40 Days of Prayer

40 Days of Prayer for Our Nation

“To change lives we must first be changed.  We must pray for and experience spiritual regeneration, then recognize and accept our responsibilities as Christians to be salt and light…if were going to have faith in practice, we’ve got to get the faith right first.”

-Richard Land

On Friday, September 28, I will begin an adventure, one that you might want to participate in as well.  It will be a soul cleansing, soul searching, and a soul reviving adventure that I believe will help me personally and will benefit me more than talking political points and bashing candidates.

As America heads toward the polls on November 6 there is much to pray for and the next 40 days could be the very thing to turn all of this around.  I am not praying for a particular candidate or party.  I still believe that God is not involved in partisan politics, therefore I am praying for God’s will and God’s plan in all things.  As God places His desires on the hearts of men and woman who will go to the polls God’s man will be the man that becomes president.

The Presidential election is not the only thing we need to be praying for because there is so much more.  We have troubles with all things right and just in America today.  Our Nation is experiencing a struggle that is sometimes beyond my ability to think or reason.  America is slowly pushing itself toward a point of no return.  We have factions attempting to destroy the Sanctity of Human Life, both by proclaiming abortion and dealing with the aged of society.  We have those who want to destroy traditional marriage, forsake Israel, give tax payer dollars to terrorist groups, and an economic situation some have referred to as “The Great Recession.”  My, how we need a spiritual intervention in the world today!

Before you forsake me, casting my thoughts aside, let me share with you the real thing my 40 Day Journey will seek.  I am seeking revival for our Nation.  As such, I believe that real revival will begin with me.  Someone once said, “If it is to be, it is up to me.”  With that being the case, then true revival in America will begin in the lives of those who call themselves Christians.  We will find ourselves praying, as God instructed the people many years ago.

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

2 Chronicles 7:14 (KJV)

            Richard Land, President of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission wrote:

“God has given us a promise that can change America if enough of God’s people heed the call to live out the Gospel in our time, shining like stars against the darkness of our culture, reflecting the sunlight of God’s Son.  But that starts with our willingness to be humbled-to recognize that it’s God’s way or no way.  It’s not God and country; it’s God alone.  Only then can God use us-His people-for His purposes in our land.”

I read with great interest these words: “The United States is clearly a nation in trouble. A battered economy, political divisiveness, the culture wars, racial uneasiness, and a sidelined church, provide the dry tinder for an inflammatory national election in November of 2012. Many stake their hopes or fears on the outcome.  While believing in and encouraging the importance of exercising our right to vote, we also call the Christian Church in America to do that which is even more critical in these days . . . to pray. The seriousness of our day requires an intensity of prayer that is unprecedented.”

From www.40daysofprayer.net we realize that the call to prayer is “a call to fervent prayer for our elections. We are in desperate days as a nation as the spiritual, moral and financial fabric of our nation is disintegrating around us. Believers need to pray as never before.”  This is the reason that “America's National Prayer Committee and its member organizations are putting out a call to pray 40 days prior to the elections (September 28 - November 6).”  Additionally, they vow that their “intent is to stay far away from anything that looks like an endorsement or movement for any particular candidate or party. What we are asking for is the intervention of God on behalf of our nation.”

Through the North American Mission Board and the Ethics and Religious Liberties Commission, Southern Baptist has issued a call to prayer, called 40/40.  The starting point for their initiative began on September 26, which will end two days before the election. 

On the www.erlc.com website you find various issues listed which relate to America and the situations facing Christians, today.  I found the article by Dr. Barrett Duke (he serves as Vice President for Public Policy and Research for the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, and also serves as Director of the Commission’s Research Institute of the ERLC) very interesting.  I have included it here for you:

In 1798, John Adams, our country’s second President, said, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” In 2012, the truth of those words is very evident.

Freedom that isn’t guided by a moral compass runs quickly to license. Today our nation is headed toward a moral abyss. The permissive attitudes that permeate popular culture have inserted themselves in individuals, families, and our nation’s policies.

While we can point to many causes for the current moral dilemma in which our country finds itself. The real problem is spiritual. The church is failing to reach this present generation with the gospel. Increasing secularism is the result.

Our nation needs a spiritual revival that will translate into a cultural renewal. That’s why the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission and the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention are sponsoring the 40/40 Prayer Vigil for Spiritual Revival and National Renewal. This 40 day prayer vigil is intended to help focus Christians’ attention on God as the true source of help. While much is at stake in the upcoming election, much more is at stake if the church does not arise from her spiritual slumber and take more seriously her callings as witnesses of Christ’s power to save and as culture’s moral compass.

The 40/40 Prayer Vigil addresses both of these callings. The Vigil begins with a week of prayer focusing us on own walk with God. Until we experience spiritual revival in our own lives, we can hardly engage in the kind of heaven shaking prayer we need to petition our God to be merciful to our nation and give us the leadership we need. After we invite God to search our own hearts for a week, we begin a process of intercession for our church, our community, the nation, and the nation’s leaders.

The Vigil can also be used for an intensive 40 hour period instead of 40 days. We urge you to consider adding this crucial spiritual activity to your and your church’s plans this Fall. While you could begin this period of intercession any time, let me encourage you to join with thousands of others across the nation by setting aside September 26 to November 4. In this way you can add your voice to a prayer crescendo calling on God to pour out His Spirit on His church and this nation as we prepare to elect our nation’s leaders.

We have prepared a special prayer guide for this prayer event. It is available for free here. If you would join us for this important time of prayer, I hope you will register your commitment at the website as well. It will encourage everyone else who is praying to know that there are thousands of others joining with them during that time.

Never before in our lifetimes has our nation been in a more desperate spiritual state. The place to start to address that is the throne of grace. May God be pleased to send us revival and national renewal in response to the poured out prayers of His people. 

            Therefore, it is imperative that we join our hearts together.  It is time we reach across the aisles, casting aside the walls and barriers that confine us and imprison us and pray to the God of Abraham, Jacob and Isaac.  May we fall upon our faces and cry out to God for America during these days before the elections.

            I ask that you join me in this journey and let our voices be heard.  If you will join me, leave a comment here on the blog or on my Facebook wall or email me.  I want to pray for you as we pray together.

            God bless America! 

It is estimated that between 20- 40% of evangelical Christians in this country are not registered to vote.