Deeper Life #153

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

WHEN YOU READ DANIEL’S PRAYER, you find there are no excuses made by Daniel, either for himself or his people. One of the hardest things for a person to do is to face oneself with the holiness of God—to face oneself in the pure, unsullied light of God—and let God’s Spirit search into the avenues of the mind and the imaginations of the heart, into the purposes of one’s life, and to let God see all the wrong, the evil, and the self-seeking that are there.

That is what the Bible means when it challenges me to “set my face toward God” in repentance. Other religions ignore the fact of sin, and they tell us to ignore it. They tell us our only attitude is “to never remember what you have done; never think about it; keep in the sunshine and keep bright.” Jesus Christ does exactly the opposite. He brings us, by His Spirit, face to face with the sin in our lives.

The sign that His Spirit is at work is that true remorse begins to show itself. Our faces are set toward God, with no excuses.

Prayer Thought: With Daniel, I seek to be honest with God and true with my fellow man.

SUGGESTED READING: Daniel 9:1–19