Day 8: Salt and Light in Our Nation
Intention
Through their love and witness, Christians can be a catalyst for national repentance
Scripture
“Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom He has chosen as His heritage.” Psalm 33:12
Reflection
Hezekiah was a god-fearing king who brought reformation to his people. His son Manasseh, however, was an evil ruler. He had watched his father walk with God and live according to Scripture.
Yet he chose to ignore the very same God. He chose to worship false gods instead, even to the point of sacrificing his sons by fire to please Molech. He practised evil, including witchcraft and sorcery, and led his people astray, thereby provoking God to anger.
He, along with the people, paid a high price for his rebellion.
This story illustrates the Lord’s intolerance of a nation’s disregard of Him. Now consider our country.
We, too, are a nation that pushes God aside—one that has turned away from the only true God and embraced idols. Those idols may not be made of stone but God identifies as an idol anything that we put up in our lives as more important than Him.
That can be at a national level as well as an individual level. Australia has been known as a Christian nation. Many of our laws are based on biblical principles and the freedoms we enjoy come out of the teachings of Jesus.
But in more recent times we have turned away from our Christian roots and passed laws that are contrary to the word of God. The culture of the day is seeking to “cancel” our Christian past in every facet of our society.
If we as a nation continue to turn our back on God, His judgment is inevitable.
He has however provided us with a way out of our dilemma, to repent and again make Him Lord of our lives and our nation. Our prayer as believers must be that God would draw us back to Himself and assist us by the power of His Spirit to make Him known throughout all our land.
Like Hezekiah to be god-fearing and agents of reformation in our land.
Prayer
Father God, we repent that we have not kept you at the centre of our lives, nor the life of our nation. Forgive us for that and give us the ability to turn our lives around.
Let us re-focus again on who you are, on your promises, which we have discarded for what the world has offered us.
Re-form us as your people into your own image and allow us to again be salt and light in the midst of our dark world.
Amen.
31 Days Prayer Points
- Pray for the restoration of FAMILY, FATHERHOOD and MOTHERHOOD in our nation. Malachi 4:6
- Pray for healing for MARRIAGES, protection for CHILDREN and restoration of the sanctity of LIFE. Isaiah 58:12
- Pray for Revival, Renewal and Reformation for Australia, that our nation might return to God. 2 Chronicles 7:14
We invite you to support this month-long Prayer & Fasting campaign to raise up prayer for Family and Nation. Every donation to the Canberra Declaration helps us spread the word and make a stand for Family, Faith, Freedom and Life.
Donate Here: https://canberradeclaration.org.au/donate/
Register Now: https://canberradeclaration.org.au/prayer-for-family-2021/ to receive the daily devotions by email.
___
Join us for our daily one-hour Zoom prayer call:
DATES: 1st– 31st October 2021
TIME: 8PM AEDT
ZOOM URL LINK: https://zoom.us/j/776881184
ZOOM MEETING ID: 776881184
ZOOM TUTORIAL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFhAEoCF7jg
Daily devotions brought to you by the Canberra Declaration: https://canberradeclaration.org.au
___
The defeat of Assyrian King Sennacherib, against King Hezekiah of Judah.
Oil by Peter Paul Rubens, seventeenth century. CC Public Domain.
Recent Articles:
17 July 2026
15.2 MINS
The Church is wimpy, and it's destroying the nation. That's the blunt assessment of Rev. Chris Wickland, a UK clergyman who refuses to soften the gospel for perceived cultural acceptance. And he has a point. From the rise of "woke" institutional Christianity to the abdication of prophetic witness, the modern Church has traded its backbone for a desperate attempt to attain a disappearing seat at the table.
17 July 2026
4.5 MINS
Landlords have shut the door on the LGBTQ+ desecration of a former Sydney Catholic Church and theatre named after saints.
17 July 2026
2.2 MINS
Jillian Spencer, a Queensland psychiatrist suspended for questioning childhood gender treatments, has been cleared by AHPRA, as her hospital prepares to release its own statement.
17 July 2026
4 MINS
In a sign of the continuing breakdown of religious freedom in Europe, Finnish parliament member Päivi Räsänen was banned by the U.K. from traveling to Heathrow Airport for a planned layover due to her Finnish Supreme Court conviction in March for authoring a pamphlet containing supposed “hate speech” toward those who identify as LGBT.
17 July 2026
2.9 MINS
Questions on the environment produced the most lopsided results of any category tested, with every single model favouring climate concerns over growth. Removing one model’s “safety” layer moved its religion score from secular-leaning to neutral.
16 July 2026
5 MINS
We're told that progressive politics equals compassion, inclusion and kindness. But shocking reactions to Ann Widdecombe's murder — celebrating her death and hoping she died in extreme pain — reveal the socialist left's blatant 'hate speech' hypocrisy and disturbing double standards of the highest degree.
16 July 2026
3.6 MINS
Jason Clare’s “vanilla” attack on One Nation's immigration policy dissolved under scrutiny, leaving only fruit salad and spin.
