I have just read the prayer of King Solomon, David’s son, dedicating the temple he built for the Lord God in Jerusalem. In the prayer he looked ahead to the defeats, afflictions, and sins of his people, and prayed for their repentance, redemption and forgiveness. 1 Kings 8:22-53. In it he prayed that when they repented and turned back to the Lord He would receive them and maintain their cause.
The thought occurred to me that we American Christians too seldom turn to God and together pray for our people’s redemption and the redemption of other peoples. We too seldom pray the way that Solomon was praying.
Should we not fervently and repeatedly turn to God and in the name of Christ pray for deliverance out of sin, its ensuing afflictions and into faithfulness to God and His will and plan? For ourselves and for people of other nations?
I think of Russia’s war on Ukraine and the thoughts of other nations about helping or not helping Ukraine. How many Americans - especially the church - have humbly and publicly confessed our sins and departure from God’s way and asked to be guided in the way of His solutions? Should we not?
I think of national responses to the plague of Covid19.
We should think seriously about who’s in charge here. Is it President Putin, President Zelensky, our president and other leaders? Or God the creator of heaven and earth and its redeemer? Solomon believed it is God, and prayed publicly that in future national miseries the people of Israel would repent and return to God and God would take up their cause.
Should Christians in America and elsewhere pray more like Solomon for ourselves and for the church in other nations?
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