Archive for the 'Prayer' Category
In These Hard Times, We Need to Pray
We are living in perilous times. Inside and outside America, danger looms.
2 Timothy 3:1 says, “But know this: Hard times will come in the last days.” (CSB)
In these last days before the Lord returns, times will increase in their hardship, difficulty, and danger. The days will be fierce, harsh, and filled with trouble. This is a general and clear description of our condition in America.
If you want a more specific description, 2 Timothy 3:2-4 says, “For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, proud, demeaning, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, without love for what is good, traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God”. These words represent a definite and specific description of our culture in America.
In fact, rather than standing out against the culture, an impotent church is marked by these same traits. I believe the culture and the Church oftentimes represent one another.
Sadly, 2 Timothy 3:5 paints this picture clearly. It says, “holding to the form of godliness but denying its power. Avoid these people.”
Those of us who follow Christ and are members of His family possess an appearance of being holy and like Him, but simultaneously disregard His miraculous power and strength. We are instructed to shun people like this!
In These Hard Times, Believe in Prayer and the Power of God
I am a firm believer that each of us need to do all we can to make a difference in our culture by being the salt and the light. In fact, in this republic of America, “We the People” have the joy of not just participating in, but also determining the future of our great nation. But make no mistake about it – as much as I believe in this, much greater is my belief in the privilege and power of prayer, as well as the power of our great God and King. In these perilous and hard times, we must practice fervent prayer like it makes a difference.
When we pray, we are not talking to some make-believe spiritual Santa Claus. We are talking to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. He is the Great I Am! The same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead lives in you! Therefore, in these hard times, we must pray like we believe in the power of God.
As We Pray for America, Pray for the Trouble Occurring Inside Our Nation
This past Saturday in Charlottesville, Virginia, we saw the uprising of evil demonstrated in our nation. It resulted in the loss of human lives and turned a nation upside down. Hate was demonstrated to the point of chaos, violence, and death.
My personal belief is recorded in a statement I released on Saturday afternoon:
Dr. Ronnie Floyd on UVA Protests: ‘White Nationalism and White Supremacism Are Anathema to the Teachings of Christ’
These protesters do not represent in any form or way the Christian faith or the values followers of Jesus stand for. In fact, white nationalism and white supremacism are anathema to the teachings of Christ, who called us to love and to serve our neighbor – regardless of skin color, gender or religion – to give up our life for our friends and to even love our enemies. As Christians we do not tolerate or condone these protests, and we certainly and wholeheartedly denounce any form of supremacism, anti Semitism or white nationalism that promotes racism, violence or hate.
Knowing these things and believing them, we need to pray against what is currently happening in our nation
If we do not find a way to come together in America, how can we stand together against our greatest enemies of freedom in this world?
Therefore, in these hard and dangerous times, pray for:
- The American people to come together now
- The American people to stand together now
We need to call evil what it is and choose to stand against it as one nation under God. We are more vulnerable from the inside of our nation than we are from the outside.
As We Pray for America, Pray for the Trouble That is Looming Against Our Nation
The United States of America is under one of the greatest threats against our national security in our generation. We must find a way to come together in order to stand as one nation as our enemies come against us.
It is more than apparent that North Korea is a nuclear threat in this world. Whether the threat comes inside one of our states or one of our territories like Guam, we stand in need of God being our great shelter and hope.
In these hard and dangerous times, pray for:
- The security of our America, the people of Guam, and other nations under nuclear threat from North Korea
- The knowledge and wisdom of God to be upon all our leaders in our nation as they determine how to manage this looming crisis
- The protection of God to be upon those across our world who serve our nation in all branches of the military
Whether it is at your lunch table with friends or around a conference table as you begin your week at work, when it is proper, call upon everyone to pray for our nation.
2 Chronicles 20:12 says, “We do not know what to do, but we look to you.” (CSB)
Now is the Time to Lead and to Pray,
Ronnie W. Floyd
Senior Pastor, Cross Church
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Dr. Ronnie Floyd is the Senior Pastor of Cross Church, Immediate Past President of the Southern Baptist Convention, founder of the Cross Church School of Ministry, and host of the Ronnie Floyd on Life and Leadership Today podcast.
To request an interview with Dr. Ronnie Floyd
contact Gayla Oldham at (479) 751-4523 or email gaylao@crosschurch.com.
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Dr. Ronnie Floyd is the President & CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee.
America’s Fight for Independence Began with Prayer
The air that September morning of America’s First Continental Congress was fraught with anxiety and trepidation. The men who gathered had a monumental decision to make: will the colonies stand united and challenge British rule or will they disband and leave each to its own? Yet, they couldn’t even decide on who should lead prayer.
Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Quakers, Anabaptists and Congregationalists were all present at the assembly, and their differing traditions caused some to oppose the motion of opening the meeting in prayer. But after some consideration, a local minister from Philadelphia named Jacob Duché was found and summoned to pray.
I’ll leave it to John Adams, who was present at this historic meeting and wrote to his wife Abigail in detail about it, to tell the rest:
“Accordingly the next Morning [Rev. Jacob Duché] appeared with his Clerk… and read several Prayers, in the established Form; and then read the Collect for the seventh day of September, which was the Thirty fifth Psalm,” recounted Adams to his wife.
This psalm begins, “Contend, O Lord, with those who contend with me; fight against those who fight against me! Take hold of shield and buckler and rise for my help! Draw the spear and javelin against my pursuers! Say to my soul, ‘I am your salvation!’”
These words pierced straight through the hearts of those present at the assembly, tearing down the fear and animosity that had permeated the beginning of the assembly. “I never saw a greater effect upon an audience. It seemed as if heaven had ordained that Psalm to be read on that morning,” wrote Adams.
But the good Rev. Duché was not finished. To everyone’s surprise, he broke into an unexpected prayer:
“Be Thou present, O God of wisdom, and direct the councils of this honorable assembly,” he prayed. “Enable them to settle things on the best and surest foundation. That the scene of blood may be speedily closed; that order, harmony and peace may be effectually restored, and truth and justice, religion and piety, prevail and flourish amongst the people.”
“I must confess, I never heard a better prayer, or one so well pronounced,” said Adams. “It has had an excellent Effect upon every Body here.”
All of this took place Sept. 7, 1774 — seven months before the famous “shot heard ‘round the world” at the Battle of Lexington and Concord officially inaugurated the Revolutionary War. No matter how much historians and political commentators might argue, our history cannot be rewritten: America’s fight for independence began with Scripture and with prayer, not with muzzles and gunpowder.
Yet, as undeniable as the influence of the Bible is in our traditions and values, America seems bent upon attacking the very faith that strengthened our Revolutionary War heroes. While our Founding Fathers turned to God in supplication for wisdom and truth, we’ve driven prayer out of our schools and torn down the Ten Commandments from our public buildings. Like an autoimmune disorder that cannot recognize friend from foe, we turn against ourselves when we deny the faith of our founders.
On this Independence Day, I’m praying for a spiritual awakening in America that will lead us back to God and to the values that have made our country great. And I’m praying we will remember American freedom is won not only on the battlefield but also on bended knees.
God Bless America!
*Story based on John Adams to Abigail Adams, 16 September 1774 and the First Prayer of the Continental Congress, 1774.
Dr. Ronnie Floyd is the senior pastor of Cross Church and the immediate past president of the Southern Baptist Convention. Follow him on Twitter @ronniefloyd. Subscribe to Ronnie Floyd on Life and Leadership Today here.
This article was published on ChristianPost.com on July 4, 2017
Dr. Ronnie Floyd is the President & CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee.