Pray for America - Day 19
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. –
DAY 19: "We All Have Sinned"
When two little siblings run through the house unaware of the furnishings around them, there’s a good possibility that something will be knocked off a table and break. When confronted, the older one might say, “He did it,” and the younger one might reply, “No, she did it!” Indeed, blaming others is familiar to all of us.
Nehemiah’s heart was broken when he learned that survivors of the Babylonian captivity were back in Jerusalem in great distress, and the city’s wall was broken down and the gates burned. Nehemiah wept tears of anguish over the ruins. To purify his motives and sharpen his focus for prayer, Nehemiah fasted. He opened his prayer by acknowledging the sovereignty of God, addressing Him as Lord, God of heaven, our great and awesome God.
Nehemiah confessed his own sin and the sins of the children of Israel. But he didn’t say “they”; he said “we.” In his prayer of confession, Nehemiah carried the burden of the sins and corruption of an entire nation. Our prayers for America should model that of Nehemiah. It’s not this individual, or that group, that should be blamed; it is “we the people.”
Let’s pray that each of us will embrace the sins of our nation as our own and confess that we have sinned against God by being disobedient. Pray too that God’s ear will be attentive as we cry out for His mercy.
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