A Call For Prayer: The Beginning of Change

Disclaimer: This post is a departure from my usual sermonettes on prayer. I hope you see this statement, not as political, but as patriotic. If you agree with my sentiments, I ask you to share this post with your friends of faith who love God and love liberty.

To those who believe in personal, God-given, inalienable rights and who want to honor the founding principles of the American nation—life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness—the government of the United States is out of control and has been for many decades. I refer to no party or individual but to ideologies and philosophies. The Constitution has been trampled and shredded, burned at the stake of avarice and greed. The national government that rules our lives today would be wholly unrecognizable to the framers of the nation. 

At the top of the list of egregious offenses of the American government is the attempt to remove God from the public consciousness. The Bill of Rights called for the protection of freedom of religion, but it did not advocate freedom from religion. To remove all references to a Supreme Being and His laws from the public forum was not in the minds of the founders, nor was it the agenda of our leaders for the first four score and seven years after the nation's formation.

With the gradual and insidious adoption of progressivism and socialism, however, as political tools to solve social issues at the expense of individual rights, our government is mimicking the godless philosophies of the atheistic nations of communism. 

It is time to call our national leaders to repentance. They cannot ignore God and expunge Him from public debate and expect to continue to receive His grace and mercy. 

It was by God’s grace that this nation was founded and the tyrannical oppressors were thrown off. It was by Divine blessing that this country became prosperous. 

Now that we have reaped the benefits of faithful men and women who honored God and prayed for His beneficence, we are foolish to turn our backs on the Giver of all good things. We as a nation have become proud, haughty, arrogant, selfish, self-sufficient, and self-indulgent. Our leaders, regardless of political party, for generations have forgotten where we came from and how we got here. They think they are rich enough and powerful enough that they don’t need God anymore. They can solve the world’s problems with money and machinery and weapons of mass destruction. 

They refuse to see the weakness that is creeping into the fibers and sinews of the country. They wish to sit on the laurels of past glories and fail to acknowledge the disdain and disrespect that is growing around the world at our fat and flabby image of smug superiority. We are, in fact, hardly better off than our third-world neighbors. We have lost the will to be righteous and to be free.

WE THE PEOPLE have access like never before to the eyes and ears of our government leaders through social media and electronic communications. We must use this access to send a message to those who are in power in the government today and those who hope to attain to power in the future. 

We as a people and as individuals must repent, return to God, and honor the laws of Nature and of Nature’s God. And that repentance must begin at the top. 

Let God, whose right it is to reign over the human family, participate in the public forum. 

Reinstate public prayer. 

Acknowledge and thank the Giver of all blessings and ask for His blessings to be renewed. 

Enthrone again the laws of God as the founding principles of truth and justice. 

Plead with God to work again among this people and in our national and personal lives. 

Plead for forgiveness for having strayed from the truth that all men and women are created equal, that we are endowed by our Creator, not by our government, with certain inalienable rights, and that the role of government is to secure and protect these rights, and nothing more.

Let us return to the first two great commandments for all mankind—love God with all our heart, might, mind, and strength; and love our neighbors as ourselves. Let us not get these commandments out of their heaven-prescribed order or think we can keep the second commandment without first keeping the first commandment. 

Let us pray for our national leaders in all branches of government—and in the administrative state that has usurped power and authority from the Constitutionally authorized branches—that their hearts will be softened  and righteous wisdom will prevail. Let us pray for a change of heart and a new spirit within our country, beginning with our leaders. Let us pray for our leaders to lead in righteousness. 

And if they choose not to repent, let us pray that righteous, good, and wise people will come forward and be recognized. Let us pray for people we can trust, who embody the virtues of integrity and honesty and faith. Let us pray for God-fearing men and women in whom the public trust is warranted and who will look to God for inspiration. Let us pray for people who are accountable to God ahead of political parties and special interest groups. And when such people are found, let us support and sustain them with our allegiance, our votes, and our continued prayers.

God will not allow a wicked people to occupy this land, speaking of people as a nation and not as individuals. It is only by the faith and prayers of the righteous citizens of every religious persuasion and sect that we have been spared thus far. As a nation, America has violated—and continues to violate—every one of the Ten Commandments that form the basis for Western civilization. We cannot hope to break every law of God and have Him turn a blind eye forever. 

Let us petition our leaders to reinstate the laws of God and look to the rule of the Almighty as the overarching premise for good government. Let us plead for our rights as defined in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. We grew strong and independent as a people when these principles were the supreme law of the land. We grow weak and dependent today when we ignore them. 

Pray for strength of character and virtue and faith in God to prevail in our leaders and our government. Pray that God will look with favor again upon this nation. Pray for a rebirth of freedom and faith before both are taken from us, with the rest of our rights, and we plunge into an era of darkness as black as the darkest of the Dark Ages of the past.

