Here is HOPE… the Lord Jesus is in control! part 3
The previous chapter is full of accounts where God Almighty (Jehovah-Jireh, our Provider) stepped in to bring deliverance where the efforts of man were futile! God intervenes at the request of his people. Prayer moves the heart of God.
7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.
8 For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. Matthew 7:7-8 (NIV)
1) We must first pray for the salvation of those who are pushing the ideology number one
agenda. God loves them and desires that they turn from their wicked ways and come to
Him! Some might say “the wicked have become so hardened that they are impervious to
the Gospel of Jesus Christ.” That may certainly be true; however, we can pray for them and
let the Lord sort it out later.
11 As surely as I live, says the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of wicked
people. I only want them to turn from their wicked ways so they can live. Ezekiel 33:11 (NLT)
2) We must pray for the United States of America. I believe God loves this country and wants
to see it survive!
11 When Solomon had finished the temple of the LORD and the royal palace, and had succeeded in carrying out all he had in mind to do in the temple of the LORD and in his own palace,
12 the LORD appeared to him at night and said: “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a temple for sacrifices. 13 “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, 14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 2 Chronicles 7:11-14 (NIV)
3) Pray for wisdom! In these uncertain times we need the direction and understanding that
can only come from the Lord! In Colossians, the Apostle Paul exhibits for us how to pray
for wisdom and understanding:9 For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding.
10 And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God,
11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. 13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Colossians 1:9-14 (NIV)