How To Pray For Our Nation

HOW TO PRAY FOR OUR NATION

By

JERRY FALWELL

I want everyone to pray for our nation, so I thought about a sermon that would help people be more effective prayer intercessors for our nation. As I studied my Bible, I found two sources that instructed us how to pray for our nation. First, the commands to pray for our nation. Second, the illustration of people praying for the nation like Daniel who prayed for the nation Israel.

1. The commands to pray for our nation:

“I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. As you make your requests, plead for God’s mercy upon them, and give thanks. Pray this way for kings and all others who are in authority, so that we can live in peace and quietness, in godliness and dignity. This is good and pleases God our Savior” (1 Timothy 2:1-3, NLB).

PRAY BECAUSE GOD

ESTABLISHES GOVERNMENT

“Obey the government, for God is the one who put it there. All governments have been placed in power by God. So those who refuse to obey the laws of the land are refusing to obey God, and punishment will follow. For the authorities do not frighten people who are doing right, but they frighten those who do wrong. So do what they say, and you will get along well. The authorities are sent by God to help you. But if you are doing something wrong, of course you should be afraid, for you will be punished. The authorities are established by God for that very purpose, to punish those who do wrong. So you must obey the government for two reasons: to keep from being punished and to keep a clear conscience” (Romans 13:1-5, NLB).

BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATION OF DANIEL

PRAYING FOR HIS NATION

“So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and fasting. I prayed to the LORD my God and confessed: ‘O Lord, you are a great and awesome God! You always fulfill your promises of unfailing love to those who love you and keep your commands. But we have sinned and done wrong. We have rebelled against you and scorned your commands and regulations. We have refused to listen to your servants the prophets, who spoke your messages to our kings and princes and ancestors and to all the people of the land’” (Daniel 9:3-6, NLB).

“O LORD, we and our kings, princes, and ancestors are covered with shame because we have sinned against you. But the Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against him. We have not obeyed the LORD our God, for we have not followed the laws he gave us through his servants the prophets” (Daniel 9:8-10, NLB).

“In view of all your faithful mercies, Lord, please turn your furious anger away from your city of Jerusalem, your holy mountain. All the neighboring nations mock Jerusalem and your people because of our sins and the sins of our ancestors” (Daniel 9:16, NLB).

“O Lord, hear. O Lord, forgive. O Lord, listen and act! For your own sake, O my God, do not delay, for your people and your city bear your name" (Daniel 9:19, NLB).

SEVEN STEPS TO PRAY FOR THE NATION

Not seven different prayer topics.

Not seven different ways to pray, i.e., silent prayer, group prayer, hymn prayer or worship prayer.

But seven steps to pray biblically for our nation.

1. LET THE WORD OF GOD MOTIVATE YOU TO PRAY.

a. Daniel was reading the Book of Jeremiah that told him the seventy years of Babylonian captivity were over. “The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolation of Jerusalem” (Daniel (9:2).

b. Prediction. Just as the Bible predicted that the time of the Babylonian captivity was over, today the Bible predicts that the coming of the LORD is near. The more you read about prophecy, the more you ought to pray about the impact of perilous times on the Church; you ought to pray for unsaved people to get saved, and you ought to pray the last prayer in Scripture, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus” (Rev. 22:20).

c. When you pray according to Scriptures, you know God will answer your prayer. “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you” (John 15:7).

2. SET YOUR FACE IN DETERMINATION TO SEEK THE LORD.

a. “And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes” (Daniel 9:3). How are we to seek the Lord?

“You will seek the LORD your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul” (Deuteronomy 4:29).