March 7, 2021 Prayer - For the Mountain of Government

King of Kings, Lord of Lords,

You are exalted, for you dwell on high, filling your people with justice and righteousness.  You are the sure foundation for our times, a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge.  You are our Judge, Lawgiver, King and the One who will save us. Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Prince of Peace, we thank you that you are in control of all aspects of our civic lives.  You are our true tower of strength, our safe place, our hideout, and our true shelter when the world seems crazy.  You call us to be obedient, ready for every good work, speaking evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people.  So we pray that your love may abound in us more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that we may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ.  We know that when we do not speak or act against the face of evil, our silence is in itself evil and you will not hold us guiltless. So help us to discern, pray, speak, and act from a pure heart - to overcome evil with Good - with the intention of standing up for your goodness and grace in our society.  Your Word calls us to submit to the governing authorities that you have appointed, but also calls us to have nothing to do with corrupt rulers who pass laws that empower evil and defeat what is right.  You given to our citizens the choice of our rulers and we recognize that it is the duty, as well as the privilege, of our nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers.  Yet, so many of our elected and appointed leaders seem so far from Christ.  So, in this day and time when evil seems to have won so much, we declare NO MORE to the wicked people and ideas currently controlling much of our governments.  We know that their evil plans and plots will eventually boomerang back onto them and seal their own doom.  We pray in the name of Jesus that you would set people around those in authority to witness your Truth and Righteousness to them. Set their minds on you and your ideas, not the ideas of the flesh or the enemy, so that they are not hostile to, but can submit to God. In the meantime, we pray you would thwart all the enemy's plans in every level of government for harm of this nation. Your wisdom is profound, your power is vast; you move mountains of evil without their knowing it and overturn them in your anger. And where there are godly, Spirit-led political leaders, help us to submit with joy to their authority, knowing that they will have to give an account to you for the decisions they make. Help us to live in peace with everyone and to be holy. Today we pray for godly city council members, school board members, county commissioners, judges at all levels, state house and federal representatives and senators, state Attorney Generals, Secretaries of State, Lieutenant Governors, Governors, the President and Vice President of the U.S., their Cabinet and other officers. We pray that those filling these positions will be men and women whose hearts and minds are surrendered to you, Jesus Christ, who are filled with the Holy Spirit, who have character that reflects the heart of Christ, and who are diligent in Bible study and prayer.  We pray for righteous leaders to be raised up in our nation who will honor God and His ways.  All this we pray in the strong name of Jesus Christ, Amen and Amen!

The Lord is exalted, for he dwells on high;

    he will fill Zion with his justice and righteousness.

He will be the sure foundation for your times,

    a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge;

    the fear of the Lord is the key to this treasure.

For the Lord is our judge,

    the Lord is our lawgiver,

the Lord is our king;

    it is he who will save us. (Isaiah 22:5, 6, 22 NIV)

"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." (Isaiah 9:6 NIV)

"Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people." (Titus 3:1-2 ESV)

"And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ." (Philiippians 1:9-10 NIV)

“Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.” - attributed to Dietrich Bonhoeffer

"Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." (Romans 12:21 NIV)

"Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience. ... (Romans 13:1-7 ESV)

"It’s obvious to all; you will have nothing to do

with corrupt rulers who pass laws that empower evil

and defeat what is right.

For they gang up against the lovers of righteousness

and condemn the innocent to death.

But I know that all their evil plans will boomerang back onto them.

Every plot they hatch will simply seal their own doom.

For you, my God, you will destroy them,

giving them what they deserve.

For you are my true tower of strength,

my safe place, my hideout, and my true shelter." (Psalm 94:20-23 TPT)

"Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you." (Hebrews 13:17 ESV)

"Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord." (Hebrews 12:14 NIV)

"For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot." (Romans 8:7 ESV)

"But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men." (Acts 5:29 ESV)

"Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor." (1 Peter 2:13-17 ESV)

"His wisdom is profound, his power is vast.

   Who has resisted him and come out unscathed?  

He moves mountains without their knowing it 

   and overturns them in his anger."  (Job 9:4-5 NIV)

“Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers. It’s the duty as well as the privilege of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers.” - John Jay (first U.S. Supreme Court judge)

September 19, 2020 Prayer

 When there is moral rot within a nation, its government topples easily; but with honest, sensible leaders there is stability. Proverbs 28:2 TLB

In time of civil war there are many leaders, but a sensible leader restores law and order.  Proverbs 28:2 CEV

When a nation sins, it will have one ruler after another. But a nation will be strong and endure when it has intelligent, sensible leaders.  Proverbs 28:2 GNT

“When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place. I have chosen and consecrated this temple so that my Name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there."  (2 Chronicles 7:13-16 NIV)

Leading God, 

Your Word says that you put leaders in place to govern over us and we are called to pray for them.  So today we pray specifically for the leaders in our nation.  May there be godly leaders in government at all levels, in the Church, in arts & entertainment, in media, in business, in education, and in families. We pray in the name of Jesus that every single one would be a man or woman after your own heart.  If a leader is not a Jesus follower, move them to a place of repentance and humility to seek your will and your ways.  Do not give us the leaders our sinful natures might deserve, but give us leaders who are honest, intelligent, and sensible - tuned into your Holy Spirit for your wisdom and guidance.  May this nation not be one known for her sins, her civil war, or her moral rot, but for the Light and Life that her leaders and people exemplify.  May this nation not topple or come to outright civil war, but may she be strong and endure because of your godly people praying for lawlessness to be broken and your righteousness to endure.   May your eyes be open and your ears attentive to the prayers offered today for this place.  We pray in the strong name of Christ, Amen. 

