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Monday Meditation: A Prayer for Church and Nation

Father, you are Lord and Creator. You are holy and sovereign. We pray to you because you alone hear. You alone can intervene in our circumstances. You alone are able to bring about salvation, peace, and healing.

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.

2 Chronicles 7:14

As your people, we humble ourselves, pray, seek your face, and repent. When we look around our nation and world, we are heartbroken at the fallen condition of mankind. We see wickedness, despair, immorality, violence, and hate. We long for awakening. We long for sinners to come to know you. But we realize that revival must begin with us. Reveal to us our sins that we may confess them. Grant us repentance that we may turn to you.

Have mercy on me, O God,
    according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
    blot out my transgressions.
 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
    and cleanse me from my sin!

Psalm 51:1-2

Have mercy on us your people. When we look in our sinful hearts, we find idols: things to which we give attention and adoration besides you (1 John 5:21). Use these days to reveal our idols that we may turn from them and to you with our whole hearts. We deserve judgment for our sin, but we plead your mercy.


You keep him in perfect peace
    whose mind is stayed on you,
    because he trusts in you.

Isaiah 26:3

Father, we are weak. As your people, we should walk by faith, not sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). But we find ourselves nervous, anxious, afraid. Forgive us for being overwhelmed by our circumstances and controlled by our fears. Teach us to keep our minds on you, to trust in you, and experience your peace.

do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.  And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:6-7

Teach us to bring our anxieties to you in prayer with thanksgiving. Father, you want to hear us as your children. You want us to have your peace and presence. May we learn to pray in thankfulness and experience your peace.

They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.  As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.

John 17:16-19

Thank you Father that you have changed us. Thank you that we have your Spirit living within us and our hope and future is eternal. Nevertheless, we find ourselves living in a world fractured by what is false and divided by disinformation. Sanctify us in your truth. You have sent us into this world to influence and impact. To fulfill your purposes, we need what is timeless: your truth and your Word. May we focus this day on your Word and your will.

praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.

Ephesians 6:18-20

Father, may we walk daily in a demeanor of prayer. May we persevere, praying when we feel like it and when we don’t. May we intercede for others. May we have boldness to declare the truth of the gospel that will redeem lost souls. The only hope for your people is revival and renewal in your Word and by your Spirit. The only hope for our nation and world is the gospel of your Son. Revive us your people that we may boldly proclaim Jesus to a lost world. In your glory and grace, grant revival to your people and awakening to our land.

Amen.

PhPhoto by Matthew Henry on Unsplash

Monday Meditation: Realistic Expectations

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be preaching a series entitled “Patterns of Prayer.” If you’re interested, you can find our worship services on Vimeo, YouTube, or on our church FaceBook page. One of the main reasons I’m preaching a series on prayer is that I feel inadequate in my prayer life.

When comparing my prayer life to those of great Christians of the past: Martin Luther who prayed for 2-3 hours a day, Hudson Taylor who awoke at 4 am nearly every day to pray, or George Müller who cared for orphans literally by prayer, it feels as if I fall very short of what I should be.

Maybe you feel this way as well. Maybe you are tempted to look at the biblical heroes and lament your shortcomings. Noah built an ark and rescued man and animals, Moses led 2 million Hebrews out of Egypt, David slew a giant, Paul traveled the world preaching the gospel. If we succumb to the temptation to compare our Christian lives to the spiritual heroics of biblical characters, we recognize what we lack and how we fall short.

But is this the way we are to think? Should we compare ourselves to the biblical heroes of the past? What does the Bible teach us about self-perceptions and reality?

It is easy sometimes to view the Bible through a romantic lens. By romantic I mean the viewpoint of romanticism that elevates characters and events to some idealized perspective. While sometimes unintentional, we promote this interpretive strategy when we put the biblical characters on pedestals and make them our models. No doubt we can learn much from the faith and obedience of the characters in the Bible, but we must not romanticize our perspective of them.

They were human. They needed forgiveness and redemption. Noah got drunk, Abraham lied, Jacob deceived, Moses murdered, David committed adultery, Peter denied, Paul and Barnabas divided. I could go on, but you get the idea. Bible characters were sinful as well, and the viewpoint the Bible takes on its characters is instructive for us.

The realism of the Bible is that God does not excuse sin, but neither is he finished with us when He finds sin in us. and for this we should be thankful.

Francis Schaeffer, No Little People, 31.

Here’s the reality. Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Moses, David, Peter, Paul, Barnabas, and every other biblical character besides Jesus were sinners who needed grace and forgiveness. God used these men and women in spite of their faults because God is full of grace and mercy.

Take a look at the Bible. Look for the flaws and sins of the biblical heroes. It won’t take you long to find them. This is not to excuse or minimize sin. The cross is God’s statement about how he hates sin. But only Jesus has ever been perfect.

God is not waiting on you to be perfect before he uses you. This is good news. You and I are sinners and will continue to sin. We need the grace of God, but we can also be used greatly by God.

You’re going to fail. So am I. Paul told his Philippian readers to “walk worthy of the gospel” (Philippians 1:27). But sometimes my steps, thoughts, words, and actions will not be very gospel worthy. Neither will yours.

The good news is that we have the gospel. If we walk in a state of humility where we confess our sins quickly, God will forgive us. The true test of Christian living is not perfection, but rather letting God bear his gospel fruit in our lives.

Here are some realistic expectations that I trust will encourage you:

  • Anticipate your sinful nature. You and I will make mistakes, act unwisely, or sin. Even being redeemed, we remain imperfect. For example, this stress-laden pandemic has induced short tempers and anxious thoughts. While our behavior might be sinful, it does not have to be disqualifying.
  • Remember the gospel. The Bible reveals that God is holy, we are sinful, and Christ came to redeem us from sin. The solution to our sinfulness is not better behavior, but rather a better Savior.
  • Ask for forgiveness. Our response to our sinful behaviors should not be to minimize them, but to confront them. We confront them by confessing them to Christ. When we confess, God promises to forgive and cleanse.
  • Walk in the Spirit. As we grow in our faith, we might overcome some sinful behaviors, but we will never reach perfection until heaven. Yet we can mature. We will mature and find strength in weakness and faith in fear by walking in the Spirit. Walking in the Spirit is obeying God’s Word, communing with him in prayer, and worshiping him in praise.

Don’t expect perfection of yourself (or others for that matter). Only Jesus is perfect. That’s why we have the gospel. But do seek the comfort offered through the real teachings of the Bible: God knows our sinful nature. He provided Jesus for our forgiveness. He promises to forgive and use us.

Hope you are encouraged by these biblical and realistic expectations.

Photo by Marc-Olivier Jodoin on Unsplash.