Thoughts on prayers
Looking deeply at a passage from Scripture.
Sometimes when I pray my prayer will include a variation on a theme that America should be blessing God as much as He’s blessed us. But we seldom hold up that end of the bargain. Instead, we are tainted by division that’s egged on by both the media and the culture; not just one from another, but also cleaving ourselves from God.
Almost every night coming home from work I drive by a house with a sign out front that says, “Pray for America: 2 Chronicles 7:14.” That is the verse which goes:
If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
The two Books of Chronicles are two of the most tedious books in the Bible because they painstakingly plot out a lineage and history that leads up to the time of King David and the transition to his son Solomon. At this point in the proceedings we have arrived at the time where Solomon has finished the house of the Lord: the prayer in question is part of what the Lord said when he appeared to Solomon by night.
But I want to focus on a passage at the end of the chapter, where the Lord is still speaking. Verses 19-22 are thus:
But if ye turn away, and forsake my statutes and my commandments, which I have set before you, and shall go and serve other gods, and worship them;
Then will I pluck them up by the roots out of my land which I have given them; and this house, which I have sanctified for my name, will I cast out of my sight, and will make it to be a proverb and a byword among all nations.
And this house, which is high, shall be an astonishment to every one that passeth by it; so that he shall say, Why hath the Lord done thus unto this land, and unto this house?
And it shall be answered, Because they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, which brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, and laid hold on other gods, and worshipped them, and served them: therefore hath he brought all this evil upon them.
While the Lord was speaking of Israel, is there not a parallel to how we are conducting our affairs?
If you think about it, Christians may soon indeed be plucked up by the roots. We are getting to the point where we cannot point out basic biological facts or chastise sin for fear of being “cancelled,” and it could get worse: imagine Chinese-style “social credit scores” which would certainly be damaged if one doesn’t toe a secular, worldly line.
And wouldn’t that be an astonishment to everyone who passes by when they see that the American republic is no more, supplanted by a tyrannical oligarchy of government regulators, massive multinational businesses, and quasi-governmental organizations that hold the power of life and death over their hapless serfs? We don’t (yet) endure a repression that Christians in other areas of the world must in order to practice their worship, but on the other hand it makes them more fervent believers who are willing to make that sacrifice. Imagine having to go to church in secret like those in China and Islamic nations do - if nothing else, we should strengthen our own faith to support them.
This isn’t to say we shouldn’t embrace certain types of technology, which surely were created for our benefit. But people have come to worship their almighty bank accounts and possessions rather than their actions toward assisting the least of us. My belief is that, as a Christian nation, we are well-equipped to do so without the heavy hand of government being involved. It’s our faith in God and wish to lift up our fellow man when needed that makes us a generous people.
There may also be some who believe we’ve come to the point of the Rapture, where believers will be caught up and meet with Jesus in the air. I’m not saying that’s not a possibility because only God knows His timing for the Rapture and the tribulation events in the Book of Revelation, but I’ve always understood it that the Rapture would come at a time when nearly all Christians have been persecuted to extinction, and there are still many millions of us toiling away.
But on the side of right, there are encouraging signs: in popular culture, the success of The Chosen on television and at theatres seems to me a sign that people are hungry for something to put their faith into. More recently, a pretty much word-of-mouth campaign has kept Sound of Freedom - which is not specifically a religious-based movie, but deals with the sin of child trafficking - near the top of the moviegoing charts. And who could forget the Asbury revival earlier this year? (There is also a report of an even longer-lasting revival in Louisiana dating to last year, although that’s not expressly college students.)
As I said, this is all on God’s timing, but I believe that if we don’t forsake the Lord God of our fathers, we all may still have a fighting chance in this divinely-inspired republic we call America.
Good analysis and good advice.