A Prayer for Mercy

I recently read the book, The Harbinger, by Jonathan Cahn.  It is written as a captivating novel, but at the same time making a strong point: AMERICA IS IN TROUBLE.  While I’m not sure I agree with everything in the book, I strongly agree that basic premise.

Our nation was founded on Judeo-Christian principles, dedicated to God at the outset. 

[O]n the morning of the day on which our illustrious President [George Washington] will be invested with his office, the bells will ring at nine o’clock, when the people may go up to the house of God and in a solemn manner commit the new government, with its important train of consequences, to the holy protection and blessing of the Most high. An early hour is prudently fixed for this peculiar act of devotion and . . . is designed wholly for prayer.  (The Daily Advertiser, New York, Thursday, April 23, 1789, p. 2) 

Following this time of prayer by the people, Washington was inaugurated, and then he and other founding fathers gathered together to pray and worship in a little church in New York City, which was then the capitol of this fledgling country.  

In the years that followed, as a nation, we sought to honor God and follow His principles.  And He has blessed and protected us.  We have become one of the most affluent nations in history.  We have been a political superpower, seemingly immune to the problems that other countries suffered.  We have enjoyed freedoms unheard of in other parts of the world.  We are a land of promise that others long to come to.  God has blessed us abundantly because we sought to honor Him as a country.  

Until around 1960. 

It seems we suddenly felt we didn’t need God or His commandments anymore.  We took prayer and Bible reading out of public schools.  This led to an inability to teach children right from wrong.  How can you say something is wrong if there is no standard?  So instead they more or less began to be taught that it was perfectly acceptable to do anything your carnal urges led you to do.  And why not?  If there is no God, then there will be no judgment.  This not only led to the acceptance of nearly every kind of sexual sin, but to disrespect of elders, and eventually even to the killing of people who may rub you the wrong way, whether that be a fellow student, a teacher, a parent, or an unborn child that is a by-product of your sin.

In order to pretend there is no God, we must teach our children that the world just “evolved,” that there was never a Creator.  We all just happened by chance and are really no different than animals.  And we must re-write not only our science books, but also our history books, taking out the references to the God that our founding fathers served.  Check the literature books too – there might be a passage or two from the Bible still left in them.  That must be removed as well.  After all, we can’t “offend” anyone who doesn’t believe in Him.

Over time, we have sought to remove the Ten Commandments or any other mention of God from public places. Our courts no longer use God’s commandments as a standard.  Judges now try to force those who do still have a fear of God to forsake it and give approval to those who choose a sinful lifestyle.   Nearly every type of sin is actively promoted by the media.  We worship idols in the form of the Internet, cell phones, beauty, materialism, food and many others.

Somewhere along the way, "political correctness" came in.  We apparently decided we feared offending man more than we feared offending God.  It didn’t matter what HE thought anymore.  We either thought we could protect ourselves, and handle our own money, without any help from Him, or we were so arrogant as to think He would continue to bless us anyway, that we somehow deserved it, regardless of our attitude toward Him. 

We seem to think we can fix our problems with a band-aid, with man’s solutions instead of God’s.  Are people killing each other?  No need to teach them that God says not to kill, let’s just take away their guns.  Is homosexuality becoming rampant?  Rather than teaching people what God says about it, let’s just defend their right to live however they want to, even trying to change God’s definition of marriage to accommodate them.  Are venereal diseases resulting from sexual promiscuity an issue?  Don’t worry that God says sex is only for marriage; let’s just teach our children how to protect themselves when they do have sex . . . with anyone they want to.  That will fix it.  And what about those pesky pregnancies that may result from it all?  We’ll just take care of those with a “simple” procedure.  It doesn’t matter if God calls that murder.

Where was that church where our founding fathers gathered to dedicate this country to God?  It was St. Paul’s Chapel, in New York City.  It’s still there.  Just barely noticeable.  At Ground Zero.

Yes, the place where our country’s Godly roots began is the same place that the first crack occurred in our protection after we turned our backs on Him.  And thus began a chain reaction of events that may well lead to the economic collapse of our country. 

Did we see it is a warning from God and turn to Him in repentance, acknowledging our sin and our need for His protection?  It seemed for a few days after 9/11 that we might, but we quickly went back to our old ways.  Rather than being humbled by our helplessness, we arrogantly sought to restore our country in our own strength.

We sent our military out to defend us.  We tightened up security in airports, essentially taking freedoms away from our own citizens.  And as the money ran out, we took drastic measures to keep the economy going, all the while going deeper and deeper into a hole that we can probably never bring ourselves out of. 

And Christians, for the most part, are standing back and letting it all happen.

God is a God of wrath.  He will not let our sin go on forever.  But He is also a God of mercy.  I believe He sent us a warning on 9/11.  He desires for us to repent of our sinful ways and turn back to Him, so He can continue to bless us.  But if we refuse to repent, His next warning will likely be much worse.

Lent begins this Wednesday, and I am planning to fast from sugar (probably my biggest vice) and pray for our country.  Tomorrow I will be posting a list of things I will be praying for.  I invite you to join me in praying urgently for our country during this season of Lent.  I believe that binding together and praying and standing up against all of this is what we are called to do during this critical time.

“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 and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”  II Chronicles 7:14