Darlin’, our Miniature Australian Shepherd, is tiny and really toy-sized. Maybe that’s why she has issues. She nips at strangers, usually an unprotected calf when no one’s paying attention. I’ve tried to break her of it but have reconciled with the fact that her breed is territorial by nature, and she thinks she’s protecting us. Or herself–it’s hard to say which.

While she’s normally easy going and gentle with our family, she’s clearly uptight when outsiders come around. She bares her teeth in a fake sort of smile, but she fools no one. She’s jumpy. She whines. Once she nips (I can’t bring myself to admit she actually bites), she slinks off, hoping nobody can prove it.

But when a visitor stoops down and greets her and lets her smell a hand, she relaxes. You can see the tension draining right there in the grass. Her fake smile softens. She wags her back side. I tell her “good girl,” and we go inside without incident.

There’s nothing like a little love at first meeting to reassure everybody, from enemy to animal, that they’re seen and accepted and safe. Love takes out anxiety; it invites people in. That’s what we read about in today’s passages.

Daniel 9-10

“Why bother?” I wonder. Isn’t God going to do what he thinks best, regardless of my prayers? But he tells me to pray, commands it even. Jesus didn’t say if you pray, he said when you pray. And when you pray, to pray this way, and he says The Lord’s Prayer as a model. It’s pithy and praiseful. If nothing else, it gives us a clue that prayer doesn’t have to be long with the God we’re talking to, Mt 6:5-13.

This is good news. I wish I’d remembered The Lord’s Prayer two hours ago. Because I’ve spent the last two hours dissecting Daniel’s prayer in chapter 9 to make sure I see all the parts. Since it’s such a wonderful prayer, and since God answers it on the spot, I thought there must be some prayer pixie dust here, lying around and forgotten.

But in chapter 10, I read that the reason Daniel got a fast answer when he prays is not because he’s eloquent or well supplied with prayer dust. It’s because he’s humble. This is why God hears him and answers immediately, Da 10:12.

You can read my **2-hour long prayer dissection at the end of this post if you want to, but I think it sounds a little churchy and, well, a lot boring. But there are two things in these two chapters that aren’t boring at all, and these are what grab my attention this morning:

The first is that as Daniel prays in chapter 9, the angel Gabriel appears. He says that as soon as Daniel started praying, he was sent with the answer. In another prayer in chapter 10, he’s dispatched with an answer “the moment…[Daniel’s] prayer is heard…,” only it takes him three weeks to get there because he gets waylaid fighting the evil spirit of Persia, Da 9:22-23, 10:12-14 MSG.

Maybe all answers to prayer don’t come speedy-delivery like this, but I’m glad for this peek behind the scenes anyway. It tells me that God is listening and that he hears a prayer as soon as it’s said. And for both of Daniel’s humble prayers, he gets a lickety-split response time.

The second attention grabber is even better: so Daniel’s done all this work to get himself ready to pray, and then he prays. And God’s so eager to respond, he sends an answer-by-angel straight from the throne room. But the first thing the angel says is, “You are much loved!” Da 9:3-19, 22-23 MSG.

I melt. I can’t help myself.

And then, when Daniel’s praying for Jerusalem later, he spends three weeks fasting and doesn’t bother to bathe or shave. At the end of this prayer period, he sees what looks like an angel, whose first words, again, are that Daniel’s dearly loved, Da 10:11.

This time, Daniel’s afraid of the angel’s appearance and has trouble standing; his knees go weak and he collapses. But the angel touches him and says to take courage, because—here it comes again—Daniel is greatly loved, Da 10:19-21.

All three times, before the angel ever gets around to delivering the actual message he’s brought from God’s mouth, he tells Daniel how *beloved he is. He says it’s even a source of courage for Daniel.

If I really believed that I was much loved, dearly loved, and greatly loved when I come to God, wouldn’t it drain my shame and give me courage? And if I believed that this was the one thing God’s most eager to say to me, the one thing he says first, the thing he most wants me to know, would it change how I pray? And how I see myself? And what I do daily? And how I treat others? And would assuring my own loved ones that they are loved this way dial back the insecurity and hostility between us?

I think it would.

You and I are more loved than we know, more loved than we can believe, more loved than we can dream up. We can’t imagine God to be more loving than he is, because if we could, we would be more loving than he. Loving God in return is easy when I believe I’m loved liked this. Obeying him is easier. Praying is, too.

When Jesus said to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, I don’t think he meant “mind” in the sense of only using your intelligence. I think he also meant using your imagination. We can imagine what God’s love is like, and then love him back all the more because of it, Mk 12:30.

I like to imagine the most loving scenario I can think of, a walk on the beach hand-in-hand, for example, and then say, “God loves me like this.” I imagine other scenarios over and over with him until I’m sloppy. There’s no amount of love I can dream up that’s too much for God to turn around and give me right back.

Love is the best reason I know of to come to God. And that’s all praying is—hanging out and chatting him up.

