A Quiet and Peaceable Life

“For I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” (Jer. 29:11)

 

Have you ever wondered where God is when you’re going through hard trials and nothing that you’ve tried seemed to workout just right? Well, let me just share something with you. God loves you and He's “a very present help” (Ps 46:1); He's the answer to a hurting people.

 

He said, “if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land” (2Chron. 7:14).

 

Let’s face it, all that God requires of us is that we:

1. Humble ourselves
2. Pray and seek His face
3. Turn from our wicked ways

It’s a matter of our Faith working for us and God’s Grace and Mercy doing the rest. God said that if we do our part then it’s up to Him to do the rest. He will:

1. Hear from heaven
2. Forgive our sins and
3. Restore our land

It’s that simple, our country urgently needs restoring. It needs restoration Politically, Economically, Socially and Spiritually. The Lord says that His eyes will be open and His ears attentive to every prayer (2Chron. 7:15).

 

So, why are we not getting results? Why are our youths slain in the streets or being incarcerated in juvenile detention? Why are so many people held captivates by drugs? Why are there so many broken families? It’s because of sin. “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way” (Isaiah 53:6) living in sin.

Many in our country today have forgotten this fundamental truth, “Sin is a reproach to any people” (Prov. 14:34). God will not exalt a nation that is steeped in sin! Time and again Israel, in the Bible, would turn from God and turn to sin, and God would allow reproach to come against them. How dare we think that it will be any different with us? God will not bless sin. The word of God tells us, “the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 6:23).

As a nation, “we’ve become full and prosperous and have built fine homes to live in, and in our time of plenty” (Deut. 8: 11-14), we’ve shut God out of our lives, our homes, our schools, government, work and even some of our churches. We’re on the very verge of becoming a secular society, one that forgets God.

 

The nation that forgets God, forgets itself when it turns away from the ideals and foundation on which it was built. What right then has it to be a people, if it doesn’t have its origin and hope in God?

 

A nation that forgets God will not prosper (Deut. 8:1-2); but God hasn’t cast us off. He’s pleading for us to repent and return to Him, so that He can begin the process of restoration.

 

God has called us to intercede. He has commanded us to pray for leaders and those in authority, instead of joining unbelievers to speak disrespectfully about them. He has given us His word, His power, His name, His authority, His faith. We have all the tools necessary to pray an “effectual fervent prayer” (Jam. 5:16) for our government and its leaders.

 

“I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions,

and giving of thanks, be made for all men; for kings,

and for all that are in authority;

that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty” (1Timothy 2:1-2).

 

That verse is clear, isn’t it? The instruction is plain. Yet even in these tumultuous days when our nation is so desperately in need of God’s guidance, most people doesn’t do what that verse commands.

 

Why not? I believe it’s because most of us are overwhelmed by the problems we see around us. “How could my prayers make a dent in the national debt?” we think. “How could my faith affect foreign policy?”

 

In other words, we fail to pray because we fail to realize just how powerfully our prayers can affect this country. We fail to realize that faith can move mountains. We fail to realize that there is nothing that is too hard or difficult for our God.

 

It’s time we caught hold of that fact. It’s time we realized that if we’d just be obedient to 1Timothy 2:1-2, there’s no council of any kind on earth, no king, no president, no congress, nothing that could stop, hinder or overthrow God’s purpose for His people.

 

Church, I urge you to intercede. It’s our responsibility as believers to get involved in the affairs of our country. God wants to bless this great nation of ours, and the only way He’s going to get it, is through you and me.

 

Let us endeavor to pray for this nation everyday, and never again underestimate the world-changing power of our prayers. So, let the healing begins!

 

Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen (Eph. 3:20).