Jeremiah

I am ashamed of my country. We have embraced the darkness. We live only for ourselves. I have never seen corruption so brazen and public and the law mocked as it is in America today.

Without a turning from the secular world’s willful rejection of Your authority and to Your mercy, we have no future. Every day Your guardrails of protection are cast aside so that we may pursue our own desires regardless of the impact on others. Kindness and graciousness are cruelly abandoned for short-term pleasure. We desperately seek peace for our souls yet reject the source of peace that passes all understanding.

Make visible what the end of our rebellion will be…show us the way of escape. Cause Your children to speak with authority.

AMEN

Scripture: “The LORD said to his people: “You are standing at the crossroads. So consider your path. Ask where the old, reliable paths are. Ask where the path is that leads to blessing and follow it. If you do, you will find rest for your souls.” Jeremiah 6:16

Honor and virtue are not innate to the human heart. Our natural instincts are selfish and debasing. You teach that only by accepting Your standards and inviting Your Spirit into our lives can we hope to make wise and honorable decisions.

Even then, I still fail, but You are there…as soon as I call…to restore me to the right path. You are my protection and the source of my wisdom. You are the joy of my life. I want to be strong and immovable in defense of truth and the most vulnerable. I want to live an honorable live…empower me.

I want to live an exemplary life and to hear when You call me home, “Well done My good and faithful servant”. Show me the way!

AMEN

Scripture: “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?” Jeremiah 17:9

Honor and virtue are not innate human traits. Our natural instincts are self-centered and debasing. You teach that I…and each of us have fallen victim to a sin nature inherited from our earliest forefathers.

Honor and virtue are learned from You and passed on from generation to generation. When the traditional family breaks down…following generations are left without protection from this fallen world.

So, even as I proclaim my desire to do what’s right…I cannot be honorable and virtuous without Your Spirit living in me and guarding against my natural impulses.
I want to live an honorable life…to be strong and immovable in defense of the most vulnerable. Help me!

When I enter the eternity, You have prepared for me…I want to hear, “Well done My good and faithful servant.”

AMEN

Scripture: ““The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?” Jeremiah 17:9

Thank You for the centuries of blessings You have given to America. As our Creator, You have been so good to us even when we failed to live up to our promises.

But, today my heart is broken. We have become arrogant, believing we know better than You. We have denied Your love. We have set our own course with a total disregard for Your standards and Your guidance. So many among us have chosen to embrace a new “woke” lifestyle rejecting Your teachings as old-fashioned and out-of-step with the 21st century.

But, Father, there remains a remnant faithful to You, thankful for Christ, our rescue from the darkness that surrounds us. Strengthen our courage and embolden our voices, empower us to make a difference.

AMEN

Scripture: “The LORD said to his people: “You are standing at the crossroads. So consider your path. Ask where the old, reliable paths are. Ask where the path is that leads to blessing and follow it. If you do, you will find rest for your souls.” Jeremiah 6:16

American hubris is laughable in its willful blindness. In our mistaken faith in human wisdom, we regularly broadcast our foolishness to billions of people.

Take for example our medical community smugly announcing their preference for manmade laboratory vaccines above natural immunity to counter the Wuhan virus. Or simply listen the pharma companies’ advertising their latest and greatest miracle drug…if you listen carefully, you’ll discover often nearly half of their message addresses the unintended consequences (side effects) of their product.

Not once in the timeless history of the universe has God encountered an unintended consequence resulting from His work.

Whenever I trust the foolishness of man before the perfection of my Creator I am trusting darkness above the light. Man’s works are marked by unintended consequences…God’s handiwork never is.

AMEN

Scripture “My people are fools; they do not know me. They are senseless children; they have no understanding. They are skilled in doing evil; they know not how to do good.” Jeremiah 4:22

Thank You for establishing boundaries for my life and guarding me from the ditch.

We hate “NO!” As soon as we are able, we rebel against “No”, throwing tantrums to get our way. As we age we get less direct…but just as obstinate when told, “No”. We’re deceived into believing that “YES!” is the kind and loving response.

Help me understand the truth…permissiveness is ultimately the road to a hopeless future while wise boundaries are designed to protect and guard it. “Thou shalt not…” of Scripture is designed to prevent the consequences of poor choices from ruining our lives. The world’s enticing, “Eat it, you’ll surely not die…” came from a heart totally unconcerned for my well-being.

Lord, thank You for caring enough to tell me “No.”

AMEN

Scripture: “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11

My heart and my mind are deeply disturbed. I am frightened, confused and tormented. My mind is struggling to focus because of the way the You and Your word are being mistreated.

America is in danger because her leaders and influencers are unfaithful to the truth. They live self-centered lives and they misuse their power. So the land is dried up because it is under Your curse. Her pastures are withered. The Lord says, “Both your leaders and elites are godless. I even find religious leaders doing evil in my church! All their paths are dark and slippery. They will stumble and fall headlong. I will bring disaster on them. A day of reckoning is coming.” You have spoken!

I cry out…expose the darkness…return us to Your truth.

AMEN

Scripture: Jeremiah 23:9-12 paraphrased to reflect 21st century America

I see America clearly described by the prophet Zephaniah:

She (America) heeded no voice…accepted no instruction…did not trust in the LORD, nor draw near to God. Her princes (elites) within her are roaring lions, her judges are wolves. Her prophets are reckless, treacherous men, her priests have profaned the sanctuary. They have done violence to the law, the unjust knows no shame. The Lord said, ‘Surely (America) will revere Me again and accept instruction so that she will not be cut off according to all that I have appointed. But they were eager to corrupt all their deeds. We have been warned of our future…but we laugh…we mock God, Himself.

Help me sound the alert about the peril my country is facing before it’s too late.

America…AWAKE!
(adapted from Zephaniah 3)

AMEN

Scripture: “While you were feeling secure I gave you warning. But you said, “I refuse to listen to you.” That is the way you have acted from your earliest history onward…” Jeremiah 22:21

It appears as though, whenever a spirit of honest personal evaluation and freedom begins to take form before Your throne, the prince of darkness uses every deception and every distortion in his arsenal to keep Your light from prevailing.

Too often what appears to be a true movement of Your Spirit is stillborn casting mankind back into darkness. Lord, I cry out to You to protect and preserve the movement of Your Spirit in the hearts of blinded and deceived mankind.

May Your light and truth reach the darkest corners of America breaking the shackles and opening the prison gates for those who have been trapped by the enemy’s lies. May America once again be a beacon of hope for a lost world.

AMEN

Scripture: “And they will fight against you but they will not overcome you, for I am with you to save you,” declares the LORD.” Jeremiah 1:19

You proclaim human life sacred and precious but from abortion parlors to street violence, Americans are killing Americans at an alarming pace. It pains You when we treat so life callously.

It is heart breaking when that most responsible claim it’s perfectly legitimate for a mother to kill her unborn child. Or, the ludicrous claim…“The guns did it.” The cause of this horrific carnage is the wickedness in our hearts unbounded by moral guidelines. When the legitimacy of Godly standards is mocked and the Bible is removed from public view, the results are as predictable as the sunrise. People’s evil nature reigns.

Neither fewer guns nor more laws will heal our hardened hearts. Only Your love will restore our humanity. Soften my heart. Help me love others as You love me.

AMEN

Scripture: “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?” Jeremiah 17:9