*The Hebrew word for “beloved” is the same word used in each of these three verses, Da 9:23, 10:11 and 19. The Message translates it three different ways but the NIV is consistent. But neither translation get at the Hebrew meaning as well as The Interlinear Bible does, which prints the actual Hebrew words used verse by verse. I checked, and while I can’t write Hebrew letters with my English keyboard, the Hebrew word used in all three verses uses the same characters and is numbered #2532. Its meaning is greatly loved, dearly loved, much loved, beloved.

I can be a geek when I need to.

Psalm 120

The psalmist lives among enemies. They’re deceivers, pretending friendship but inwardly seething, “they smile so sweetly but lie though their teeth,” Ps 120:2 MSG. There are some people dug in so deeply against you, they won’t be loved into a peaceful relationship.

He consoles himself with two things:  God’s deliverance for him, and God’s “pointed arrows and burning coals” payback for them, Ps 120:1, 3-4 MSG.  

There’s no getting around his quarreling neighbors; even his attempts at making peace incite them to war against him. Greeting these folks with love first thing in the morning probably won’t change them. But he’s not worried. He’s confident that God will save him and pay them back for their lies and pretense, Ps 120: 5-7 MSG.

And this gives him peace.

Both the psalmist and Daniel live among enemies without the freedom to move away. Their experiences with God’s rescues tell me I can find peace, too. Regardless of who’s warring or why, God’s loving, saving, payback-presence gives me all the peace I need.

Proverbs 28:27-28

Being generous to the poor brings blessing back for yourself; likewise, stinginess boomerangs.  When crooks are locked up, honest folks are free to move about.

Prayer

God, I didn’t expect to find love when I started looking at Daniel’s prayer, but I see it’s the obvious reason to talk to you. Love opens your arms to me: love hears what I say. Thank you for listening and answering. Teach me to pray humbly. Help me return blessing for war. I’m stuck there.

In Jesus’ name.

**The 2-Hour Long Prayer Dissection:

Daniel “was meditating on the Scriptures” about the exile of God’s people and sees that the reason is because of their sin.  They’ve rebelled and rejected God their whole history since Egypt.  They deserve the punishment he’s brought, a punishment God told them through Moses would come if they turned away from him.  Daniel’s prayer is informed by God’s word, Da 9:2 MSG. 

He’s got a huge request to make, so Daniel plans ahead to pray.  He decides to change his meals, his clothing, and his physical posture to pray. His prayer’s not a “bless me today” sort of prayer, it’s an “I want to be heard loud and clear,” sort of prayer. This is not the praying you might do while you fall asleep at night.  This is an important appointment, and Daniel prepares himself for it, Da 9:3.

Not only does he take time to get himself ready, Daniel gets uncomfy—he fasts from meals, he wears rough burlap, he kneels in ashes.  In every way he knows how, he makes himself empty so that he feels his need for God so he’s open to him.  This is what humility does; it makes room for God like this, Da 9:3.

Daniel holds nothing back, but “pours out my heart, baring my soul…”  This is not a checklist sort of prayer, “God bless Susie and Sarah and Michael.”  Daniel’s prayer is full of passion and emotion; it’s a prayer he’s moved to pray because of intense longing to say everything he’s feeling, Da 9:3 MSG. 

Daniel doesn’t mind using his personal connection:  he reminds God that he is “God, my God.” Daniel appeals to God based on his own relationship with him.  He doesn’t simply come to God as any person might.  He comes to God based on his close family relationship, where God is Father and he is son, Da 9:4 MSG.

Daniel praises God for his faithfulness, for being the great God who keeps his word and “never gives up on those who love and obey him,” Da 9:4.

Daniel confesses their sin and says no one has loved or obeyed God at all, from king to leaders to parents to people, all are guilty, including himself, Da. 9:5-8, 13-16.

Daniel describes God’s righteous judgment on them. God has carried out the punishment he told Moses would come if they rejected him, down to the letter, Da 9:11-14.

Daniel appeals to God for help based on his compassion, not on their worthiness, “Compassion is our only hope.” He knows it’s only because of God’s love commitment that they stand any chance of his intervention, Da 9:9, 18 MSG.

Daniel appeals to God based on his investment in them. They’re named for him as his city is, “You have a stake in us!” he says, Da 9:19 MSG.

Daniel states his business at the end, which is that God would listen, forgive, and restore them ASAP, Da 9:19.

My eyes glaze over. Have yours? There are a lot of parts to Daniel’s prayer. I’m tempted to make a checklist to keep with me as I pray next time, so that I can be sure I’m not forgetting anything. It would be a shame not to get a speedy answer because I forgot to describe how God disciplined me for something or failed to remind him that he loves me.

Surely there’s more here than I’m seeing….  

(It was right here when I read chapter 10 and saw the bottom line and the love all over it. Thank goodness.)

Passages in Daniel, 1 John, Psalms, and Proverbs are selected for today in The One Year Bible.