A CALL TO PRAYER FOR OUR NATION!

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 Our country is in trouble! Not only because of the shutdown or the impending raising of the debt limit... again... or the childish, abhorrent behavior of most of our leaders.

Our country, the country I love, is sick!

Our country has fallen into grave and serious sin! 

Most of us, if we would search the depth of our souls, know it! It stares us in the face from the tv set and the computer every day! Our ears are filled with it... just walk down the hall of almost any high school or listen to what is playing on ipods!

Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! Is 5:20

This is not a political or social commentary today. I try to stay away from thing like that in my blog. 

Today I am calling for everyone who reads this post to prayer. Serious and authentic prayer for our beloved country...

Right now I am teaching the book of Daniel. What an amazing book of God's sovereignty and power and love!

Daniel was a young Jewish boy living in the nation Israel about 603 BC.  For years before Daniel's birth, Israel had been under the leadership of some dreadful and immoral king. They had forgotten the calling God had for them.  They had also forgotten God's law. Now that was a very bad thing for so goes the king, so goes the nation. Soon the whole kingdom had forgotten God's law and Him!

You see...God had chosen, from all the people groups in the world, the Jews to be HIS representatives on earth. HE had  given them the responsibility of showing the world who HE was so the world could know and believe in Him and Him alone!

When the Jewish nation would follow God's laws, God would bless them abundantly! And the whole world would wonder... Who is the God of the Jews... He is so good to these people, and they are abundantly blessed far above all the people on the earth. And through these blessings from God and the Jewish nations love and devotion to God all the people of the world could know and believe in the one true God!

But when the Jewish people were disobedient to God's word and they would  sin, God would judge their disobedience and bring curses upon them. Not because He is a mean or hateful God, but He needed His people, the Jews, to represent Him and not dishonor Him. He would bring punishments upon them so that they would remember who they were and the call God had on their collective lives. He would put the pressure of curses upon them so the Jewish people would repent (turn back to God) and keep his commandments and be that beacon of light in the dark world once again!

God had warned the Jews to turn back to Him through the prophets for over 150 years. But they were stubborn and wanted their own way. So God brought judgement on them through the nation of Babylon.

Babylon, a rising and great power in the region, took the Jewish nation captive and totally destroyed it and their capital Jerusalem and God's sanctuary, the Holy Temple.

This was the ultimate curse! Destruction of their nation. They had become the curse itself! 

But God never is without mercy. One of the last kings to reign before the Babylonian captivity was Josiah. During his reign God's law was reinstated and the people repented. He was a good king and loved God and obeyed his law. A great national revival occurred. Remember, so goes the king so goes the nation.

Daniel, who was living during the time of the reign of Josiah, was taken captive and sent to the idol worshipping country of  Babylon with a strong foundation of the law and great belief.

Many trials and glories came upon Daniel when he was in captivity, but he always remained faithful to God. Remember the lion's den (Daniel chapter 6)?

When Daniel was an old man, still living in Baylon but now under the rule of Medo-Persia, he opened the book of the prophet Jeremiah and saw something astonishing!

As he read he began to realize that God's punishment of captivity was almost over. God had promised the Jews they would return to their own country.

This greatly troubled Daniel. The Jews had been sent into captivity for their disobedience to God.
And now the judgement was over and they were going to go back to Israel with much of the same spirit of disobedience that God had punished them for in the first place!

In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of Median descent, who was made king over the kingdom of the Chaldeans (Babylon), in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, observed in the books the number of the years which was [revealed as] the word of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet for the completion of the desolations of Jerusalem, [namely], seventy years

Daniel 9:1-2

Daniel's prayer in chapter 9 is an authentic picture of the character of God and the state of the Jewish people at that time. I am overwhelmed by Daniel's truthfulness, transparency and humility! 

Although Daniel was called "highly esteemed" by God, He humbled himself before God and prayed for Israel. In his prayers he included himself in Israel's corporate sin and abject disobedience! (I know this is long, but PLEASE read it)

Daniel says...

