On Being Right

Have you ever been in a situation where you were certain you were right? I have.

So what is my response when I think I am being wronged?

1. Stand and take it. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe I’m stupid. But I don’t really see any other option. Times are tough. And they are only going to get tougher. Light will become lighter and dark will become darker. We are promised hardship and trial and false accusations. But do not fear. Our Loving Father will defend us and will do with us what He wills for our ultimate betterment and perfection and for His glory on the earth. It is an honor to be refined by the Lord. If you allow it, His yoke will be easy and His burden will be light.

2. Go after the real enemy. We are blind. We think the people are the enemy. They are not. They are tools of the enemy. If we only had any clue of how spiritual everything is. Those human “enemies” are oppressed and in bondage and it is our obligation to them to intercede on their behalf. In fact, I think that when we are the ones being attacked we probably stand in a place of greater spiritual authority to help set our attacker free. Do not take this lightly. We are instructed to bear one another’s burdens. Do not let the enemy suck you into whatever he is doing to them. In fact, if you do not know how to pray for them determine what you are feeling and experiencing and it will likely be how the enemy is attacking them.

3. Love conquers all. It may be God’s plan that you be vindicated and it may not. Lay down your life and continue to love. Be quick to forgive lest anything attach itself to you. Love, love, love. Bear all. Believe all. Hope all. Endure all.

4. Walk in grace and humility toward others. Okay we should do this anyway. But when God is about the purifying process it often comes in many areas of life at once. You will not just have one conflict…you will have 7. The enemy’s point is to overwhelm you…to make things that by themselves are no big deal huge because of all the other things you are dealing with. God’s point is to push you to your limits so they are no longer your limits. Walk in grace and humility and be on guard.

5. Cry out for mercy. There is nothing we can do apart from God’s mercy. You need it. I need it. The attacker needs it. The city needs it. The nation needs it. The world needs it. Cry out for mercy!

6. Don’t let the attack distract you from where God was taking you. The timing of the attack was not coincedental. The attack could have come at any moment. What were you doing leading up to it? Likely the enemy was trying to keep you from that thing whether it be praying for a friend or moving your life to the mission field.

7. Realize you just might be wrong. Maybe you are not being wronged…even if you cannot possibly see it any other way…even if you are 100% convinced you are right…even if everyone you know is 100% convinced you are right. You may be wrong. Continually seek repentence.

Prayer For the United States

We need God to visit this nation and turn us back to our roots. We need to know and love God above all else. We need to know and love and serve our fellow man secondly. Lord we need your mercy!

Lord would you give us governmental leadership that hears and follows your voice? Give us leaders of Christian conviction that will tear down the altars from the high places. Give us leaders that are righteous and will lead us down the path of righteousness. Give us leaders that are moral and just and right and true. Give us leaders that have a hunger and thirst for You. Give us leaders that know the God of the Bible and the Bible of God.

Lord would you give us a nation that respects life? Hear the blood of the unborn crying out. Lord have mercy and give us a culture of life.

Lord would you bring reconciliation to this nation? Reconcile blacks and whites and all races. Reconcile men and women. Reconcile old and young. Reconcile rich and poor. Reconcile educated and uneducated. Reconcile liberal and conservative. Lord have mercy!

Lord would you restrain evil in our land? Where our laws are wrong make it clear and give us the courage to change them. Interfere with the plans of the enemies of this nation and the enemies of God who have plans to invite more evil and darkness in. Lord have mercy!

Lord would you cause a massive turning to You? Would those who know You take up their cross daily and follow You? Would those who do not know You come to know You as Lord and Savior? Lord have mercy on the people of this nation!

Lord would You reconcile the denominations to each other? Reconcile protestants and catholics. Make us one people under God. Let us walk in unity and not be concerned with building our own kingdoms. Make us one body functioning together, each doing his or her respective part. Lord have mercy!

Lord would You cause all priests and pastors and other spiritual leaders to only speak true Biblical concepts. Remove man’s interpretations and watering down of the Gospel. Lord we lift Your name up. Change or remove leadership that tries to lead Your flock away with sweet and deceptive words. Lord have mercy!

Here’s a live prayer set asking for God to come visit this nation.

If you would like to joing us in praying for the nation come to the All IHOPers and Prayer Warriors on Facebook Group

Crying Out For the Mercy of God

As a nation we are in a scary place. Our economy is in shambles. Our morals are in shambles. Our security is in shambles. We twist and turn chasing every glint of hope looking for an answer.

We have leaders telling us what they think we want to hear instead of telling us what we need to hear. They tickle our ears with sweet sounding platitudes. They woo us with hollow reassurances. They lull us asleep with promises there is no way they can keep.

On the other hand our enemies are very determined, very disciplined and very focused. They march on day by day chipping away at the freedoms we hold dear and true. They mock our ways. They mock our goodness. They mock our God.

So far this post is very depressing. But its not. It’s depressing if we are looking for answers only in the political realm. But the political realm holds very few true answers. The true answer for what ails us is in the mercy of God.

It is God who instituted this nation. It is the principles of God that were our founding principles. It is God alone who can save this nation. A democracy cannot long remain without a moral people. For freedom is but license unless people have a modicum of restraint. It is time for us to fall on our face before God Almighty and ask Him to restrain the hand of judgment and to instead pour out mercy in abuncdance. Just as President Lincoln declared many years ago:

“And whereas it is the duty of nations as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions, in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord.

And, insomuch as we know that, by His divine law, nations like individuals are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war, which now desolates the land, may be but a punishment, inflicted upon us, for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole People? We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!

It behooves us then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.”

Lord have mercy on this great nation and the souls of its citizens!