[direct from my prayer journal this morning because it is my sincere hope that it is not too late and we all need to be throwing ourselves before our people and our justifiably angry God]
“Arise, cry out in the night,
at the beginning of the night watches;
pour out your heart like water,
before the face of the Lord.
Lift to him your hands,
for the life of your children,
who faint in starvation,
at the head of all streets.”
See, YHWH, and take note!
With whom have you dealt thus?
Should women eat their young
children of tender care?
Should priest and prophet be slain
in the sanctuary of the Lord?” Lam 2
Father, should we, those who know you, those you have made priests of Jesus Christ, is it not our job, our responsibility to raise up a lament before you, to enter the breach, to stand before You, Holy God, and the people, the neighbors, the uncleansed, the uncircumcised of heart, and offer an intercessory prayer for them? Should i not weep and cry out for the souls of my sons and my daughter and my wife? Should i not cry out to you for mercy upon my village? That you would spare Chalfont? That you would spare Haycock? That you would have mercy upon our commonwealth, that you would look upon Pennsylvania with mercy and kindness and favor and pour out your Spirit on it and not your wrath. That you would look again to our nation as you did in years past when we remembered you and we took time to renew our covenant with you and we worshiped you in spirit and in truth and we had Bibles that we read and clung to and prayed over. That you would again make America a humble greatness in the earth, a light and a hope to the nations. That you would pour our spirit out upon those closest to us, so that they may join us in worshiping you, Mexico and Canada. The islands of the Caribbean. That you would make our enemies pause and think and see and repent and turn to you for the kindness you show us. That you would make the wise and the gentle rise up and displace the cruel and the arrogant. That you would overthrow men who would make themselves godkings. Men who would suck their own nations dry to make themselves wealthy and comfortable and to lavish luxury upon their toilet seats. Father, that you would be a father, the Father, to the fatherless, the orphans, the many many orphans of this world. That you would again be a comforter husband to the many, many widows of this world. That you would forgive the sins of the single mothers and heal their families and place righteous men in their lives and in the lives of their children. That you would take the young men’s anger and violence and turn it against their own sin and that they would seek to know You with all the fire that is in their bellies. That they would become men of renown in doing right and justice. That you would again teach us justice. That we would know what it means to not favor the rich or the poor but to give to those who have need with joyful hearts and to not oppress. That those who had would seek to out do each other in giving away. Only a working of your Spirit, your gift, your holy knowledge and essence will do this! Only your Son’s work can do this! Only your Gospel going forth can do this! Only the knowledge of the crucified and risen Christ can do all of these things! To make even our enemies see You and worship? Father, that you would make every knee bow and every eye weep for joy at the rising of your Son.
Is it not we who should pray like this? Is it not we who should throw ourselves before your wrath as our Savior has taught us and plead for this world? Plead for our nearest neighbors? If not us, then who?
Is it not us who should confess our sins? Ours first and then those of our families, our clans, our villages, our towns, our states, our nations, our world’s?
Or is it too late? Are you telling us, like you told Jeremiah, to not pray for this people?
Have we lost our chance? Did we waste the years of plenty?
