OPINION:
This week, America commemorates the National Day of Prayer. Do you ever wonder why you should pray for America? Have you asked yourself how your prayers can possibly make any difference if God is sovereign and does what He pleases anyway?
If that’s you, I want to encourage you today and show you why your prayers are important.
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Here’s the first passage to remember:
The heaven, even the heavens, are the LORD’s; but the earth He has given to the children of men (Psalm 115:16 NKJV)
Both heaven and earth belong to God. What’s interesting is that He has sovereignly chosen to entrust the earth to us to steward. It’s as if He has made us His middle managers over the earth. Now, the earth still belongs to Him, and so does all it contains, as we read here:
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The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein (Psalm 24:1 NKJV)
But God has decided to delegate stewardship and dominion over His earth to people, His created beings who are made in His own image.
And God always respects our free will.
God didn’t make us to be robots. He made us to have free will; in fact the Bible says that wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. And since the Spirit of the Lord is everywhere in heaven and on earth, He gives us freedom and liberty to make our own choices (although, of course, there are consequences if we employ our free will to choose to disobey Him).
Because God has entrusted “middle-manager level” stewardship of the earth to us, He waits to move on earth until we ask Him to do so.
God respects authority, and that includes the authority He has personally given us, the “middle managers” He has appointed. So, if we want Him to move in the spheres He has entrusted to us, we have to ask Him to do that. We have to ask Him to move. And that is called “prayer.”
This is one of the reasons prayer is so important, and it’s why we must pray for America.
If we want to see God move in America, we must pray for America by asking for His help. We see everywhere that we need His divine intervention. Although God is sovereign in every way, He also allows human beings (the lost and the saved alike) to make their own choices — for good or for evil.
But God can turn the hearts of men.
The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes (Proverbs 21:1 NKJV)
God can and will move when we pray, even at the national level. He will turn the hearts of kings to do His own will, even if they don’t know Him. In the Bible, God often used even pagan kings to do His will. He would call them, and they would come; He would scatter them, and they would leave. Although they didn’t know Him, they still found themselves yielding to His work in their hearts whenever He wanted them to do something.
And that’s why your prayers for America do matter.
Your prayers for America move heaven, and they shake the earth. Your prayers for America cause God to turn the hearts of kings toward righteousness and justice. Your prayers bring our Lord’s divine intervention into manifestation on the earth in every sphere about which you pray.
Intercessors of America was founded during times like today. Vietnam War protests and riots were occurring on campuses and elsewhere. The vice president had resigned in disgrace and then the Watergate scandal broke open. People had no confidence in the leadership of the nation. The Supreme Court mandated legal abortion. Christians were discouraged by lawlessness, corruption, and moral depravity of the nation. For 50 years we have been praying and we have seen many miraculous answers to prayer.
So, we pray and keep praying:
And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart (Galatians 6:9 NKJV).
Let’s pray continuously and without quitting — as Jesus instructed the disciples to do in the parable of the persistent widow in Luke 18:1-8. And even when we don’t see progress yet, let’s keep praying until we do. Don’t give up. God does hear your prayers for America.
And He’ll answer.
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David Kubal is President/CEO of Intercessors for America (IFA), which serves over one million praying Christians every month. David serves on the National Faith Advisory Board and the National Day of Prayer Task Force and is also frequently featured in national news outlets such as Victory Channel, CBN, and Fox News.