God’s Scriptures to discover God and to apply who He learns God to be to his own life. List a few of the truths about God that you have discovered by studying Scripture. How did reviewing who God is daily change how Daniel dealt with life? How could doing the same thing affect your life personally? Your family? Your friendships? Your relationship with your work and coworkers?
  11. In verse 19, Daniel is begging God to bring about the end of the 70 years of captivity as He promised He would. Why would he be praying for what God had already promised?
  12. Read Daniel 9:20-23. How do you picture or relate to verse 20? What is something that you pray for as intensely as Daniel is praying in verse 20?
  13. How do verses 21-23 give us a glimpse of God’s attentiveness to Daniel’s prayers? Do you believe God is equally attentive to your prayers? Why or why not?
  14. How do you personally know it to be true that you are precious to God the way Gabriel assures Daniel that he is precious to God? Do you believe you are precious to God? Why or why not?

OWNING THE PASSAGE

Take a moment to pray back to God what you’ve learned about Him from Daniel’s prayer. Include the declaration found in verse 23, “for you are very precious to God” (NLT).

Posted on March 9, 2014 by EFCCL and filed under Daniel and tagged Dave Garda.