“God owes me!” You’d probably never say it quite like that, but I’m sure you’ve thought it. After all that I’ve done? After how good I’ve tried to be? After all that I’ve had to go through? God owes me! How often do our prayers have an edge to them—an edge of entitlement. “God, you owe me!”
Not Daniel. Daniel went through a lot. He was exiled as a young man. He lived for decades in a foreign country. He spent a night in a den of lions. But when he prayed, listen to how he prayed: “We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy” (Daniel 9:18).
What a humble attitude! How could we pray any differently? “We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy.” After showing his great love for us in Jesus, God doesn’t owe us anything at all. Nor are we righteous—we’re sinners! Instead, may God’s amazing grace give us Daniel’s attitude: “We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy.” In life, in prayer, in everything… It’s all because of mercy!
Upside-Down Savior 