Ezekiel 14:12–14 (NIV) Jerusalem’s Judgment Inescapable
“12 The word of the LORD came to me: 13 “Son of man, if a country sins against me by being unfaithful and I stretch out my hand against it to cut off its food supply and send famine upon it and kill its people and their animals, 14 even if these three men—Noah, Daniel and Job—were in it, they could save only themselves by their righteousness, declares the Sovereign LORD….”
Ezekiel 14:22–23 (NIV)
“22 Yet there will be some survivors—sons and daughters who will be brought out of it. They will come to you, and when you see their conduct and their actions, you will be consoled regarding the disaster I have brought on Jerusalem—every disaster I have brought on it. 23 You will be consoled when you see their conduct and their actions, for you will know that I have done nothing in it without cause, declares the Sovereign LORD.”
There are consequences of not following God. There are consequences of being disobedient and not listening to God’s ways. Read this whole section in Ezekiel. One could walk away from it and say, “Well, this is destined to be, so let’s not pray, let’s just bow out and let God or whomever do His work.” Yet, I don’t believe this is a time for Christians to bow out, this is a time to take up arms in prayer and pray intercessory prayers that people might actually come to God through the trials that face us.
In other words, this is a time to say, “God, in the midst of the pandemic, in the midst of turmoil in our cities, in the midst of the downturn in the economy, in the midst of all the problems, can you use all these things to drive people to their knees and seek you?” That’s my prayer for our nation. Yes, we all want the problems to go away, but maybe the problems are God-designed to bring people to the Kingdom.
Let’s keep praying for our nation!
Dana says
I have been one to say “This is God’s war, His will be done”. But you have pointed out another way to pray, which is to save souls thru this crisis. No more bowing out! 🙏🙏🙏🙏
Roger Walter says
Yes… it’s a challenging concept, isn’t it?