AS WE PRAY
Posted by: bhfbc <bhfbc@...>
May 4, 2003
Text: 2 Chronicles 20:1-19
As the New York Daily News hit the stands, its editorial pages had been
stripped of the scheduled copy and, instead, the newspaper published the
Lord's Prayer. Later that day, train passengers leaving Washington, D.C.
approached a clergyman and asked him to lead them in a time of prayer. In
the evening, almost 8,000 fans paused to pray before a boxing match in
Hartford, Conn. And by nightfall, more than 75,000 people had used the
St. Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan as a place for worship and
intercession. It was June 6, 1944 - more commonly known as D-Day.
As Allied military advanced on the beaches of Normandy, the citizens of
this great land were responding to President Franklin Roosevelt's
national call to prayer. During a nationwide radio broadcast, the
President himself prayed these words: 'And let our hearts be stout, to
wait out the long travail, to bear sorrows that may come, to impart our
courage unto our sons wheresoever they may be. And, O Lord, give us
faith. Give us faith in Thee." America desperately needed Divine help,
and the President - along with millions of Americans - called out to the
Lord for mercy.
That day proved to be the beginning of the end of World War II. The tide
had turned in favor of the Allied Forces - and 18 months later, the war
was over.
Though Roosevelt's national call to prayer was significant, it was not
the first time, nor the last, that a leader called upon the citizens to
intercede for their country. The Bible, in fact, provides a record of the
very first national day of prayer. In 2 Chronicles 20, King Jehoshaphat
was notified that his people would soon come under attack by the Ammonite
and Moabite armies. Jehoshaphat did not call his people to arms, nor did
he ask them to flee. Instead, he called Judah to prayer.
With war looming on the horizon, the king and his nation humbly
approached the Lord in a unified expression of dependence. As Jehoshaphat
led his people in prayer, he stated: "if calamity comes upon us, whether
the sword of judgement, or plague or famine, we will stand in Your
presence before this temple that bears Your Name and will cry out to You
in our distress, and You will hear us and save us" (2 Chronicles 20:9,
NIV). After the people of Judah prayed, the Lord assured them that He
would be their deliverer. He then gave Jehoshaphat specific orders: Judah
was to march down to the battlefields where the enemy armies were waiting
and simply pray.
The next morning, the people of Judah, led by King Jehoshaphat, stood at
the top of the hill and praised God through word and song. At that time,
the Lord sent an ambush from Mount Seir to attack the enemy troops. The
Ammonite and Moabite armies killed the men of Seir and then turned
against themselves and destroyed their own soldiers. When the people of
Judah looked down on the carnage, it was clear that not a single man had
survived. The people had cried out, and the Lord had provided victory.
The story of Jehoshaphat is a blueprint for what can happen when God's
people unite on bended knee. Jehoshaphat relied not on his own power as a
king, but on God's power as the King over all nations. His perspective is
echoed in the words of the Psalmist: "Some trust in chariots and some in
horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God." (Psalm 20:7, NIV).
Jehoshaphat's prayer contained several key themes that hold profound
relevance for our nation today. The first is unity. Jehoshaphat sought
God's favor because His people were God's people. The men and women of
Judah had faith in the Lord and were prepared to trust Him no matter what
the circumstances. God rewarded them for their faith.
Now our nation, America, lives under a few different circumstances than
ancient Israel. Although the foundational basis for our laws and actions
as a nation comes from faith in God, we were not formed as a theocracy;
that is, as a nation ruled by officials regarded as divinely guided by a
particular religion. Most monarchies, and even some dictatorships, make
attempts at theocratic rule where the leader is regarded as divinely
appointed to the extent that they make decisions for their deity which
apply to all their people. Even though we do regard governments as being
divinely established, as Paul reminds us in Romans 13, we are not a
nation established with a monarchy in mind. We are a nation in which the
citizens are to have significant voices in their government, and which
our government respects our rights to different beliefs. As a result, I
doubt that we will ever be able to gather as a nation in prayerful unity
to the extent that King Jehoshaphat called his people to prayer.