Decentralization

For the last 15 years or so I've heard people in ministry bemoaning the shrinking of the "mainline Church." This usually comes with the statistics of how many members were lost last year, what the trend has been the last 5 (10, 20, 50) years, and how churches and denominations are starting up programs to combat this decline.

And there are churches that have grown in the last 50 years, just as the "mainlines" have declined. Many independent and/or "non-denominational" churches have seen great growth in ministry. Some of the largest mega-churches have prospered outside the framework of the mainliners. Attending church doesn't guarantee salvation and the numerical growth of a church doesn't guarantee true spiritual growth. But statistics can tell us one thing: church membership in mainlines has declined and church membership in non-denoms has increased.

Does this mean God doesn't like mainlines any more? I don't think that's the point here. God is seeking worshippers (John 4:23-24); God is seeking men and women after His own heart (Jer. 3:15, 1 Sam. 13:14); God is seeking people who will SEEK FIRST the KINGDOM and God's Righteousness (Mt. 6:33). Whether a person seeking God is doing so in a mainline church, a nondenom, or another gathering of God's people, God will honor the genuine heart centered on Christ.

I've been reading online a lot in the last year about politics, economics, and sort of a "how the US got where we are" with regard to our economy and society. In that reading I've come across people who believe the US as a nation is on the downhill slide, just like Rome or Greece centuries ago. For a variety of reasons, there may come a time when the US as we know it doesn't exist. Aside from catastrophic events destroying it like nuclear war (or wonderful things like The Rapture!), there could be a time when the US government finally defaults on its debt, devalues the US$ so poorly, or does some other economically insane move (or moves). Or there may be a time when we find our federal government's power finally returned to the states and local governments. Or we may find our current US broken up into nation-states, much like that of Yugoslavia or the former USSR. No matter which of these scenarios might happen, the upheaval and societal chaos is nothing like most of us have ever considered, much less thought we'd live through.

Decentralization. The church of Jesus Christ is stronger (in my opinion) by being "decentralized" from the mainline domination of the 1950's. What if the federal government was seriously reduced and the power returned to the people and state & local governments? Could the governing structures within the US be stronger - and, more importantly, the people be stronger - if the power of federal government was "decentralized?" I believe so. (For reasons of brevity, I won't explain all my reasons here.)

As, perhaps, a side bar, what if our current societal/political trajectory continues? It is likely that American Christians would then see ourselves not only as marginalized in the public debate but persecuted. In the history of our nation we've never ever had to fight to be legitimate; this nation was founded on Christian principles and by (mostly) Christian thinkers. For them, as for Christians now, it would be unthinkable to not be a nation hospitable to Christians. But, what if that happened? Would we, the Church, be ready?

I'm not advocating violent revolution. Instead I'm trying to see what God is up to. God seems to have allowed the Church to be pruned for greater fruitfulness. Maybe God has done that work as a preparatory step to something we're going to have to face in the future. If the government takes away our rights to free speech (in the name of "political correctness" or "fairness") or to raise our children as we like (in the name of the "greater good") or to gather together (in the name of "hate speech"), then the Church would have to become a very different entity. No more mainliners or non-denoms; we would probably look much more like the persecuted house churches of countries like Vietnam or China.

Then again, Jesus said:

Remember the words I spoke to you: 'No servant is greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. (John 15:20 NIV)

He told us that believing in him was not without cost.

and

"Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head." (Mt. 8:20 NIV)

If we are a follower of the Christ we, too, may find ourselves without our "home base" and our "normal."

Jesus told us that:

¹"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. ²He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. ³You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. ⁴Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

⁵"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. ⁶If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. ⁷If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. ⁸This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. (John 15 NIV)

Maybe the decentralization of the church has been because God is pruning his (universal) Church for greater fruitfulness. Unencumbered by the pharasitical issues of our day, God's pruned-for-great-fruitfulness Church is making disciples and teaching them to love God with all our hearts, souls, minds, and spirits -- and to Love our neighbors as ourselves. (Mark 12:30, Mt. 28:19) Jesus needed no central authority to live out his message of love and healing and grace. His marching orders came from directly from God. Do ours?

Are we personally pruned for great fruitfulness? Is our local church body (of whatever structure/denomination it may be) pruned for great fruitfulness? Do we allow God to prune us, even when it's painful and goes against the "norm"? Are we seeking God first, trusting in God to provide our "holes and nests" as we follow where our Shepherd calls us? Are each of us loving God, ourself, and our neighbor in such a way the world sees a beautiful difference and we are able to eventually make a disciple? Are we so deeply connected to the vine our fruit of the Spirit is evident? (Gal. 5)

Anyway, some food for thought.

God of Amazing Wonders,

Thank you for challenging us to always be seeking your Kingdom, your ways, your righteousness, your Heart as we walk through this life. When we get caught up in the concerns of this world, whether it be church attendance statistics or federal government issues, remind us that YOU are the Maker of the World, the Beginning and the End, and you are the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.

Remind us you have the whole world in your hands and you are more than able to take care of everything. Help us be willing to allow you to prune our lives for greater fruitfulness. Help us surrender our bodies, our minds, our emotions, our relationships, our finances, our families -- all that we are -- to your capable care. Help us hear, confess, and repent when you point out our sin. Help us allow you to heal our wounds and our brokenness. Help us trust you to prune not only our individual lives but that of our churches. Help us to remain in you and to be deeply embedded in you, our Vine. Challenge us to become better at love.

Out of your glorious riches, strengthen us with power through your Spirit in our inner being, so that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith. May we, being rooted and established in love, have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that we may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.*

(*from Eph. 3)