Prayers of giving thanks to God will be uttered this week. This is good; we do not want to be unthankful people who take God’s blessings for granted. The United States is so blessed with material wealth that we should acknowledge the source of it all (Deut. 8:18). Many fall into the same trap as the rich Israelites in the days of Amos who were “at ease in Zion” (Amos 6:1). As long as they could enjoy themselves relaxing on their ivory couches, listening to music, eating the finest steak and drinking their wine, they could not have cared less for the affliction of God’s people (Amos 6:3-6). Ingratitude leads to a whole host of other sins (Rom. 1:21ff).
This brings us to another component that should also be included in our prayers: confession of sin (Neh. 1:6; Jer. 14:20; Dan. 9:3-15). Our founding fathers and some of our past presidents thought it necessary to set aside a day not merely for giving thanks, but for confessing the sins of the nation. While the threat of terrorist attacks and the mounting national debt are real concerns for the citizens of this nation, we must realize it is not the strength and cunning of our enemies nor the fiscal woes of our federal government that should be our chief concern. By far the sins of our nation pose the most serious threat to our peace and prosperity (Prov. 14:34). The sins of murder and fornication are described in God’s word as defiling a land; when God dealt with the particular nation of Israel in the Old Testament, He gave these two sins as reasons for why that nations of Canaan were taken off the land and why Israel herself would lose the land if she allowed such (Lev. 18:24-28; Num. 35:31-34). God hates the shedding of innocent blood (Prov. 6:17), and the 58 million children who have been slaughtered in their mothers’ wombs with the legal consent of our highest court since 1973 is a debt that is far more serious than the $20 trillion of national debt that has so many people talking. Sooner or later the bill comes due. When nations refuse to make murderers pay for their crimes, as our nation has since the legalization of abortion, God will require payment sooner or later (Gen. 9:6; 2 Kings 21:16; 24:2-4). The cities of Sodom and Gomorrah stand as a testament to God’s judgment upon fornication and perversion (Jude 7; cf. Rom. 1:26-27; Heb. 13:4). A land that is filled with fornication and remains impenitent should be most terrified by a coming judgment from God.
This brings us to a third component that should be in our prayers: requests for deliverance. Faithful children of God who are troubled every day by the wickedness that surrounds them should pray to God for deliverance (Mt. 6:13; cf. 1 Cor. 10:13). Just as God would have spared Sodom for the sake of ten righteous souls (Gen. 18:32), so He is mindful of the Christians who are living righteously in our nation. We should recognize that God, “delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;) The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished” (2 Pet. 2:7-9). We should pray for our nation and its leaders so that we can lead a quiet and peaceable life of godliness and honesty (1 Tim. 2:2).
-Mark Day