If I were to meet you and you told me that you were going through some hard times, financially, medically, or emotionally, one of the first things that I would do is pray for you. Simply because everything else that I can do for you is temporary, like feed you if you're hungry, or give you a coat if you're cold. Prayer (and I don't mean that religious repetition-crap that you'd recite in church, or on Thanksgiving to impress your guests. I mean prayers down on your knees, in tears) works both ways. God not only sees and fills your immediate needs, but He also puts in place long-term solutions (which are most often painful, because if your immediate problems stem from some larger problem, God will address both). But not to get off topic, my point is I would do all of that: give a coat, a meal, and pray as your Samaritan when you're in trouble.
I ran across a scripture that made me realize we need to be doing this not just for strangers but for our leaders, our nation. We're about to vote in the most important election of our lives. Our nation is crumbling from within, and not only the stock market or the banks or the home mortgages, but also the schools, our borders, our health care system, our criminal system and on and on. If ever there was a time for prayer - it's now. Here is the scripture:
"I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, & thanksgivings be made for all men, for kings & all who are in high positions, that we may lead a quiet & peaceful life, godly & respectful in every way." 1 Timothy 2:1-3 (RSV)
After I read this, I immediately thought we should all pray this prayer before the elections, for our current leaders and our future leaders. My next thought was that we all need to slow down, take a deep breath. With so much going on in the world today, it's hard to take it all in. Our massive spending and our massive debt is threatening an entire planet. So it came to me 'out of the blue': what if we took a week off from shopping, from Nov. 3rd to the 7th and just breathed a collective sigh of relief, and then thanked our heavenly Father for our many blessings - instead of always complaining about something?
"If you put an end to oppression... if you give food to the hungry & satisfy those who are in need then the darkness around you will turn to the brightness of noon." Isaiah 58:9-10
"We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." -John Adams, Address to the Military, October 11, 1798
