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In traveling about this region of several states, I’ve noticed the many prayer meetings that have been taking place the last three years. Many of those expressed great concern for the state of our nation and the elections of 2016. Having won most of those elections I’ve been very interested to see if the prayer meetings would continue. I’m happy to say many of them are. However, I have a great concern.
Jim Cymbala, Pastor of the Brooklyn Tabernacle, says that prayer is born out of a “felt need”. We felt our need acutely before last fall’s elections. We could see the persecution of Christians rising in this nation; we could see the degrading of our nation by previous administrations; we felt the growing socialist control over our children, especially if they were in a tax-supported school. We cried to God out of hearts which felt the need of a change that we couldn’t work. Many of us believe that God answered those desperate cries and mercifully granted us a President and many other government servants who are, at least, respectful of God, the Bible, and the name of Jesus. They honor our flag and our Constitution. Compared to what we’d had for many years, all this is so wonderful it’s easy to think the crisis has passed. But don’t be deceived!
What caused us to be in the death struggle for the life of our nation has not at all passed. If we think so, it means our vision is way below what the Lord wants it to be. You see, the ultimate goal in education isn’t just to stop the socialistic Core Curriculum; it is to stop all tax-support of education. The ultimate Goal in business isn’t to just lower corporate taxes; the real goal is to remove government regulation from business totally. The real Goal in civil government isn’t just to stop the socialist’s agenda. The real goal is to implement Biblical civil government, the kind of government our Constitution originally gave us.
This requires the home to come back to operating in God’s order, part of which is parents taking responsibility for their children’s education. And it requires the church to do it’s great commission from Jesus of sharing the Gospel with lost people, and discipling the saved; including giving to them the understanding of why and how to disciple the education, economic, and governmental systems. It requires of business people that they treat employees, customers, and the environment Biblically. And it requires government servants to defend the Constitution and its Biblical foundations.
I hope you can see that we still have a lot of things that demand the same intensity in prayer we had last year as we faced the election. Paul spoke of wrestling in prayer
“…against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” (Ephesians 6:12)
The fervent praying we’ve been doing must continue now. We must start praying not just, “Lord help us save this sinking ship of state!” But rather, now we must pray: “Lord teach us to sail this ship!!” And this is infinitely harder than just establishing a beachhead. This will require of us patient endurance, produced by the Spirit of God, for the next several generations; while we remove the lies and restore the truth in our institutions. We must be diligent to rebuild our own homes and churches from the Biblical pattern. Only then will we be able to know why and what to build into our education system, our economic system, and our civil government.
I hope you can see the reason for us continuing “Fervent in spirit; serving the Lord…” (Romans 12:11) in our praying for the institutions of our nation. But be encouraged: “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” (James 5:16)
Think about it; because if you don’t, someone else will do your thinking for you – and for your children! And you won’t like what that brings to you. I’m Don Pinson; this has been Think About It.