No one can deny our nation is in chaos—from COVID19, to racial riots and the destruction of lives and property, to the economic and political crisis. As Christians we must seek God for answers and be on our knees in prayer.

BUT—how do we pray? I have been praying with a group of ladies every Thursday morning for over a year now and we have continued praying by phone during the stay-at-home orders. I also pray with a larger group of intercessors a couple times a month.

Both groups have been praying prayers of repentance on behalf of ourselves, our nation and the Church for several months now, praying according to the scripture in 2 Chronicles:

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 will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14.

But just recently, I felt God say it’s time to move on from repentance and seek Him as to what else we are to pray at this time. I believe God showed me three areas to pray about and I will be doing three separate posts outlining each one.

A general principle of prayer we need to remember is that prayer can change God’s mind, but prayer must be within the guidelines of His Word and His character. Prayer throughout the Bible shows us this fact. God can work out His will in many different ways. When we pray we can appeal to God’s mercy, love and grace to change a situation, to withhold judgment and to send revival.

The first area I believe we need to pray for is for God’s hand of judgment to be stayed over our nation and for His mercy to triumph.

In Genesis 18:16-33, God revealed to Abraham that He was going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah for their wickedness. Abraham interceded in prayer for that city—asking God for mercy if He found 50, then 45, 40, 30, 20 and finally 10 righteous people in the city.

Abraham based his prayer on God’s character:

“Far be it from you to do such a thing — to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?”

Abraham prayed boldly, in humility and with persistence. We need to do likewise!

It’s interesting that in this same passage (15:14) it also mentions the Amorites: “the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.” There is a place where the tipping point of God’s judgment reaches its point of no return.

We need to pray it has not reached that point in America—that God will withhold his hand of judgment, send us revival and turn us back to His ways.

(Stay tuned for Part 2)