Be Humble and Pray

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“Mike Pence mocked for praying with coronavirus task force at White House”
https://www.christianpost.com/news/mike-pence-mocked-for-praying-coronavirus-task-force-white-house.html

It should come as no surprise to us as Christian that the world around us is unable to understand our response to the COVID-19 pandemic.  We know we’re not immune to the trials of the world but we are equipped to face them.  In 2 Corinthians Paul writes:

We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair;
(2 Corinthians 4:8 ESV)

Likewise, we’re warned in 1 Corinthians that those in the secular world are unable to understand because they lack the Spirit-given ability to discern the truth.

But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
(1 Corinthians 2:14 NKJV)

So how should we conduct ourselves?  2 Chronicles 7:14 gives us the answer.  “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”

John MacArthur explains America’s and the American people’s relationship with God like this.

Unlike ancient Israel, America is not a covenant nation. God has made no promise to our physical ancestors that guarantees our national status. If Israel had to fulfill the conditions for divine blessing, even though God had covenanted with them as His chosen people, America certainly has no inviolable claim on the blessing of God. As long as unbelief and disobedience to the Word of God color the soul of our nation, we cannot expect the blessing of God. Israel didn’t get it in her unbelief.

But for those of us who are Christians, the covenant blessings do apply. “If you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Galatians 3:29). All the promises of salvation, mercy, forgiveness of sins, and spiritual prosperity are ours to claim as long as we remain faithful to God.

That is why the spiritual state of the church in our nation is the key to the blessing of the nation as a whole. If God is going to bless America, it will not be for the sake of the nation itself. He blesses the nation, and has always done so, for the sake of His people. If we who are called by His name are not fulfilling the conditions for divine blessing, there is no hope whatsoever for the rest of the nation.

On the other hand, if the church is fit to receive God’s blessing, the whole nation will be the beneficiary of that, because the Word of God will be proclaimed with power, God will add to His church, and spiritual blessings of all kinds will result. And those are the truest blessings of all.

As we continue to navigate the ever-changing landscape of the times we are living in, let us never neglect to regularly take time to seek God’s will thru earnest prayer.  In 1 John 5:14, the scriptures state “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.

Be encouraged, for Jesus himself has promised in Matthew 18:20, “For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.”

Kurt Kowalk

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Elder Kurt Kowalk