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.
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The defeat of Assyrian King Sennacherib, against King Hezekiah of Judah.
Oil by Peter Paul Rubens, seventeenth century. CC Public Domain.
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