Bring Good From Something Evil
The prayer posted below is from the well-known prayer warrior Stormie Omartian who has written prolifically on the power of praying. It comes from the book The Power of a Praying Nation, chapter titled “How Can Good Come from Something So Bad?”
How Can Good Come From Something So Bad?
Omartian penned the prayer in response to the 9/11/2001 radical and vicious islamic terror attacks on the U.S. Yet, it is appropriate for any time our nation faces a crisis, those times we ask the question “How Can Good Come From Something So Bad?” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. could have prayed it in the Birmingham Jail. Families who sent teenage sons to Vietnam could have prayed it. Survivors and victims’ families of the Pulse Shooting could have prayed it. Even the women who followed Jesus to the cross could have prayed it. And we can certainly pray it today in America.
Our nation is in crisis-mode. As in John 9 many remain blind (and are the agents) of the impending disaster. Some people see, yet fear the mob and pretend to be blind instead of standing up for what is right. Others see and pay the price of being castigated by the mob and their blind followers.
Only God can put a complete stop to, then restore, the sinister devastation that the left and the Democrat Party have done, and are currently doing, to America, and by default, the lives of millions of her citizens.
Let us praise our Father God. Let us plead this prayer before Him, with sincere hearts and increased fervor, as we seek His blessing, favor, and grace on America.
Prayer:
Lord, I draw close to You and proclaim You to be Lord and King over all heaven and earth. I thank You that Your goodness, mercy and righteousness endure forever (1 Chronicles 16:34). I praise You according to Your righteousness, and I sing praises to Your name, O Lord most high (Psalm 7:17). Your name is excellent overall the earth (Psalm 8:1). I praise You for Your mighty acts according to Your excellent greatness (Psalm 150:2). I worship You and I love You, Lord.
May my prayers be set before You as incense, the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice (Psalm 141:2). I give glory to Your name. To You, O Lord, I lift my soul, and the soul of my nation. Let us not be put to shame. Do not permit our enemies to triumph over us (Psalm 25:1-2).
Lord, as the body of Christ we are weary of watching the enemy, whom You defeated on the cross, run roughshod over people and destroy their lives. We are disgusted by our own compromised prayers. We confess that we haven’t been willing to lay down enough of our lives to see them break through the darkness with power. Renew us and revive us, Lord. Fill us afresh with Your Holy Spirit. Break down the strongholds in our lives that stand in opposition to You and Your ways. Help us to be doers of the Word and not just hearers only. Work a profound spiritual awakening in Your people all over this land.
Lord, you have said that You are “able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us” (Ephesians 3:20). I know that means You can do more than we ever dreamed. I invite You to do that in me, in Your people, and in our country. Ignite a fire in our hearts that illuminates for us the possibilities of what can happen when we pray. Move the hearts in this nation into alignment with Your will.
I ask for Your grace to be poured out upon our nation. Only You can bring good out of the evil and destruction that has been manifested here. Show me how I may be of service to You in that regard. Help me not to shrink back when you call me into the storm. Shine Your light into our darkness and evaporate it. Help those of us who believe to extend Your light to others. Thank You, Lord, that You have put gladness in our hearts once again (Psalm 4:7) and are even now making all things work together for good in our nation.
In the Name of Jesus Christ, we lift us this prayer, Amen.
Why Do We Need To Ask God To Bring Something Good Out of Evil?
Rush Limbaugh often says, “Everything the left touches, it ruins.”
Think about the overwhelming truth of that statement—states, cities, universities, education, all levels of schools, all levels of government, government agencies, courts, media, movies, football, libraries, holidays, on and on, literally everything. Even the church! Most frustrating of all, even the church.
The devastation and destruction within these once dignified organizations is nauseating. As is the left’s primary motive—an insatiable hunger for power. However, we can’t let our disgust of these people blind us to the greater reality. Literally billions of lives all over the globe, and especially within our own borders, have suffered from one degree to another because of American leftist, communist, socialist, progressive, etc., pursuits.
The left’s anti-American deeds have long betrayed their blasphemous words.
Without a doubt, their eye is on the prize of ruining, that is, making irrelevant, the U.S. Constitution. Unfortunately, a piece of parchment has done little to deter the destruction wrought by unethical people who are likewise morally bankrupt. Leftist Congressional members quote our founding documents ad naseum to appear “patriotic” and to spin their own malfeasance. However, their anti-American deeds have long betrayed their blasphemous words.
The House impeachment of President Trump is a perfect example of Democrat deception, debasement, and criminality. The Democrats and their supporters literally hate President Trump and have tried everything to invalidate the votes of 63 million American citizens. (This is the only voter suppression being attempted in the United States. According to long established laws, illegal aliens, i.e. non-citizens, are not allowed to vote in U.S. elections.)
Any objective observer can see that the 2019 impeachment was a sham. Surely, surely, even people that hate Donald Trump must be nauseated by this immoral and indefensible treatment of a human being, of our Constitution, and of our nation? But most of all, of a human being.
The PAGA staff found consolation in Martin Luther King Jr’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail. Amid all kinds of opposition and betrayal, Dr. King held fast to the hope of the Gospel to overcome, even when evil (the same people then as the Democrat Party today) seemed to be overpowering good.
Some people believe that America is too far gone and that it will never attain to its founding principles again. Certainly, the situation does appear bleak. The left, like swarming locusts, destroy everything in their path and have all but nullified some of our most cherished principles.
But prayer… But God… He can do more than we ask or imagine.
As for the restoration and renewal of what the left has devastated? As long as Jesus reigns in our hearts, all things are possible:
The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, {Hebrew; Septuagint the blind} to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion– to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor. Isaiah 61:1-3, NIV
And look what comes next:
They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations. Isaiah 61:4, NIV
Absolutely Jesus can, and will, bring renewal and restoration to all things. One day He will usher in complete and triumphant restoration Himself.
For now, while we await His coming, it is up to us to pray, trust, believe, and witness to the overwhelming power of the Good News of Jesus Christ, which is America’s only hope. As Omartian’s prayer acknowledges “Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20, NLT, emphasis mine)!
Resource:
Stormie Omartian, The Power Of A Praying Nation (Eugene: Harvest House, 2002) 91-92.
