Prayers for Our Nation (Friday Devotional)

“...if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”

- 2 Chronicles 7:14

I’ve spent the past week at youth camp with 16 campers and 3 adult sponsors from our church, along with hundreds of other participants from around the state. Youth camp is one of my favorite weeks of the year, and something I’ve made a priority since my first year as a pastor—I love everything from the bad food and the silly games to the inspiring worship services and the infectious earnestness of teenagers captivated by their love for Jesus.

At Mt. Lebanon Baptist Encampment, where our church typically goes every summer, camp ends with the “Concert of Prayer,” a 2+ hour service that is routinely the most meaningful gathering of the week. No sermon is preached. The band leads in a few worship songs, but the vibe is considerably more muted than at the more raucous morning and evening worship services. Mostly it’s just a morning of guided prayer, huddle after huddle of teenagers bowing their heads and lifting their requests to God. It never ceases to move me.

Camp is over now, but I can’t shake the sight of hundreds of young believers repenting and confessing and thanking and petitioning their God. And on this weekend when we celebrate 250 years as a nation, I don’t want to forget it.

In 2 Chronicles 7:14, God promises his children that, by turning to him in a spirit of humility and repentance, they will receive his forgiveness and blessing. To be sure, America is not Israel, and a promise given to one group of ancient Israelites ought not necessarily be read as a universal guarantee for God’s people for all time.

Nevertheless, James 5:16 reminds us that the prayers of the righteous have great power. I saw it myself just yesterday in a crowded auditorium in Cedar Hill. When believers cry out to God—not triumphally, but humbly; not demanding power, but offering repentance; not wanting to see our will done, but God’s—we see change come.

If you’re wanting a spiritual awakening in America, don’t fix your eyes on the ballot box, but on Jesus. Don’t focus on the White House, but the church house. For it is to the humble, obedient, repentant prayers of his children that the Father responds.