As you may know, I’ve been going through the Scriptures to reveal pertinent prayers when national sin brought national calamity upon men and nations. God is not going to judge us, He has been for years, but we still had safety nets to blunt the blows. Now, even the safety nets are being removed and people are panicking.
The robust economy is grinding to a halt, unemployment is through the roof, investments are being plundered, retirement plans dwindling, and businesses are closing at a record pace. Moreover, we do not know how long this will continue and what our nation will look like after this plundering of our economy is finished.
In the days of Nehemiah, the governor, and Ezra, the priest, Israel came back home from captivity to face a nation in shambles. Their sins had reached heaven and towered over their heads. The manifestation was broken walls and burned gates. Walls were their national protection. Gates were the seats of their political and judicial authority, plus, the seat of commerce.
Just look at the state of our politics. In the time of national emergency, we are more polarized then ever. The corrupt political parties and the fake media continue to tear at each other’s throats, while our nation struggles to survive. Our judiciary has been the tyrannical branch of government that has unleashed the blood guilt, perversion, and godlessness that has led to the mayhem we are experiencing today. As a result, our economy is tanking. What should we do in the midst of this dilemma?
Nehemiah, after hearing the devastating report and the distress taking place, he sat down, wept, fasted and prayed. The following is his prayer:
I pray, Lord God of heaven, O great and awesome God, You who keep Your covenant and mercy with those who love You and observe Your commandments, please let Your ear be attentive and Your eyes open, that You may hear the prayer of Your servant which I pray before You now, day and night, for the children of Israel Your servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel which we have sinned against You. Both my father’s house and I have sinned. We have acted very corruptly against You, and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, nor the ordinances which You commanded Your servant Moses. Remember, I pray, the word that You commanded Your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations; but if you return to Me, and keep My commandments and do them, though some of you were cast out to the farthest part of the heavens, yet I will gather them from there, and bring them to the place which I have chosen as a dwelling for My name.’ Now these are Your servants and Your people, whom You have redeemed by Your great power, and by Your strong hand. O Lord, I pray, please let Your ear be attentive to the prayer of Your servant, and to the prayer of Your servants who desire to fear Your name; and let Your servant prosper this day, I pray, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man. -Nehemiah 1:5-11).
Nehemiah was a cup bearer for the king. He, indeed, found favor to return to his homeland to roll up his sleeves to get to work after his intercession for his beleaguered nation. He, along with Ezra, the priest, went to work to return, revive, restore, and reform their broken, wounded nation.
The question for America is will we follow their godly example in the days of our distress as our gates are being burned and are walls are crumbling right before our very eyes?