Making a Decision

God is calling us to a deeper relationship with Himself, and out of our brokenness and humility, He desires to bring forth a more committed walk and more fulfilling communication with Him.  Psalm
51 says:
15 O Lord, open my lips, And my mouth shall show forth Your praise.
16 For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart-- These, O God, You will not despise.

In humility, we approach God's throne - and Hebrews 4 reminds us that there we can receive mercy and grace to help in time of need.  Every day, we have needs, and the resources to fulfill those needs adequately and abundantly can only come from the hand of Almighty God.  As long as we wallow in self-sufficiency, we cannot experience the fullness of the power that God wants to give us.  So we are called to empty ourselves and rely on the Lord to fulfill us.  We approach Him in prayer with a sense of humility and dependence.

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In submission to God, we can be motivated to call on Him in prayer out of a right relationship with
Him. James 4 reminds us:
7 Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
9 Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.
10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.

It is a non-negotiable spiritual fact, in my estimation, that our country is in need of prayer.   And, while at NRB last week, I became aware of a number of prayer efforts that are designed to unite Christians to gather and intercede for our nation.

You also have the National Day of Prayer is coming up on May 5 - the first Thursday of May, in which people of faith gather in their local churches and at city halls and courthouses across their land, standing together.

And, on today's Meeting House program: more about the prayer meeting at the Lee County Courthouse in Opelika, Alabama, as well as pastor Carter Conlon of Times Square Church, which holds a weekly online prayer meeting every Tuesday night.

I want you to mark your calendar for Thursday, April 14th.  At noon that day, the Decision America Tour with Franklin Graham, an outreach of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, will be visiting Montgomery.  This occasion begins at 12 noon on the State Capitol steps facing Dexter Avenue.

The website, Yellowhammer News, had a feature story about the event. It quotes the evangelist, as saying, “I’m going to every state in our country to challenge Christians to live out their faith at home, in public and at the ballot box—and I will share the Gospel."  That is a quote from the front page of the Decision America website.    He is also quoted as saying, “America is at a crossroads, and I believe we should take every opportunity to stand up for the things of God and His Word.”  

The article also quotes from an AL.com story last year:

“(I’m) calling people to repentance, to faith in Christ, to vote for candidates that support biblical values,” Graham said. “I’m not going to endorse any candidates. I’ve been disappointed too many times. I want the Christians to get out and vote. Some of these elections are won and lost not by millions, but by hundreds of votes. In 2000, with Bush and Gore, it came down to just a handful of votes. Every vote counts. Many Christians think their vote doesn’t count. It does count.”

The Association has released spiritual data about each state, which can be found on its website.  As Yellowhammer reports, Alabama data from the Barna Group notes that only 23 percent of Alabamians are what they define as “Captive Christians.”  70 percent are defined as “Casual Christians,” essentially meaning they identify as Christians culturally, but are not necessarily Christians as defined by the Bible.

The article cites this explanation from Barna:

The lives of Captive Christians are defined by their faith; their worldview is built around their core spiritual beliefs and resultant values. Casual Christians are defined by the desire to please God, family, and other people while extracting as much enjoyment and comfort from the world as possible.

The big difference between these two tribes is how they define a successful life. For Captives, success is obedience to God, as demonstrated by consistently serving Christ and carrying out His commands and principles. For Casuals, success is balancing everything just right so that they are able to maximize their opportunities and joys in life without undermining their perceived relationship with God and others.

Stated differently, Casuals are about moderation in all things while Captives are about extreme devotion to their God regardless of the worldly consequences.

The group states, "Captive Christians consider Casuals to not be genuine followers of Christ."

By the way, Franklin Graham weighed in on the Presidential race in a Facebook post yesterday.  He wrote:

I’m calling for a truce! A time out. A halt to the insults, the back-stabbing, the dirty tricks, and the name-calling that has been spewing from most of the presidential candidates. ‪#‎SuperTuesday‬ is now over, but the campaign for the highest office in our land has stooped to a new low—and it’s not something to be proud of. Seriously. I call on the candidates to drop the childish bickering and get back to the issues that can change America for the good, for the sake of our children and grandchildren. Otherwise America is ultimately the loser. It’s obvious that this country is in trouble—spiritually, morally, and politically.

So, our takeaways today:

First of all, prepare.  People are recognizing that our country is in trouble.  Franklin Graham and others are seizing the opportunity and encouraging believers to cry out to God.  On Tuesday, people across our land voted for leaders who they believed would bring the needed change.  The party currently occupying the White House has been outdistanced in turnout by the other party.   Poll after poll are showing that the country is heading in the wrong direction.  What can you do?  Prepare to do your part, to do what it takes in order to see a reversal.

And, no doubt we can pray.  We may be angry, we may be disappointed, we might even feel hopeless about our the state of our country and our culture.  But, there is something powerful that we can do - potentially, every moment of every day, because God is available at all times to hear the prayers of His people.

Finally, I believe that we have to be penitent, in other words, we have to get our hearts right.  2nd Chronicles 7 highlights four conditions for healing of our land:  humility, prayer, seek God's face, and...turn from our wicked ways.  We have to make up our minds to live holy lives, humble before God and depending on Him like never before.  As we humble ourselves before God, we can reflect His love and character to our culture and gain assurance of our prayers being heard.