National day of prayer

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 will forgive their sin and heal their land. 2 Chron 7:14

Our land needs healing, that is for sure. I used to wonder how doing this Scripture would help. The people who were likely to pay attention to this Scripture were most likely the ones who were not walking in wicked ways anyway, so what did they have to repent of?

But then God taught me that Abraham's ministry in the earth was as a prophet and an intercessor. God calls Abraham a prophet in Gen 20:7, even though I searched and could find nothing of what we think of as prophetic messages coming from his mouth. And it is obvious God thinks of him as an intercessor, for Abraham interceeded for Sodom and Gomorrah, and also he prayed for the household of the Philistine king at the Lord's command. In other words, a prophet speaks for God to the world, and an intercessor speaks for the world to God. Abraham's ministry was as a mediator!

Now we are Abraham's children and heirs, and his ministry is our ministry. We are called to speak for God to the world - to be witnesses. And we are called to speak for the world to God. So if WE, the people called by God's name, humble ourselves, and confess the sins of our land, and pray and seek God's face on behalf of our land, then God will hear from heaven, and forgive the sin of our land, and heal us.

This is what Daniel did, in Dan chapter 9. He prayed and confessed to the Lord that "we have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done wickedness and rebelled;" even though Daniel himself was a righteous man and obeyed the commandments of the Lord all the days of his life.

Then let us also confess our own wicked ways. Any way that we walk, that is man's way instead of the Lord's way as He has given us in the Scriptures, let us repent of. Let us repent of working on Sabbath, and divorcing our spouses, and not diligently seeking the face of the Lord our God day after day. Let us turn from those things and begin to do right.

So today, let us pray and confess the sins of the Christian families, in which 50% of the fathers engage in [p-rn], and 50% of the Christians do not read their Bibles, and 80% of the Christian children attend public school, and the children leave off serving the Lord when they are grown. Let us pray and confess the sins of the Christian church, which has begun to embrace homo[s-x]ual pastors and leaders, and mixes new age messages into the church, and whose mega church pastors and mega ministry evangelists seek after numbers or fame or wealth or influence rather than seeking after the Lord God. Then let us pray and confess the sins of our nation, which are legion.

God is gracious and merciful, forgiving iniquity and sin, and He will turn back to us as we turn back to Him, and He will heal us. :)