Today is Ash Wednesday, the start of a time of repentance and prayer on our journey to Easter Sunday. I’d like to repost a short devotion I wrote last year to set the tone for this 40-day season. Whether you will be attending services today or praying on your own, I trust that this will be a time for you to deepen your walk with Jesus.

Ash Wednesday

We all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, but when we repent with all our heart God gives us a “divine do-over.” To pray specifically for a “divine do-over,” please click on the link.

Image courtesy of [David Castillo Dominici] / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

As I woke up the morning after the election, admittedly feeling despondent about the results, my Bible opened up to Psalm 133, and these were the words that greeted me:

 How good and pleasant it is

when brothers live together in unity!

It is like precious oil poured on the head,

running down on the beard, 

running down on Aaron’s beard, down upon the collar of his robes.

It is as if the dew of Hermon

were falling on  Mount Zion.

For there the LORD bestows his blessing,

even life forevermore. NIV

One thing we are not right now in America, is unified. With just slightly more than half of our country voting one way, and the rest another, we are a fractious, quarreling, divisive group, who have re-elected a President who must somehow put all of us Humpty-Dumpty people back together again.

Whether you are happy or sad about the election results, a few thoughts stand out to me in the midst of it all.

1.  God is not calling us to capitulate on our values and beliefs. He is calling us to pray. I am even more convinced of the need for prayer in America. We can follow Nehemiah’s example of prayer in Nehemiah 1:1-9 as he confessed and prayed for forgiveness for Israel before he began his task of rebuilding the wall. We have many problems facing us and much rebuilding that needs to be done on our country’s “walls.” We are facing trillions of dollars in debt, a “fiscal cliff” in January, illegal immigration, new health care, attacks on our embassies, continuing job losses, and social issues like same-sex marriage and abortion, just to name a few things.  God reminds us in 2 Chronicles 7:14 that if we humble ourselves and pray and seek Him that He will hear us and heal our land. Let’s pray for God’s intervention in these areas.
2.  We can pray that our witness for Christ will shine brightly during these times. We need to each be growing our relationship with our Savior, being conformed to His likeness, and then praying for the boldness and the leading of the Holy Spirit to reach out to others as God opens up the opportunities. God’s plan does not necessarily include a comfy, safe life for each of us. We need to be courageous in our faith–as wise as serpents and as gentle as doves.
3. Pray specifically for President Obama and Congress. As we intercede for godly wisdom, courage, bi-partisanship, biblical morals, honesty, protection, and God’s blessing on our nation, God can move to bring down the barriers that divide us. He is powerful and can do immeasurably more than we ask or think (Ephesians 3:20).
4. Pray that God will raise up godly leaders for our nation. It’s not too early to begin praying for 2016!

Getting Practical

Let’s join together in a powerful prayer effort for our country. I’ve put together a few suggestions on ways to incorporate this.

Monthly themes

We can take a theme and pray it for an entire month.

• January–Debt, budget,
• February–Bi-partisanship
• March–Health care
• April–Jobs
• May–Biblical morals, revival, same-sex marriage
• June–Foreign policy
• July–Protection of life and the unborn
• August–Immigration
• September–Schools and teachers
• October–Religious freedom
• November–Godly leaders
• December–Military

Weekly Themes

If you prefer to pray for all of these every week, you could split them up the following way:

• Monday–Pray for debt, budget, and bi-partisanship
• Tuesday–Pray for health care and jobs
• Wednesday–Pray for biblical morals, revival, salvation, same-sex marriage and foreign policy
• Thursday–Pray for protection of life and the unborn and immigration
• Friday–Pray for schools and teachers and religious freedom
• Saturday–Pray for godly leaders and our military
• Sunday–Pray for President Obama

What are your feelings about praying for our nation? Please share any ways that you like to pray for America in the comments section.

Pray on!

Image courtesy of [Stuart Miles] / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I just wanted to mobilize people to pray for the people, businesses, churches, schools, and ministries in Colorado Springs, Colorado that are in the path of the huge wildfire burning out of control. Many people have already lost their homes, and thousands have been evacuated, including the campus of the Air Force Academy.

Compassion International, Bibles for the World, HCJB Global, Global Action, Biblica, and Focus on the Family are just a few of the many ministeries located in Colorado Springs that may be in the path of the fire. Click on Mission Network News to view a link they have done on this story.

If you would like, you can add your prayer for Colorado Springs to this blog by leaving it in a comment below. We can pray for protection for families, homes, and fire fighters, for God to intervene, for rain, and for the wind to die down.

Pray on!

Walking through the land of Israel, walking with His Apostles, or walking the road to the cross… Jesus walked out His life upon this earth. He invites us to walk with Him. To Pray Specifically about walking with Jesus, please click on the link.

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During this Lenten season, like Esther and the Jewish people, let’s once again unite as the people of God and fast for the healing and salvation of our nation.  To do the devotional “For Such a Time as This” please click on the link.

Image: creativedoxfoto / FreeDigitalPhotos.net