But make no doubt about it, the more united we strive to be in our
prayers throughout our nation, the more we will see of and experience
Gods blessings. God still deals with nations, and God still uses
national authorities as a means of restraint for evil that is perpetuated
by others who reject the love of God. Whether individuals or leaders in
control of nations, God does not allow evil behavior to go unchecked. The
prayers of Christians across our land expresses to God that we desire to
see His purpose prevail. God is always moved to action by the prayers and
actions of His righteous people. He took action on behalf of Noah,
Abraham, Moses, and others on numerous occasions because they lifted
their prayers to God. He has not changed in this regard, and the more we
lift our prayers in unity, the more Gods actions will be seen.
The second key theme is humility. Jehoshaphat recognized God's sole
sovereignty over the situation. He acknowledged that the Lord was both
his leader and the leader of his country. Jehoshaphat was a powerful
king, and his recognition of God's ultimate power and authority was a
sign of great wisdom as well as submission. It becomes all too easy for
any leader, regardless of the form of government, to be overcome with a
sense of their own power. It is quite a mark of power to be able to
command the armies of whole nations! Or to take the wealth of others and
use it for personal purposes. Or, I suppose, to have statues and posters
of yourself placed all over a nation. These kinds of power can quickly
turn even the most sincere leader into a demon.
Israel experienced that over and over. Their first king, Saul, was chosen
by God because of his humble beginnings. Yet, Saul ended up being
disobedient to God. The second king, David, was better at humility than
his predecessor, but he had his moments of sinful failure, too. The third
king, Solomon, was regarded as the wisest man in the world at the outset
of his rule, but even he ended up regarding his powerful position as more
important than submission to God. And so it went. Some of Israels kings
didnt even bother starting out as humble servants of God at all. They
were just evil and disobedient from the start.
>From Genesis through Revelation, God calls His people to be humble. Our
prayers should indicate our humility. By humility, the Bible means that
we recognize the sovereignty of God and submit ourselves to His authority
regardless of our station in life. Again, Jehoshaphat was king of Israel
and could have drawn attention to himself as his peoples source of
protection. He did not do this. He called the people into assembly and
prayed to God for deliverance.
In our day, e-mail stories circulate quickly, and not all of them are
completely factual. I like to check some of the stories out on websites
that have been developed to verify or deny some of the claims that
circulate. One story regarded as truth comes from a meeting that Max
Lucado and several pastors had with President Bush at a White House
luncheon. The story goes something like this: As the ministers sat down
to lunch and waited for President Bush to appear, Max said that he was
expecting G.W. to walk in the room looking tired, serious, and depressed.
When the President came in, Max said he looked totally the opposite of
tired: he was energetic, joyful, and very focused on his talk with the
ministers. Max asked President Bush how he could seem so calm and
peaceful in the midst of all the tragedy. The President's reply was, I'm
feeling stronger now than I've ever been in my life. And the reason is
because every person in America is praying for me. When I stay on my
knees, that's when I have power. (http://www.truthorfiction.
com/rumors/maxlucado.htm) Whether one accepts President Bushs remark as
sincere or not - and I do accept them as sincere - it is nevertheless a
mark of humility coming from one governing with the power of a President
of the United States of America. A key theme from King Jehoshaphats
prayer that we need to keep in front of us as a nation in our day is
humility.
The third key theme is praise. Jehoshaphat and his people sang of God's
glory and took solace in His promises, rather than harboring worries and
fears about the outcome of the battle. Jehoshaphat gave the Lord the
honor and respect He deserves, and God in turn destroyed the enemy
troops. I dont think that there is any printed prayer in the Bible that
does not include specific praise to God. If there are any, they are in
the minority. In any situation, no matter how grave, praise to God is a
key element of prayer.
Included in praise are recognition of Gods past deeds and our dependence
upon God. Throughout his prayer, King Jehoshaphat remembered the great
deeds of God. For Israel, that always included their founding. By
remembering how they came to be where they were, the people of Israel
always recognized their dependence upon God. For any modern nation,
including our own, the same blueprint applies. There are just too many
miracles in our own national history to ignore the hand and will of God
at work. We are as dependent upon God as Israel was.
