Pray For Your City
Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city for which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper. -- Jeremiah 29:7
And the point in, you ask. What is God's will for this country? What will bring Him glory? Sometimes it seems that we are so busy telling everyone how it should be that we don't really consider God.
We say we do. We probably believe we do. But we condemn the poor, without knowing the facts. We call the unemployed lazy without knowing how many resumes they've sent out. We criticize health care without offering a solution that provides medical care to the working poor. It goes on and on. Did God really expect us to be so hard-hearted?
My Sunday school class has been studying the book of Daniel. In Chapter 9, Daniel prays to God, pleading for mercy and forgiveness. The 70 years of exile are coming to an end. Jeremiah spoke of this in Chapter 29. Yet Daniel knows that we all have sinned. But, here's the thing: Daniel didn't point fingers. He didn't make excuses. He didn't compare the Jews to the Babylonians. He simply admitted how God's people had failed Him and he asked for God's forgiveness and mercy.
There's a lesson in that for us. We point fingers at everyone but ourselves. We compare ourselves to others, always making sure that we look better than the other guy. We have so many excuses and none of them matter. We fail God. We have our own agendas. We seek our own will over His.
So today, take a moment to pray for your city, your country, your people. Ask God for His will to be done. Admit your own sin, and apologize for it. The apologize for the sins of those around you. No finger pointing. Just simple and true and front the heart. Then ask God for mercy and blessings so that He might be glorified.
Because that's what it is all about anyway. God. Not you. Not me. God. It changes the focus and puts it where it belongs. Thank you Jesus! Thank you! Your will be done.
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