MY PRAYER FOR AMERICA

By Greg Laurie 

The senior pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship yearns for spiritual awakening -- starting in the pulpits

I still believe the United States is the greatest country on earth. But our country needs help. While have a lot of enemies on the outside, I’m more concerned about the enemies we have on the inside. As Historian Will Durant wrote, “A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within. The essential cause of Rome’s decline lay in her people, her morals. …”

Does that not apply to our country today? How we have strayed. Despite what some revisionists would tell us, our nation really was built on Judeo-Christian values. There is no question about it. But what has started as freedom of religion is now turning into freedom from religion. It seems like so many have gone out of their way to get God out of our courtrooms, out of our classrooms and out of our culture. And as we sow the wind, the Bible says, we reap the whirlwind.

Then we have the breakdown of the family. You can directly connect it to almost any social ill in our nation today. For instance, 63 percent of youth suicides are committed by those from fatherless homes. Ninety percent of all homeless and runaway children come from fatherless homes. Eight-five percent of youth sitting in prisons today grew up in a fatherless home. It is not just a breakdown of the family; it is the absence of strong male leadership. In no way is that a criticism of women. They have stepped in when men have not stepped up. But it is time for men to step up and be the godly leaders God has called them to be as well.

A family can survive without a nation. But the nation cannot survive without the family.

I know something about coming from a broken home. I have seen it up close and personal. I didn’t have a father when I was growing up. My mother was married and divorced seven times. She was a raging alcoholic who would pass out every night from drinking. I tremble to think of where I would be today had it not been for the intervention of God in my life when I was a 17-year-old kid. But God did intervene, and that is what needs to happen in our nation as well.

I think of the words of our first president, George Washington, when he warned, “The propitious [favorable] smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a Nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained.”

Then there are the words Peter Marshall, who, as a chaplain of the U.S. Senate, said, “The choice before us is plain: Christ or chaos, conviction or compromise, discipline or disintegration.”

And President Ronald Reagan made this statement: “America needs God more than God needs America. If we ever forget that we are one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under.”

There is only one hope for America today, in my opinion. I don’t think it is a political solution, although there is a place for politics. I thank God for the men and women, especially those who love the Lord, who want to go into that arena and be a godly influence in our country, because the Bible says, “When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice” (Proverbs 29:2 NKJV). But the ultimate solution is not political. I believe the only hope for a real change in our nation is a spiritual awakening. That is what we need to be praying for. America needs a revival.

We throw the world revival around a lot, but what does it mean? It means to restore to the original condition. Have you ever seen a cool classic car, like a totally restored ’57 Chevy Bel Air, cruising down the boulevard? You may have said, “That is art on four wheels. That is a thing of beauty.”

We need to be restored to what we were but also to even more than what we were: what we potentially can be. We need divine intervention. We need a spiritual awakening, and we need to be praying for it.

There is a passage in the Old Testament that was given contextually to the nation Israel. But I believe that in principle, it applies to any nation, including our own. God said, “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 I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14 NIV). I have always found it very interesting that God said, “If my people who are called by my name …”

God doesn’t point his finger at the White House; he points his finger at his house. It’s easy for us to say it is the fault of Washington or the fault of Hollywood. But God says that when a nation is breaking down, the problem is “[his] people who are called by [his] name” who need to “humble themselves and pray and seek [his] face.”

I want to address Christian leaders for a moment. If there is a mist in the pulpit, there will be a fog in the pews. If you want to start a fire in the pews, then it has to start in the pulpit. It has to start with you. Do you – do we – need spiritual revival today? Are we being the godly people we should be? Is there compromise in our lives? God says, “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 he “will hear from heaven … will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

That is what we need to be praying for – a spiritual awakening in America today.

As the psalmist said, “Will You not revive us again, that Your people may rejoice in You?” (Psalm 85:6 NKJV). That is my prayer for America today. May the Lord send a mighty spiritual awakening that will turn the hearts of men and women and boys and girls back to him.