Prayer is the beginning of change.

Conqueror

The exact timing of the first part of Section 10 of the Doctrine and Covenants is sketchy, but it was during the period of the translation of the Book of Mormon. Joseph Smith had loaned the first 119 manuscript pages of the translation to Martin Harris to show his wife and try to win her support. Martin subsequently

lost the manuscript. Joseph was inconsolable over the loss, not only because he had let the sacred writings out of his hands, but because the Lord had warned him twice not to let Martin have the pages. When it was evident that the one and only copy of the manuscript would not be recovered, Joseph inquired of the Lord what he should do. 

In response, Joseph received this revelation from God. The young prophet had an important lesson to learn about men and about Satan through this experience. A part of this heaven-sent lesson included this commandment about prayer:

Pray always, that you may come off conqueror; yea, that you may conquer Satan, and that you may escape the hands of the servants of Satan that do uphold his work.
--Doctrine and Covenants 10:5

Because Satan is unrelenting in his attacks upon us, we must we constant in our defenses. Prayer is the link that holds the whole armor of God together for us. 

When I fail to pray, for whatever reason, I give the devil an opening, an unprotected place where he can slip in a thin blade of temptation, a barb of jealousy, a dart of greed, an arrow of anger. Constant prayer cinches up my armor and closes any gaps. 

The devil hates to hear me pray because he knows I am prepared to meet him, and I am forcing him into a corner. He has no problem overcoming me alone with the natural man ever at work from the inside on my defenses. It is quite another thing, however, when he has to face me and the Lord. I cannot conquer Satan by myself, but with God's help—His enabling grace—we can together defeat the adversary and come off conqueror.

Call for Mercy

Two great missionaries, Alma and Amulek, answered the call from God to preach repentance to an apostate group called the Zoramites. The first thing these two men observed was a form of false worship in which one person at a time stood on a tall stand so they could be seen by their fellows and shouted a memorized prayer, every worshipper saying the same words. The two missionaries wanted to correct this faulty prayer practice, and so they taught the Zoramites a mighty sermon on true prayer, ending with these words:

Therefore may God grant unto you, my brethren, that ye may begin to exercise your faith unto repentance, that ye begin to call upon his holy name, that he would have mercy upon you.
--Alma 34:17

I may pray in many situations, at many different times, to offer up thanks for many blessings and to put forth many petitions. The most important prayer I can offer, however, is my personal, private prayer for mercy. If I could secure God's mercy, all else would take care of itself. Everything I need flows from God's mercy and grace.

How a Mustard Seed of Faith Moves a Mountain of Grace

Jesus descended from the Mount of Transfiguration to find His disciples in a pickle. A man had brought his terribly afflicted son to the disciples for a healing blessing, but they had been unable to provide the cure. The father approached Jesus and begged for help, and Jesus immediately cured the boy. The disciples then came to Jesus and asked what had gone wrong that they had been unable to heal the boy.  Jesus spoke bluntly. "Because of your unbelief." He then taught them the parable of the grain of mustard seed, saying that even the tiniest bit of faith would be sufficient to move a mount. But then He added this footnote to his teaching: 

Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.
--Matthew 17:21

Prayer and fasting are needful preparations for the development and exercise of faith unto power. Prayer puts us in direct connection with God, the source of all power. In sincere prayer we subject ourselves to His will and we learn His intentions for us. His Holy Spirit makes known to us the mountain He wants to move with us. 

By going to Him often and listening carefully, we can learn what He expects us to do and when it is time for us to step back and watch Him work. 

Our shovelfuls may seem insignificant, but they are our necessary contributions, not in moving the whole mountain, but in building our strength and convincing us that only God's power can complete the job. He asks us to try on our own, not to discourage us, but to help us see the reality of the task and convince ourselves of our insufficiency. Then, when He steps in with His power and moves the whole mountain with a single sweep of His hand, we can better appreciate the gift of His grace.

Not a Vending Machine

To set the context, Jesus spoke the words quoted below immediately before He gave what we now call the Lord's Prayer: 

Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.
-- Matthew 6:8

If God already knows what we need, why did Jesus teach his disciples to pray? Why did Jesus retire often to quiet places to pray? Why does the call to pray permeate the scriptures? What is the point of prayer if God already knows what we need and what we are praying about? 

Prayer is not for God but for us. Make no mistake, I truly believe He knows what we need. We, however, need to remember where our blessings come from. We must not take grace for granted. God is not a vending machine. He wants us to talk to Him, build a relationship with Him, trust Him, and listen to Him. And so, He allows situations and trials to arise in our lives to bring us to Him with our needs and desires, from which we learn humility and gratitude. When we draw closer to our Father, the price is worth it.