May 15-23, 2015 are the dates for a prayer initiative hosted by Anne Graham Lotz – a call for our nation, our world, to cry out to God for mercy and grace. (To sign up for this initiative, click here.) Anne refers to this as a distress call. She says,
“In these days of desperation and confusion, hopelessness and helplessness, when mountains are collapsing, nations are warring, people are rioting, the earth is quaking, and the enemy is threatening, it’s time to cry out to the Lord! Now!
The nine days between the day of the Ascension of Jesus and the Day of Pentecost have Biblically and traditionally been days of prayer and fasting for an outpouring of God’s Spirit. This year those days fall on May 15-23. On each of those 9 days, join Anne Graham Lotz and thousands of other followers of Jesus Christ, as together we implore God to save us from our distress. Before Jesus comes and judgment falls.
Pray one hour each day for 9 days, May 15-23.”
When King Solomon dedicated the temple he built to God’s great Name, he mentioned a number of reasons the nation would one day need to repent. When “anyone wrongs their neighbor”, when “the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because your people have sinned against you”, when “famine or plague comes to the land, or blight or mildew, locusts or grasshoppers, or when an enemy besieges them in any of their cities, whatever disaster or disease may come…” to name a few.
Solomon knew bad things would happen even to God’s chosen people not IF they strayed from obedience to the Lord, but WHEN they strayed. No one can say they are without sin before a holy God. I know this only too well.
And that’s where repentance begins, doesn’t it? We can’t look at our nation and point fingers at others when repentance is a matter of each individual heart. It starts with me. With Christians. Yes, with all of God’s people.
So I would urge you, my dear readers to consider joining Anne in her call to prayer. It’s a one-hour-a-day commitment for nine days. Will you join me in joining her?
I will leave you with this thought from King Solomon’s prayer:
“When they sin against you—for there is no one who does not sin—…and if they have a change of heart…and say, ‘We have sinned, we have done wrong, we have acted wickedly’; and if they turn back to you with all their heart and soul…and pray to you…then from heaven, your dwelling place, hear their prayer and their plea, and uphold their cause. And forgive your people, who have sinned against you; forgive all the offenses they have committed against you…for they are your people and your inheritance…” (Parts of 1 Kings 8:46-51 -emphasis and ellipses mine)
