“Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.” - Jeremiah 33:3
If there has ever been a time when Christians need to pray, it is right now. While most Christians believe that prayer is important, we tend to neglect this vital discipline. It is easier to busy ourselves with the events of the day than it is to get alone with God and pray.
Yet prayer is never a waste of time. The Puritan, John Bunyan, once wrote, “You can do more than pray after you have prayed, but you cannot do more than pray until you have prayed. Pray often, for prayer is a shield to the soul, a sacrifice to God, and a scourge to Satan.”
We are living in perilous times. Sin is embraced and celebrated by our society. Righteousness is rejected and scorned. Common sense is no longer common. In fact, it is astonishing at the depth of depravity and ignorance that is common place in our nation. We can't help but shake our heads in disbelief at the extreme that people have gone with their “logic.”
As Christians, we should be preparing for greater degrees of persecution. The level of persecution in America is very light compared to Muslim countries. But we must admit that Christians seem to be the target of increased hostility. Furthermore, we are witnessing apostasy among “Christian” leaders and denominations. In an effort to be “cool,” “relevant,” and “tolerant,” many have embraced the very sins that God plainly condemns.
We are nearing another Presidential election. The future of our nation seems to be hanging by a thread. The news media is overtly biased and refuses to take responsibility for their conduct or the results of their own activity.
What a mess! As an American Christian, I feel as though our nation is like the Titanic, doomed to hit the iceberg of God's judgment.
While I believe strongly that Christians need to unite and boldly stand for the right things and strongly renounce sin and wickedness, I also must admit that our long-term silence has permitted this nation to go down the drain.
While I intend to vote in November, I intend to do something far more important in the mean time. I intend to pray. I call on all believers to pray. Our nation needs our prayers. Our communities need us to pray. Families stand in need of our prayers. Our churches are in dire need of prayer. Lost souls need our prayers.
The prophet was told, “Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.” Notice that there are three things in this verse.
First of all, he was commanded to ask. Jeremiah was told to, “Call unto me.” He wasn't told to call on the government or visit a lawyer's office. Instead, he was told to call on God. Why do we use prayer as a last resort? God is available to hear our prayers right now. We are called to pray. Will you heed that call?
Secondly, he was told that God would answer his prayer. God said, “... I will answer thee.” God made Him a promise. I think one reason why people neglect prayer is that they no longer expect answers when they pray. Yet God still hears and answers prayer. Why wait any longer? Pray today!
Finally, God made a second promise. In addition to promising to answer Jeremiah's prayer, He promised to do miraculous things in response to prayer. God promised that He would, “... show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.” While we believe that God did miracles in the past, do we believe He can do them today? He has never changed. He is still able to do mighty things. Yet many of these things will happen in response to prayer. Perhaps we aren't seeing many miracles because few people are really praying.
As believers, we need to unite in prayer. We need to pray with greater vigor than ever before. These are desperate times. We need to pray with desperation. We should pray with faith, believing that God is hearing. We should pray with expectation, anticipating an answer from our Lord. We should pray for determination, persevering in spite of the circumstances around us.
Let us pray!
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