Can you remember a time of great sorrow? What did you do? Were you weary, hurt, full of fear? More than likely you do remember a time and you were weary and full of fear. That is the nature of being human. We fall down, we grow weary and nothing seems to pick us back up, that is until we seek Christ in His entirety.
Today, during my quiet time, I happened upon Samuel telling Saul what he needed to do after he was anointed by God. Samuel gave him explicit instructions on what to retrieve and where. I flipped over to Lamentations and read how they cried out because of the destruction and finally prayed for God to return to them. That made me flip over to Matthew, where Jesus instructed us to forgive our brothers and sisters from the heart. It was a whirlwind of repentance, forgiveness and God's grace and it made me think about rendering our hearts to God.
Anne Graham Lotz has been very vocal about the Daniel prayer. She has said that we must turn our hearts back to Christ with the rendering of all we believe in. We must move away from sin, forgive each other and claim Christ as king. I believe it. We are losing a generation to video games, laziness and drugs.
Many would give up or judge others because of what they believe in but that's not God's way. We believe we are religious enough but God never asked for religion, He wanted relationship and today, thousands of years later, He is calling us to that relationship.
Relationships are hard and have many moments of frustration, wrong doing and lack of faith in others. But as we pray, repent and turn toward God, He restores our hearts and minds. And that's where we are today. We must pray. We must pray for our nation, for world leaders and for the next generations. We must ask God to come back and yet, we must be very careful not to judge but to love.
Now is the time that we as women have a huge stake in where the world will go. We can unite and stand in the gap!!! So as I write this, I am asking God to call women to stand in the gap, to love unconditionally, to not fear the future but to pray about the sin, confusion and lack of wisdom. It's our time to stand in the gap, the way other women did before us. I'm sure Mary Magdalene prayed often for the sin of her people and so must we.
Don't turn and run when you hear bad news. Pray it away! That's what I'm going to do. I'm going to run toward Jesus through prayer and petition. He is faithful, man is not. Ask God to heal our teenagers, to give our leaders wisdom and to protect our nations from terrorists and the evil one. The time is now.
Have a great day and believe that God has anointed you for such a time as this.
Lamentations 5: 1-22 NIV
1Remember, Lord, what has happened to us; look, and see our disgrace. 2Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our homes to foreigners. 3We have become fatherless, our mothers are widows. 4We must buy the water we drink; our wood can be had only at a price. 5Those who pursue us are at our heels; we are weary and find no rest. 6We submitted to Egypt and Assyria to get enough bread. 7Our ancestors sinned and are no more, and we bear their punishment. 8Slaves rule over us, and there is no one to free us from their hands. 9We get our bread at the risk of our lives because of the sword in the desert. 10Our skin is hot as an oven, feverish from hunger. 11Women have been violated in Zion, and virgins in the towns of Judah. 12Princes have been hung up by their hands; elders are shown no respect. 13Young men toil at the millstones; boys stagger under loads of wood. 14The elders are gone from the city gate; the young men have stopped their music. 15Joy is gone from our hearts; our dancing has turned to mourning. 16The crown has fallen from our head. Woe to us, for we have sinned! 17Because of this our hearts are faint, because of these things our eyes grow dim 18for Mount Zion, which lies desolate, with jackals prowling over it. 19You, Lord, reign forever; your throne endures from generation to generation. 20Why do you always forget us? Why do you forsake us so long? 21Restore us to yourself, Lord, that we may return; renew our days as of old 22unless you have utterly rejected us and are angry with us beyond measure.
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