Jeremiah 33:3:
“Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.”
Today we are on the eve of a major event in the life of our country that I trust will have an impact of my life and yours as well. Tomorrow begins a commitment, 40 Days of Prayer for Our Nation—for some a huge undertaking—that we hope will turn the tide of what we see eroding the foundation of our great nation. This commitment is going to take perseverance and determination to rise above every obstacle in our way. It will take a willingness in us as believers in Christ to have open, yielded hearts to hear God’s voice who speaks clearly when we are attuned to listen. We may not like some of what we hear from the Lord, but that is okay. It is our duty to obey, to allow our hearts to be soft and pliable, ready and willing to come under God’s authority, trusting followers of His purposes and molded to His likeness.
Will even prayer help our nation? There are days when we can’t help but think that maybe even prayer is pointless, that our country is beyond all hope. Today’s scripture verse from Jeremiah reminds us of what God promises, “Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.” Not one thing we encounter in our lives or in the life of our nation is beyond the knowledge, hope and reach of our Almighty God. It is up to us to pray, and to leave the rest to God. I, for one, cannot wait to see what great and mighty things God has to show us!
In yesterday’s devotion, I wrote that what we need for the coming weeks is a prayer strategy. “Just like the military sets up a special ‘war room’ for planning a strategy to fight a foe during a national crisis, we must also seek God for the right strategy in order to stand up and fight the enemy and combat the issues we face in our culture.” Ole Hallesby in his book, Magnificent Prayer says, “The secret prayer chamber (our war room) is a bloody battleground. According to Oswald Chambers, “Prayer is not preparation for the battle, it is the battle.”
So, what will our strategy be for this battle? Because God is a God of order, I believe we should also have some kind of order and structure to our prayers, which I think will help all of us in the weeks ahead. The following outline will assist us in making sure we cover all the bases but, as we go along, the Lord may lead a different way and I want to be open to the Holy Spirit’s direction. The plan is to follow this pattern for prayer:
• Praise and Worship
• Confession
• Receive Mercy
• Draw Near in Prayer for all leaders, families, churches, communities
• Surrender
• Thanksgiving
• Embrace Hope
In the book of Daniel, Chapter 9, we find a special prayer that Daniel offered to the Lord during his 70 years in captivity after being taken to Babylon from Jerusalem. Daniel was sent a messenger from God, instructing him to “consider carefully the words I am about to speak to you, and stand up.” He was telling Daniel to “listen up!” We, too, need to listen up and pay attention, not only to God’s Word speaking to our hearts, but to be aware of who we are battling against—the evil one. Part of our war room strategy must be to not only protect ourselves by being on defense, but also to fight offensively against the enemy, Satan.
National elections only come around every four years, but each time they do we seem to be fighting a bigger conflict, a stronger enemy, with more at stake. But, we have stronger weapons at our disposal. “We use God’s mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments.” (2 Cor. 10:4)
This is serious stuff, dear prayer warriors! But,” If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Rom. 8:31) Please, consider joining me as we battle together for the sake of America, during the next 40 Days of Prayer for Our Nation!
Most gracious heavenly Father, we ask today that You would cause many to come together over the next few weeks to pray for America, the land that we love. We see such division and even destructive forces trying to tear down this land of freedom. Please consider our prayers to make us truly one nation, under God, indivisible, once again. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.
