America’s Leaders Reject Our Only Hope at National Day of Prayer Service

I had mixed feelings, but overall was disappointed after watching the 37-minute video shown at the bottom of this post from yesterday’s National Day of Prayer service in the Rose Garden of the White House.

On the one hand, I thank God we are no longer listening to Obama’s lies and witnessing his offensive actions against God and against His people. I thank God we now have a man in the White House who appears to be doing his best to honor God by holding this event in the Rose Garden. He also signed two executive orders that appear to help uphold our religious liberties, at least for now.

I also thank God for Paula White because it appears she has been a good influence on Donald Trump. She opened the service today and even quoted 2 Chronicles 7:14, which is one of the best scriptures for an event like this because it identifies the key to restoring our nation to a right relationship with God, which is by humbly repenting from our sins. Her opening remarks were the highlight of the video for me, but it was all downhill after that.

Much of what was said by the other speakers sounded good, but things are not always what they appear to be. I was hoping to hear something that would give me hope for our future, some evidence we are seeking to get right with God because that is our only hope because righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people (Proverbs 14:34). Unfortunately, not one speaker confessed or repented from any sins, either personal or national sins. Instead, they went out of their way to avoid the topic.

Vice-President Pence’s Comments:

Vice-President Pence even went so far as to re-write 2 Chronicles 7:14, removing repentance from it altogether, which is a big problem since it is the key to the whole verse. So, let’s compare the Bible version with his version:

If My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land. (2 Chronicles 7:14)

And here is the transcript from Pence’s comments today:

“From the founding of this nation, Americans have claimed that ancient promise, that if His people who are called by His name will humble themselves and pray and seek his face, that he will hear from heaven and heal their land.”

By omitting God’s requirement to “turn from their wicked ways” and the need for God to “forgive their sins,” Pence deleted the most important requirement for getting right with God, which is a huge problem because without turning from our wicked ways, God will not hear from heaven, will not forgive our sins, and will not heal our land. So, Pence turned one of the greatest verses in the Bible into a lie.

To make matters worse, I don’t expect to hear any outcry from the American people over this, not even from Christians, because so many of us have bought into the lie that we can have God’s blessings without meeting His requirements. This idea seems to be rampant throughout our nation and throughout the Church. We are in such a deep sleep; we no longer know or care what God requires. It is no longer about Him. It is all about us.

Pastor Jack Graham’s Prayer:

Three spiritual leaders each prayed short “prayers” for our nation. The first came from Pastor Jack Graham, Pastor of Prestonwood Baptist Church, a 40,000-member mega church near Plano Texas.

“We do humble ourselves before you our great God. We thank you for your amazing grace that brought us into your family and brought us here together today, for your love that restores and renews us and this nation in times like these. How we thank you for your provision and protection in our lives and upon our nation. We pray for President Trump and his family. We pray for Vice-President Pence and his family. And for the members of cabinet, we pray that you would give them wisdom and strength and guidance as they make decisions that lead the way to restoring America and renewing our hopes in you. We do know Oh god that our ultimate hope is in you and you alone. You are our life and you are our only hope. We pray for one another, that we would be strong in our own faith in our commitment and our courage to obey you. And we remember on this day those who suffer, those who hurt, especially those today we remember who are persecuted for their faith and we pray that you would comfort them and bless them. We ask you Oh God that every life, all of us Oh God, what do our part where we live and how we serve in expressing your love to people. Now unto Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we could ask or think or hope. To Him be glory in the church throughout all ages, forever and ever. And we pray this in the deer name of Jesus. Amen.”

Given the context of where our nation is today spiritually and what we must do to survive, this prayer completely missed the mark. America has a sin problem and the only solution is repentance. Unfortunately, Pastor Graham did the same thing Vice-President Pence did; he white-washed his prayer to remove all the messy stuff about sin and repentance. The closest he got was saying, “We do humble ourselves before you,” and asking for the “courage to obey you,” but those statements fall way short of repentance because true repentance requires confession of our sins.

8 If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.
9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us. (1 John 1:8-10)

Somewhere along the way, we lost our way. Even our spiritual leaders who should have known better shifted their focus away from what God requires to make it all about what we want. We have forgotten how the Lord Jesus taught us to pray.

9 “Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be Your name.
10 ‘Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
11 ‘Give us this day our daily bread.
12 ‘And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 ‘And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.’ (Matthew 6:9-13)

The first two verses of the Lord’s prayer reveal our highest priority, praising God and seeking His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. Verses 12 and 13 show the importance of aligning our ways with God’s ways, which is what it means to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness. When we do that, all the other things we need will be given to us. (Matthew 6:33) The flip side of this truth is that when we ignore God’s priorities, He is no longer obligated to hear our requests.

Jack Graham’s prayer omitted the most important requirements, which makes it a great example of how not to pray. It sounded like the me-gospel, which has permeated our nation, a false gospel that subtly claims God exists to do our will rather than the other way around.

Prayers offered by unrepentant hypocrites will not save our nation, but righteousness will. Prayers without righteousness are a waste of time, but the effective prayers of a righteous man can accomplish much (James 5:16) God does not hear the prayers of the unrighteous because He sees through their hypocrisy and knows they want nothing to do with Him, but His eyes are toward the righteous and His ears are open to their cry. (Psalm 34:15) Even the prayers of the Lord Jesus were only heard by God because of His reverence for the will of His Father, submitting to Him (Hebrews 5:7).

Trump Embraced as a Brother:

Vice-President Pence made another interesting comment when he was introducing President Trump. He said, “Our President is a believer. He loves his family and he loves his country with an unshakable faith in God and the American people.”

When he said that, Paula White nodded her head in agreement. President Trump did not disagree. Coming from the Vice-President, who claims to be a born-again believer, and with agreement from Paula White, a recognized Christian leader, it was a strong statement, a public embrace of Trump as a Christian brother.

Only God knows where President Trump stands spiritually, but the significant thing about Pence’s statement is it changes the way the righteous must deal with Trump because the standard is much higher for anyone who claims to be a brother than for those who openly live as heathens. The righteous are permitted to associate with heathens because they don’t even claim to know God, but we are instructed not to “associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister, but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people.” We are instructed to judge those inside the Church and to expel the wicked person from among us. (1 Corinthians 5:11-13) So, Pence’s public embrace of President Trump as a Christian brother redefines our relationship with Trump and how we must relate to him going forward.

Many former Presidents have claimed to be Christians, including Obama. Only God can see what is in their heart, but we can see the fruit of their words and deeds. Hopefully, we will see good fruit confirming Trump’s faith, but if not, we are commanded to stop associating with him and to expel him from the Church. In the meantime, we can and should be praying for him to grow strong in faith and wisdom.

Conclusion:

In the past few years, God opened my eyes by giving me some dreams revealing the future of America. What I saw was so terrible, I would much prefer to be proven wrong. Since repentance is our only hope, I would like to find evidence of it in our land, but so far, the evidence indicates we are right on track to fulfill what I saw, as confirmed by many prophetic warnings this year about a big shift coming soon, the start of a new season, and a time of trouble.

What hope is there for a nation whose political and spiritual leaders refuse to call for repentance, even re-writing the scriptures and altering their prayers to delete God’s clear requirements?

Yesterday’s National Day of Prayer ceremony was not a good sign for America’s future. It appears we are full of hypocrisy, claiming to know God while ignoring His requirements, demanding what we want while ignoring what He wants. We are playing spiritual games with God and we cannot win that game.

Author: James Bailey

James Bailey is an author, business owner, husband and father of two children. His vision is to broadcast the good news of Jesus Christ through blog sites and other media outlets.

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