President Franklin Roosevelt and King Jehoshaphat both called their
nations to prayer in the midst of grave circumstances. President Bush and
several of our leaders have likewise called us to be a nation in prayer
during the several crises we have seen in just a few short years. There
is no doubt that God welcomes our petitions when our situation becomes
desperate. It is in our nature to cry for help when there seems to be no
way out. But, it is also true that God wants us to seek His face when
times are good. Rudyard Kipling once wrote: "In times of war and not
before, God and the soldier we adore. But in times of peace and all
things righted, God is forgotten and the soldier slighted." Kipling's
words, unfortunately, ring true today. The terrorist attacks of September
11, 2001, are a prime example. In the days immediately following the
crisis, Americans embraced faith and prayer as they called out to God for
help. However, for many, life soon returned to "normal." When a nation
feels safe, its prayer covering diminishes. As a result, seeking God
takes a back seat to other pleasures and pursuits.
The Scriptures assure us that God cares about the health of nations. In 2
Chronicles 7, the Lord tells Solomon, "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 l hear from heaven and will forgive their
sin and will heal their land" (2 Chronicles 7:14, N IV). God promised
healing, but the promise was conditional. He was willing to bless the
nation of Israel if His people would first pray and repent. Benjamin
Franklin is credited with introducing prayer into the daily routine of
Congress. He maintained some understanding about the relationship between
a people's dependence on the Creator and His providence. He once said,
.... the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth -
God governs in the affairs of men. And, if a sparrow cannot fall to the
ground without His notice, is it possible that an empire can rise without
His aid?"
Prayer is an important part of America's history, reflecting the faith of
our founders. Civic prayers and national days of prayer have long been
cornerstones of our constitutional republic. In fact, America's first
national call to prayer predates the Constitution. In 1776, the
Continental Congress called for a day of prayer. The members believed
that "by sincere repentance and amendment of life," they might "appease
God's righteous displeasure, and, through the merits and mediation of
Jesus Christ, obtain His pardon and forgiveness." Their expression of
humility and dependence on God provided a bedrock of faith on which the
United States was founded and still operates today.
In his proclamation for a day of "humiliation, fasting and prayer" in
1863, President Abraham Lincoln wrote the following: "It is the duty of
nations, as well as of men, to owe their dependence upon the overruling
power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow,
yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and
pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy
Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed
whose God is the Lord..."
In 1952, President Harry Truman signed a joint resolution of Congress
establishing an annual national day of prayer. Though national days of
prayer had long been a part of our history, the president recognized the
need to make unified petitions an official part of America's calendar.
Truman did not hesitate to declare that the first annual observance of
this significant holiday should fall on the nation's birthday: "Now,
therefore, I, Harry S. Truman, President of the United States of America,
do hereby proclaim Friday, July 4, 1952, as a National Day of Prayer on
which all of us, in our churches, in our homes and in our hearts, may
beseech God to grant us wisdom to know the course which we should follow,
and strength and patience to pursue that course steadfastly. May we give
thanks to Him for His constant watchfulness over us in every hour of
national prosperity and national peril."
The lessons of these former leaders are not wasted on President Bush.
After the deadly terrorist attacks on New York, Washington, D.C., and
Pennsylvania on September 11, 2001, the President responded by calling
the nation to its knees. In the midst of the tragedy, the commander in
chief pointed Americans toward Divine solace when he said, "Prayer has
comforted us in sorrow, and will help strengthen us for the journey
ahead." During a brief speech inside the National Cathedral, he noted,
"As we have been assured, neither death nor life, nor angels nor
principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor
height nor depth, can separate us from God's love. May He bless the souls
of the departed. May He comfort our own. And, may He always guide our
country."
>From 1776 to the 21st century, American leaders have recognized the
importance of calling upon the Lord for direction and deliverance. But
any greatness we are able to experience as a nation does not come merely
because a President or other leader calls for national prayer. This is
important, yes, but the true greatness, which comes from God, has its
roots in the prayers that Christians lift up to God as a people of faith.
In other words, even if our President calls upon us to pray for the
nation and for his leadership, what good is that if we do not pray? What
good is a call to prayer if we do not unify ourselves and humble
ourselves and praise God in prayers for wisdom and deliverance? God
delivered King Jehoshaphat and His people; He will deliver us as well as
we go to the Lord in prayer. Give thanks to the Lord, for his love
endures forever.
(Adapted from The Founding of a Nation, Colorado Springs: National Day
of Prayer Task Force, 2003)
Rev. Charles A. Layne, pastor, First Baptist Church, Bunker Hill, IN
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