Many, if not most of you have heard Andy Stanley's humorous warning, "You are scaring the children!" Northside Baptist Church no longer allows the video to be seen because of copyright claims, although over two hundred thousand people already saw it. Here is a portion of Andy's admonition.
“All of you who are 45 and older, look up here.
Many of you have grown weary and lost heart and the reason is–you have fixed your eyes on a political system… and you are growing weary. And you need to knock it off. And I’ll tell you why… because you are scaring the children!”
But what do we tell our children in these days? Let me suggest that we tell them to pray.
From this you and they may hopefully ask, "If we begin to pray as we have never prayed, will that solve all the social and political problems of our day? Will that restore our nation?"
God might indeed do that. He will certainly do that eventually. But I am not certain that He will work that way immediately.
If we look back in history we do not always see revival leading to complete restoration. Instead the awakening often prepared believers bring Him glory in terrible times to come.
A great prayer awakening swept America in 1858. Did that end slavery, the great moral and political division in our country? It did not. In three swift years the nation was thrust into a great civil war in which more Americans died than in either of the world wars.
If it did not prevent such a catastrophe, what was the point? Well, many thousands died and went to heaven instead of hell. Many came home crippled or blinded with a spiritual strength to face the difficulties. Our country was able to pick up the pieces and go on. I don't think that would have happened without God in the lives of many.
In the mid-twentieth century would a prayer revival in Europe have prevented the rise of the NAZI regime? I don't know. But I do know praying people were able to help hundreds of thousands of children and others escape from the horror of the Third Reich. Many horrible things happened in those days. But there were also many with God given courage to oppose power of evil in their day.
I don't want to promise that we will not pay a terrific price for our sins as a nation. And like Daniel and his godly friends, righteous people will share the judgment. But we can be prepared to love and minister to people, and give great glory to God whatever happens in our country. And who knows what God will do, if we begin to pray as never before?
No comments:
Post a Comment