Personal Prayer; Confession (1John 1:9) Come before God in personal contrition; brokenness
Prayer for our churches, our cities and our nation—Jeremiah 3:1-4:4
Jeremiah 3
Polluted by sin
V6 …. “Have you seen what fickle Israel has done? Like a wife who commits adultery, Israel has worshiped other gods on every hill and under every green tree. 7 I thought, ‘After she has done all this, she will return to me.’ But she did not return….she thought nothing of committing adultery by worshiping idols made of wood and stone. So now the land has been polluted.
Faithless Israel worshiped other gods: dependency on money, success, power, prestige; like a wife running to another lover to satisfy her desire for pleasure. Like Israel, America needs to turn back to the one true faithful loving husband for genuine satisfaction. In this generation our culture has changed before our very eyes (See Francis Schaeffer quote below).
Call to Repent
V12 .... This is what the LORD says: “O Israel, my faithless people, come home to me again, for I am merciful. I will not be angry with you forever. 13 Only acknowledge your guilt. Admit that you rebelled against the LORD your God and committed adultery against him by worshiping idols under every green tree. Confess that you refused to listen to my voice….16 “And when your land is once more filled with people,” says the LORD, “you will no longer wish for ‘the good old days’ when you possessed the Ark of the LORD’s Covenant. You will not miss those days or even remember them, and there will be no need to rebuild the Ark.
Do not long for the “good old days,” the “good old buddies,” the good old hang outs.” Your loving faithful husband (God) will not disappoint you.
How to Repent
V22 ….“Yes, we’re coming,” the people reply, “for you are the LORD our God. 23 Our worship of idols on the hills and our religious orgies on the mountains are a delusion. Only in the LORD our God will Israel ever find salvation. 24 From childhood we have watched as everything our ancestors worked for….was squandered on a delusion. 25 Let us now lie down in shame and cover ourselves with dishonor, for we and our ancestors have sinned against the LORD our God. From our childhood to this day we have never obeyed him.”
Jeremiah 4
V1 “O Israel,” says the LORD, “if you wanted to return to me, you could. You could throw away your detestable idols and stray away no more. 2 Then when you swear by my name, saying, ‘As surely as the LORD lives,’ you could do so with truth, justice, and righteousness. Then you would be a blessing to the nations of the world, and all people would come and praise my name.” 3 This is what the LORD says to the people of Judah and Jerusalem: “Plow up the hard ground of your hearts! Do not waste your good seed among thorns. 4 O people of Judah and Jerusalem, surrender your pride and power. Change your hearts before the LORD, or my anger will burn like an unquenchable fire because of all your sins.
After rebelling time and time again, God still calls His people to Himself. He never gives up. Here is how to repent and renew: Humble yourself before God, confess your sin, put away arrogance, pride and selfishness; stand by the truth; break away, cut away the response of the flesh, consecrate yourselves (set yourself apart) for Him. Or suffer the consequences.
Francis Schaeffer, in his 1975 book, Joshua and the Flow of Biblical History said this about the generation of people who knew not Joshua. “The children of Israel….forgot [about their commitment to serve God]. And thus came the confusion, the sorrow and the total lawlessness of the period of the judges. We are seeing exactly the same shift in our own generation. [My generation] experienced a Christian consensus [a culture in which we called ourselves “Christian”]. This does not mean that every individual was a Christian but that society was strongly influenced by Christian values. But my generation and the generations immediately preceding me made a bad choice, and so we now live in a post-Christian world [a world in which Christianity has been marginalized; pushed to the fringe]. The choices of faith have been set aside and forgotten, and, accordingly, the confusion, sorrow and lawlessness of the time of the judges is occurring in our generation. If you are a member of the younger generation, you are a recipient of the consequences of this bad choice. This is who your are. To understand yourself, you must understand that you have grown up in a post-Christian world.” Today, almost forty years later, it is not better. It is worse and changing exponentially.
Prayer Focus: Our national/local leaders be shielded from New Age thinking, false religions, and occultism; they hear and understand the Biblical worldview and principles; they work to reverse trends of humanism; they be prepared to give an account of their lives to God.
PRAY FOR Our Nation As You Might Pray For A Lost Friend?
That America will want to know about God
That America would think about why she needs Jesus to forgive her sins
Prevent Satan from blinding America from the truth
Send someone who will tell America about Jesus
Make me brave enough to be used to tell America about Jesus
That America will turn from her sin and follow Jesus
That America will really trust in Jesus
That America will chose to believe that Jesus is Lord
That America will hear and believe the Bible
PERSONAL REFLECTION
(Contemplate God’s Word to you)
What was the most significant thought you received from this session?
Why do you think God implanted this upon your heart?
What do you think God wants you to do as result of what you have heard?
Is there anything that might keep you from receiving/doing/obeying what you heard?
Ask His help in achieving what He spoke to you.
Thank God for what you have heard; remember and apply it to your life.
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THIS POST? CHECK BELOW.
