Category: Blog Page 109 of 169

Ecclesiastes 7:8 “Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof: and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.”

God has convicted me to focus on “the end of a thing” in 2016. We are so often consumed with our present challenges that we fail to consider the preeminence of the long term over the immediate. Politicians, military leaders, and businessmen fall into the same trap as tactical demands overwhelm strategic forethought. With Christians, it should never be so.

God reminds us that the end of a thing is better than the beginning. In the same breath, He also reminds us to be patient. Humility and the long-view of life are valuable tools to avoid the pitfalls of being consumed by the immediate to the peril of the permanent. God directs us to be tactically content, but strategically restless. As Job learned, latter end blessings are more wonderful than those in the beginning:

• https://prayatlunch.us/the-end-more-than-the-beginning/
• https://prayatlunch.us/twice-as-much/

There is nothing more strategic than prayer, and praying for our nation and her leaders is critical to our long term well-being. It is the least we should do and the most we can do to make an impact. We should do so with a prevailing patience about the present and a holistic humility about our position. We should bathe everything in prayer as we keep our eyes on the end of the thing.

PLEASE PRAY STRATEGICALLY, PERSISTENTLY, AND PATIENTLY FOR OUR NATION. “Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof.”

SET YOUR ALARM: If you’re alarmed (that Christians haven’t redeemed the time today to impact America’s future), set your alarm (to pray for our nation)!

James 5:16 “Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”

The author of the “God Isn’t Fixing This” article in the New York Daily News (see the previous post) stated that offering prayer condolences to victims (e.g. ‘my thoughts and prayers are with you’) are “meaningless platitudes.” Yet again, this misguided author is partly right.

When we say we will pray about something or for someone, and then fail to do so, then we are indeed offering meaningless platitudes. When our prayers are dull, insipid, banal, trite, or stale, then our claims are meaningless platitudes. When we express concern about our country and then fail to pray daily and fervently about it, then we are being trapped by meaningless platitudes.

The Daily News article directs the reader to a subsequent editorial about gun violence subtitled “when will America wake up?” Indeed, when will Christian Americans wake up? When will we move beyond meaningless platitudes and employ the power of meaningful prayer? When will we get serious about our prayer obligations? When will we faithfully and fervently pray for the things for which we express concern? Until we do, we are rightfully called out as ineffectual.

PLEASE EMPLOY MEANINGFUL PRAYER INSTEAD OF MEANINGLESS PLATITUDES. Our nation needs us to do so.

James 5:16 “Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”

After December’s terrorist attack in San Bernardino, the following was defiantly emblazoned on the cover of the New York Daily News … “God Isn’t Fixing This.” The accompanying article started with the thought that “prayers aren’t working” and went on to describe the futility of prayer as a solution to our nation’s problems.

The author may be partly right – our prayers haven’t been working. What he doesn’t realize, however, is that this situation says far more about us than it does about God. Our prayers can be effectual, availing much, but they must be accompanied by purity and fervency. As a nation, are we praying as should? No! Are we as repentant as we should be? No! Are we as fervent as we should be? No!

The deteriorating conditions in our nation are not the fault of a loving, all-powerful God. Instead of placing blame upward, we should place our blame inward. The situation we face is our fault, and until we focus on righteousness, humility, and fervency, we shouldn’t expect things to change.

PLEASE PRAY FOR A NATIONWIDE, HUMBLE SELF-REFLECTION ON THE ROOT CAUSE OF OUR PROBLEMS. Until we affix our eyes on God, He shouldn’t be expected to fix anything.

SET YOUR ALARM: If you’re alarmed (that the election season is upon us without us committing to a season of prayer) set your alarm (to pray for our nation)!

Psalm 33:12 “Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.”

After describing the purpose of government, uplifting the importance of uniqueness, explaining the pitfalls of monarchy, and expounding upon the blessings of God, Thomas Paine decides that there is only one natural conclusion that compliments independence:

“But where say some is the King of America? I’ll tell you Friend, he reigns above, and doth not make havoc of mankind like the Royal Brute of Britain. Yet that we may not appear to be defective even in earthly honors, let a day be solemnly set apart for proclaiming the charter; let it be brought forth placed on the divine law, the word of God; let a crown be placed thereon, by which the world may know, that so far as we approve of monarchy, that in America THE LAW IS KING. For as in absolute governments the King is law, so in free countries the law ought to be King; and there ought to be no other. But lest any ill use should afterwards arise, let the crown at the conclusion of the ceremony be demolished, and scattered among the people whose right it is.”

Yes, God is to be King of America with His crowned Word as the nation’s foundation. There ought to be no other. Instead, we have supplanted our rightful leader with earthly treasure. The result is national havoc stemming from the brute of our own banality. We are no longer exceptional because we have become egotistical as we have dethroned our true leader. PLEASE PRAY THAT WE WOULD RE-CORONATE AMERICA’S RIGHTFUL KING.

Exodus 3:8 “And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites.”

In addition to addressing the purpose and form of proper government, Thomas Paine addressed some more tangible reasons why America should be independent.

Specifically, Paine marveled at the amazing natural resources God had provided North America: “In almost every article of defense we abound.” Indeed, this was a land flowing with milk and honey. Additionally, Paine highlighted the distance from Britain that demonstrates God-ordained safety and protection, provides a natural proof of a lack of unity between Britain and America, and hinders the ability of one to rule the other:

“Every thing that is right or natural pleads for separation. The blood of the slain, the weeping voice of nature cries, ‘TIS TIME TO PART. Even the distance at which the Almighty hath placed England and America, is a strong and natural proof, that the authority of the one, over the other, was never designed of Heaven.”

Finally, Paine remarked about the timing of our discovery as a proof of our destiny:

“The time likewise at which the continent was discovered, adds weight to the argument, and the manner in which it was peopled increases the force of it. The reformation was preceded by the discovery of America, as if the Almighty graciously meant to open a sanctuary to the persecuted in future years, when home should afford neither friendship nor safety.”

As a result, Paine’s inevitable conclusion stemming from God’s incredible endowment was that: “The authority of Great-Britain over this continent, is a form of government, which sooner or later must have an end.”

As Paine directed the colonists then, we must linger on God’s incredible blessings in our lives and on this nation today. He has blessed us tremendously, and instead of diverting our eyes from Him we should cling to His amazing power. PLEASE PRAY FOR AMERICAN CHRISTIANS TO RETURN OUR GAZE TO GOD’S AMAZING POWER. His blessings were irrefutable proof that this land was pleading for separation. Similarly, His blessings should provide us irrefutable proof that we must cling to Him today.

SET YOUR ALARM: If you’re alarmed (that we are waiting to be brought to our knees before we fall to our knees), set your alarm (to pray for our nation)!