Over the last few devotionals, we’ve been looking at how Daniel prayed during a time of crisis in his life and the life of Israel. His pattern shows us how we can pray in a way that God answers us.

So far we’ve learned that we must:

Then, we must express our desires with passion.

Too many of our prayers are simply cut-and-dried. We speak without really thinking about what we’re saying. We have the words memorized. There’s no passion or authenticity.

The truth is, God cares more about the passionate sincerity of your prayers than the words you use. The right words and the wrong emotions won’t work with your spouse. It won’t work with God either.

Human beings are made in the image of God. He shows emotions. He gets angry. He gets sad. He gets happy.

God doesn’t just love you. God loves you passionately — emotionally.

Daniel described his passionate prayer in Daniel 9:3a: “I prayed earnestly to the Lord God, pleading with him” (GNT).

The word “pleading” in Hebrew means to “ask with emotions.” It’s a serious seeking. It’s searching with all your heart. It’s begging.

That’s a prayer God will listen to and answer.

I love this paraphrase of Daniel 9:3a: “I poured out my heart, baring my soul to God” (The Message).

Perhaps you need to pray like that for your family. You need to pour your heart out and bare your soul to God on their behalf. Maybe you need to do that about your marriage or your finances.

All of us need to do that about the world around us. It should break our hearts when we see the devastation of war, famine, and evil in our world. We shouldn’t gossip about it. We shouldn’t tweet about it.

We need to pour our hearts out to God about it.