Praying a Confident Prayer

Pray With Confidence by Anne Graham Lotz, The Daniel Prayer

Editor's note: Exciting news! Beloved author Anne Graham Lotz, called the “best preacher in the family” by her father Reverand Billy Graham, was just named the new chairman of the National Day of Prayer Task Force and will lead the activities and planning for next year’s event. Lotz’s brand-new book, The Daniel Prayer is based off the prayer of Daniel, who prayed on behalf of his nation, Judah, which had come under God’s judgment. Today, Lotz continues to utilize the Daniel prayer model to encourage, equip and engage readers in effective, passionate prayer. “Nothing will turn our nation around except prayer. Heartfelt, desperate prayer. Prayer where the pray-ers rend their hearts, return to the Cross, and repent of personal and national sin. Only prayer that moves Heaven can change a nation. And that’s the Daniel Prayer,” said Lotz.    Enjoy this exclusive excerpt from The Daniel Prayer and come pray with us this bold prayer today!

A Prayer That Is Confident Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God? — John 11:40 Great God of Creation, Lord of the Universe, the God who parted the Red Sea, You are the God of the impossible who makes a way when there is no way. We worship You as our God. We exalt You as One whose Name is above every name. You have no equal. You stand in the solitude of Yourself. Your righteous right hand hung the stars in space, shattered Your enemies, and holds us, Your children by covenant, safe and secure. Who is like You — majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders?  By Your word everything was made that is in heaven or on earth or under the earth. You formed us from the dust of the ground, breathed Your breath into us, and gave us life. When we disobeyed, rebelled against You, and lived in bondage to sin, You sent the Deliverer to give His life to set us free. By Your great power, You raised Him from the dead so that through faith in Him we are rescued from the dominion of darkness and brought into the kingdom of Your light and life and love.  We worship You as One who maintains Your faithfulness to all generations. Just as You were faithful to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; to Moses, Jeremiah, and Daniel; to Peter, Paul, and John; You will be faithful to us and to our children and to our grandchildren. You can’t be less than Yourself, and You are faithful. You keep Your “covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love [You] and keep [Your] commandments.”  And we praise You as One who is never wrong. You are always right. As we witness unspeakable disasters, atrocities and evil, we are confident that the Judge of all the earth does right. And will do right.  All the time. We know Your timing is perfect. If we see no outward evidence that You are intervening in the affairs of men, we trust You. If we see no sparks of revival in the church, we trust You. If we see no cessation in hostilities and persecutions against those who are called by Your Name, we trust You. If we do not receive an answer to our prayers when we want it, the way we want it, how we want it, we trust You. We are confident that Your greatness and power are the same yesterday in Creation, in the Exodus, in Daniel’s day, as it is in our day, as it will be at the end of time. Your greatness has not been diluted or depleted over the ages. You cannot be more great than You are. You are the All-Mighty God. And we worship You. Thank You, loving Lord, for being a covenant-making, covenant-keeping God. Thank You that through the broken body and shed blood of Your Son and our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, we can enter into a covenant with You that will never be broken. Thank You that we are Yours, and You are ours... forever. Thank You for the confidence that our covenant relationship with You gives us as we approach You in prayer. You have said that You are holy, high and lifted up, but that You are moved to come down — to dwell — with those who are contrite and lowly in spirit. We believe You! You have said that You will revive the heart of the contrite. We believe You! You have said that if we repent of our sin, times of refreshing will come. We believe You!  So now we want to honestly confess that in our previous prayers we have not been focused on You. We have focused on our circumstances and have therefore been defeated. We have focused on others and have therefore been deluded. We have focused on ourselves and have therefore been deceived. We compare ourselves with others so that our perception of who we really are therefore is distorted. We are so sorry. We turn to You now and ask that You shine the light of Your truth into our hearts and what we feel and into our minds and what we think so that we see ourselves as You see us, and truly repent of our sin. Strip us, most Holy Lord, of any pride or self-righteousness or judgment as we pray for others. Teach us to first take the plank out of our own eye before trying to remove the splinter in someone else’s eye. We long for You to send revival to the hearts of Your people. Let it begin with us. Teach us to pray in such a way that Heaven is moved and hearts are changed. We pray in the name of the One who was so confident in Your Word that when facing the threats of His accusers, He issued a solemn warning that in the future, their roles would be reversed. He would be their Judge. They would see Him sitting at Your right hand and coming back on the clouds of glory...  We pray in the name of the One who was so confident in You that He placed His very life in Your hands, and then refused to draw the next breath.  We pray in the name of JESUS. For the glory of Your Name. Amen. Scripture References Isaiah 41:10. Exodus 15:11. Psalm 33:6. Genesis 2:7. Colossians 1:13. Psalm 89:1. Deuteronomy 7:9. Genesis 18:25. Isaiah 57:15. Isaiah 57:15. Acts 3:19. Matthew 7:1–5. Matthew 26:64. Luke 23:46. Excerpted with permission from The Daniel Prayer by Anne Graham Lotz, copyright Anne Graham Lotz. Published by Zondervan.