This is a prayer that Billy Graham recently prayer for our country... I'm still processing how I feel about it, but wanted to publish it here to hear your thoughts, as well. There is obvious merit in the meat of it, I'm just trying to figure out if this prayer fully represents my heart's cry for the nation. What do you think???
"Heavenly Father,
We come before you today to ask for forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, 'Woe to those who call evil good,' but that is exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values. We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery. We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare. We have killed our unborn and called it choice. We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable. We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self esteem. We have abused power and called it ambition. We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression. We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment. Search us, O God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Amen."
thoughts?? comment.
3 comments:
it presumes the myth that we had it right and now we've lost our way, but when did we ever have it "right," so to speak? the
family values so often touted by the religious right are a creation of 1950's conformist culture, attainable only on television sets.
reality wasn't much different than today, it was merely suppressed behind closed doors, with the end result being the rebellion of
60's counter-culture, which calmed down, and brought us to where we are today. too good to be true is simply that.
every single one of the issues he mentions is something western culture has argued about for centuries, to some extent--abortion, birth control, bootstrap mentality v. deserving poor, capitalism v. socialism, respect for elders v. change for the better, etc. the western world has come a long way from its primitive roots--even the cultural practices outlined in the bible. we often criticize the fundamentalist mulsim world for seeming medieval and barbaric, taking cultural teachings of the koran literally, but judeo-christian history and biblical teachings don't differ very much. had a few brave souls over the generations not stepped up to change things, to reinterpret, to push forward for the better of society, would we be living in world he'd accept? probably not...i for one am pretty happy with the whole women's lib thing ;)
i guess what i'm trying to say is: what exactly is he praying for? he points out faults he sees in our society, but what would he rather see instead? what specifically are those "time-honored values of our forefathers," because i'd venture to say that even in the time of those illustrious forefathers, those values were more likely rhetoric than practice [just as they are today.]
this is a (much needed!) prayer of repentancefor our nation. if we never had it right, then we always have needed repentance,
this is precisely what Lou Engle does on a daily basis, which is his calling--to cry out for MERCY from judgement! the Bound4Life daily prayer: "Jesus I plead your blood over my sins and the sins of this nation. God, end abortion and send revival to America."
....
that's all I will write
i guess the standard he wants to call back is the one set in the bible. not that we've ever gotten it "right," but that we would strive once more to try to get it right--it's the motivation that matters more than the outcome. where are our hearts? are they seeking God's or are they seeking America and Westernization and all that? I hope we receive God's mercy not judgment, as a nation, and return to our roots--previous to 1950s or 1776. our biblical roots. and become one nation under God again (after all, that is our national motto). Father, help us understand. We love you so much and miss the boat so often. Give us mercy and forgiveness and love above all else.
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