So I gave my attention to the Lord God to seek [Him by] prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth and ashes. I prayed to the LORD my God and confessed and said, "Alas, O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and lovingkindness for those who love Him and keep His commandments, we have sinned, committed iniquity, acted wickedly and rebelled, even turning aside from Your commandments and ordinances. "Moreover, we have not listened to Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings, our princes, our fathers and all the people of the land.

"Righteousness belongs to You, O Lord, but to us open shame, as it is this day-- to the men of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, those who are nearby and those who are far away in all the countries to which You have driven them, because of their unfaithful deeds which they have committed against You. "Open shame belongs to us, O Lord, to our kings, our princes and our fathers, because we have sinned against You. "To the Lord our God [belong] compassion and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against Him; nor have we obeyed the voice of the LORD our God, to walk in His teachings which He set before us through His servants the prophets. 

Daniel makes no excuses in his prayer... no sugar coating... no pointing the finger at others. He was real and authentic and repentant! 

Read the words of Daniel... let it touch your heart!

(I know it is long, but it it important)

"Indeed all Israel has transgressed Your law and turned aside, not obeying Your voice; so the curse has been poured out on us, along with the oath which is written in the law of Moses, the servant of God, for we have sinned against Him (God). "Thus He has confirmed His words which He had spoken against us and against our rulers who ruled us, to bring on us great calamity; for under the whole heaven there has not been done [anything] like what was done to Jerusalem. "As it is written in the law of Moses, all this calamity has come on us; yet we have not sought the favor of the LORD our God by turning from our iniquity and giving attention to Your truth. "Therefore the LORD has kept the calamity in store and brought it on us; for the LORD our God is righteous with respect to all His deeds which He has done, but we have not obeyed His voice.

"And now, O Lord our God, who have brought Your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand and have made a name for Yourself, as it is this day-- we have sinned, we have been wicked. "O Lord, in accordance with all Your righteous acts, let now Your anger and Your wrath turn away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain; for because of our sins and the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people [have become] a reproach to all those around us. 

"So now, our God,listen to the prayer of Your servant and to his supplications, and for Your sake, O Lord, let Your face shine on Your desolate sanctuary. "O my God, incline Your ear and hear! Open Your eyes and see our desolations and the city which is called by Your name; for we are not presenting our supplications before You on account of any merits of our own, but on account of Your great compassion. "O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and take action! For Your own sake, O my God, do not delay, because Your city and Your people are called by Your name."

Authentic prayer. 

Daniel poured his heart out to God! He was overcome with grief, sin guilt, and shame! He fasted and dressed in sackcloth, a sign of great mourning and sorrow.

I think we need that in this time too! We need to take a lesson from Daniel!

Our country is sick with sin and disgrace! We are blessed to live in an age under the grace (undeserved blessings) and not under the Law. We can give thanks and praise to Jesus for that!

We need to pray... to talk to God. We need to humble ourselves and cry out, confessing our nation's sin and disobedience!

IF MY PEOPLE WHO ARE CALLED BY MY NAME HUMBLE THEMSELVES AND PRAY AND SEEK MY FACE AND TURN FROM THEIR WICKED WAYS, THEN I WILL HEAR FROM HEAVEN, WILL FORGIVE THEIR SIN, AND WILL HEAL THEIR LAND!

2 Chronicals 7:14

This verse was meant for the nation Israel. It was an assurance that God would hear them if they would stop sinning and repent. If they would seek hard after God and His ways. God promised them that He would forgive them and heal their land!

We too, those who are called by the name of Jesus, need to stop following the sinning ways of this world. We need to humble ourselves before God. We need to corporately and personally seek God's face... asking Him for forgiveness. We need to be strong and purposeful disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ.

God is the lover of our souls! He loves us far above our comprehension.

Let's turn to him in humility and confess our nation's sins. Lay it all out there! Sugar coat nothing!

Ask God to help you follow hard after Him! Ask Him to help you be a faithful disciple of our Lord Jesus!

Our land is need of healing! 

Let's us turn to the Great Healer... God!

This is not a political statement. Please do not comment on anything political here.

Please leave a prayer for our country instead!

Thanks you.