Thursday, July 9, 2020

A Prayer with Imprecatory Pleadings


O Sovereign Lord,
The psalmist asked: “Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?” (Psalm 2:1). You responded that “the kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers took counsel together, against the Lord and against his Christ.” They want to be free of You, Your ways, and Your commandments. They cried, “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.” That is what we are witnessing today in our nation. The attack is upon us and has of late accelerated. The war is intense because, for all its faults and failures, this nation has been singularly blessed of God. Now the enemy seeks to destroy the nation by closing our churches, destroying our economy, dismantling our homes and families, and making situational ethics the law of the land.
The pandemic is a cover for this attack with its unreasonable and draconian requirements supposedly to slow the spread of the disease while confusing us with alarming but conflicting information. But at what cost? More lives are being harmed by the cure than the cause. This unconstitutional and unlegislated tyranny is trying our very sanity and testing our duty to fear nothing but God only. At the same time, gangs of thugs riot in our cities while evil politicians scheme in our legislatures. Their plans would destroy the republic, replacing it with socialism.
Our Father, as Your children in Christ due to His sacrifice on our behalf, we call to You. We are few, but we know You and now turn to you, seeking your face in our trial. We humble ourselves before You and confess that we have not lived up to the principles of our Christian covenant. We have fallen victim to worldly ease and given ourselves to the selfish pursuit of prosperity and pleasure. We have taken Your gracious gifts for granted and made them our gods, rejecting self-denial and devotion to our King and His kingdom. We yearned for your blessing, but in return, our obedience and service to Christ, His church, and His cause are woefully lacking. We have, like Israel of old, ignored You, and our ears are dull to Your Word of truth.
O Sovereign Lord, You purpose all things for Your glory. In light of this, we ask, “Are You warning us by these things that we may be restored? Or are we in the last hour before Christ’s return? Is Your wrath judging our nation and bringing our once glorious republic to a disgraceful end like that of Israel of old?” Indeed, in our distractions and diversions, we have allowed our hands to be filled with the innocent blood of millions of aborted babies and have murdered innocents in our lawless streets. They are crying out for justice, and we take little note. In our seeming helplessness we have excused ourselves. Thus, we have tolerated the ruin of our neighbors with drugs, human trafficking, and immorality by those who would destroy our Christian principles. Lord, awaken us to the power we possess in praying in the Spirit. Enable us to pray without ceasing.
You, who sit in the heavens, laugh at Your enemies and hold them in derision. You speak to them in your wrath and terrify them in Your fury. Of old, You set Your King, our Savior, Jesus, on Zion, Your holy hill. In Your eternal decree, You said of Him, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.” We ask, “Will You not again make righteousness to exalt this nation? Will you return the honor on the godly men who sacrificed so much to make this land a hope and bastion of freedom in the world?” This nation has been the home of great revivals and great churches standing for the truth, spreading the gospel of grace, and sending missionaries to the ends of the earth on the promise that You have ransomed a people for Yourself out of every tongue, tribe, kindred, and nation.
We now stand in grave danger from this beast-system of powerful globalists that threaten us today. O Lord, “break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel” so that they may be wise and warned and, by your grace, may serve Christ with fear and trembling.
With the psalmist of old, we pray, “O God, do not keep silence; do not hold your peace or be still, O God! For behold, your enemies make an uproar; those who hate you have raised their heads. They lay crafty plans against your people; they consult together against your treasured ones. They say, ‘Come, let us wipe them out as a nation.’ O my God, make them like whirling dust, like chaff before the wind. As fire consumes the forest, as the flame sets the mountains ablaze, so may you pursue them with your tempest and terrify them with your hurricane! Fill their faces with shame, that they may seek your name, O Lord” (Psalm 83:1–5, 13–16).
Amen!

No comments:

Post a Comment