Help Us To Be Lamps Placed Prominently On A Stand
Praying For God’s People in the U.S.
You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. Matthew 6:14-16
Lord Jesus,
Help each one of us to be a lamp placed prominently on a stand so that our light may burn brightly and give light to everyone in the house.
We confess that for too long we have believed and/or acquiesced to the bullying tactics of leftist lies that religion, specifically Christianity, does not belong in the public square. For 70 years the father of all lies has perpetuated this lie in America. A lie that leftists coerced a former Ku Klux Klansmen on the Supreme Court (!) to write into an opinion. Ever since this time, Satan’s minions have twisted the phrase “church and state” into a false legality giving birth to illegitimate and outrageous demands.
We are grateful Lord that You initiated the process of righting this atrocity. You lifted up men and women dedicated to You and dedicated to the common good of man, and seated them on the Supreme Court. We thank You for these people. We thank You for the great gifts of intellect and justice that You put into their minds and hearts, and for their courageous exposure of the extremely one-sided “church and state” farce.
In Jesus was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. John 1:4-5
Please forgive us for the 70 years of hiding our lamps under a basket. Of course, not everyone succumbed, but the vast majority of us did. For 70 years we were ensnared by the manufactured “church and state” lies of the left while satan, masquerading as an angel of progressive ideas, beguiled the majority of major U.S. institutions—institutions put in place by Christians(!)—to follow his collective designs. Your servant Helmut Thielicke who survived the German barbarism said it best: “No wonder millions bite. And yet, on reflection, it is true that many who have promised heaven on earth have in reality made the earth into a hell. Time and again the promised paradises turn into dictatorships of terror.”
Certainly it is no coincidence that 70 is also the perfect number of years the Israelites spent in Babylonian captivity. And at the end of those ordained 70 years, You raised up a leader to fulfill Your purpose and to restore the ruins of Your chosen nation (2 Chronicles 36:22-23; Isaiah 44:26-28). You stirred the heart of Cyrus, the king of the pagan nation of Persia, to free Your people from captivity so that they could return to their homeland of Israel, as You had promised through the prophet Jeremiah.
And if giving Your people such favor in the eyes of a foreign monarch were not enough, You stirred King Cyrus’ heart to provide them royal protection for the arduous journey home, because many enemies were certainly opposed to their safe return to the Promised Land.
(And God, if we didn’t know better it would seem You were just showing off!) If this were still not enough, the apparent whirlwind in Cyrus’ chest was moved to give Your people food, supplies, and transportation for the journey, money to reestablish their lives, and resources to rebuild Your House (Ezra 1)!
Thank You for the divine revelation of such things! For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope (Romans 15:4). Thank you for instructing us always in Your higher ways and thoughts. In Your providence, You foresee and meet every need.
And we recognize most of all, that these precious and blessed people had You. By great power and with Your outstretched arm, You redeemed them from their pagan captors, restored their dignity, and turned their hearts back to You.
Lord God, have you not also released Your people in North America from captivity? Haven’t our 70 years come to an end? You raised for us an unlikely leader, certainly not from the priesthood or pastorate, just as Cyrus was not of a Davidic or priestly family. Father God You raised up a leader who stands up for all Americans whether Christian, Jewish, atheist, Buddhist or whatever. This President and several key officials appointed to his cabinet no longer bully Christians with “church and state” lies, nor criticize and sneer at our clinging to the Word.
Moreover, this leader and his administration stand with the Jewish people and their rightful claim to the land named after their ancestor Israel, Jacob the son of Isaac, the son through whom the promise came to Abraham (Genesis 21:12; Romans 9:7).
Lighting a candle and putting it under a basket would be pointless. God had a purpose in mind when He spoke the light of Jesus Christ into our hearts.
Since 2016 American Christians are more involved in culture and politics than we have been for many years. We can only praise Your Name for this!
Thank you for waking us up! Thank you for giving us a second chance. Help us to persevere and stay alert.
Jesus said “you are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all the house” (Matthew 5:14-15). This is what we pray today Lord. We cry out for our nation which is in desperate need of Your light.
Prepare us for the arduous and overwhelming journey to Pray America Great Again. Like the exiles returning from Babylon, we know that many enemies want us to fail and will do all in their power to make that happen. But we acknowledge and praise Your providence, and stand believing that You have already given us divine protection for the journey, and resources to rebuild lives, schools, churches, universities, governments, communities of faith, civility, freedom of thought, and more—all big, beautiful, bright cities on a hill that cannot be hidden.
Help each one of us to be a lamp placed prominently on a stand. Through the resurrection power of the Holy Spirit make our lights burn brightly! Let our light so shine before others that they see our good works and give glory to You (Matthew 5:16).
Revive us and fill us to overflowing with the Spirit of Christ so that we may speak Your word with all boldness even as you filled those in the very beginning of Your Church (Acts 4:29-31).
Instill in our inmost beings the boldness and confidence of Peter and John when they appeared before the religious establishment in Jerusalem (Acts 4:13).
Stir hearts and raise up leaders who will lead with humility, righteousness, and justice for each and every citizen of the United States.
Shake places wherever Your people are gathered, whether one person or thirty-thousand. Let the shocks and tremors ripple throughout our country unifying us in Your glorious praise.
And every minute of every day, 24/7, give us an ever-increasing confidence in the truth claims of the Gospel. Our nation needs the truth. The whole world needs the truth. Jesus is the truth.
In the Name of Jesus Christ,
Amen.
The modern city of Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee.
For Further Reading:
The renowned Catholic theologian John Courtney Murray wrote:
The “evil” of establishment that Madison and Jefferson wished to outlaw was an evil in the political order—violation of the principle of civic equality. As statesmen, their problem was in the political order; the essential thing they did not want was the political establishment of a category of second-class citizens. (Note here that possible “evils” for the established religion itself were strictly none of their business, as statesmen. True, they did meddle ideologically in the business, but their thought on this particular matter—whatever one may think of it—is quite extraneous to the First Amendment, which is a political document guaranteeing political rights, and religious rights in the political order.) Consequently, in saying, “no establishment of religion,” the First Amendment above all says, “no inequality of citizenship on grounds of religion, with consequent restriction of religious liberty.”
Quoted from article “Church and State Truths Never Presented By The So-Called Mainstream.”
Read about the former KKK member and FDR appointee to the Supreme Court, Hugo Black, and his dubious opinion in Everson v. Board of Education, 1947.
81% of American Christians were called out of their former lives in 2016 because an accommodation to the status quo of establishment politicians was no longer possible. That so many of us came to this realization is a testimony to Holy Spirit power. Let’s make the most of this divine opportunity.
