The malaise of pessimism and angst cuts across party lines. Republicans, Democrats, and Independents are all depressed about the present national condition. They may have different reasons, but they are all in the dumps about the United States.

In Daniel 10, Daniel was serving a Persian King. He had made it through the Babylonian kingdom – the trials and tests of the Lion’s Den, the Golden Statue of Nebuchadnezzar and his friends getting thrown into the fiery furnace, and the dreams and interpretations from God surrounded by “the wise men”. He had been tested and tried and had come out of it all with a greater relationship with God and even more authority.

How does prayer impact a nation?

I never saw it coming. I had been a political consultant for 10 years and the main Member of Congress that I worked for announced his retirement. We couldn’t find a conservative candidate to take his place. So, after weeks of carrying a burden, seeing the need of the district, praying, and asking God to raise someone up, I acted on that burden. I jumped into the Congressional race. I never saw it coming.

The sun was setting gently across the broad Pacific. In its breathtaking beauty and confident serenity, it was a majestic and powerful sight.

It was, perhaps, this peaceful sunset, together with the relentless violence and destructive contagion of war, that led the great man to take pen in hand on this evening. Just harrowing days earlier, he and his family were crossing turbulent and dangerous waters in a small PT boat, surrounded by the enemy. He had found solace and protection on this island nation.

God gave us the Ten Commandments as a standard by which to live. At that time in history, man was doing what was right in his own eyes. Today, most of our laws as well as those of other nations are based on these commandments whether the government leaders admit it or not. Before going any further, take a brief look at the ten simple rules God put into place for us and for the good of society in Exodus 20:1-17.

They gathered in the small boarding house on Market Street. They sat down in high-backed wooden chairs around a simple wooden table. There was no air-conditioning to sooth the summer heat. In the descending rays of the late afternoon, a candle was their light. To them was given the awesome responsibility to craft a declaration; the “power to begin the world over again.”

When you’re not feeling well, there are some good first steps to take. One of them is to reach for a thermometer, to check your temperature. Knowing your body’s internal temperature can be a good indicator of whether or not you are fighting a disease. Too high a temperature means you should probably seek medical attention or some medicinal treatment.

But what if you were sick and the only treatment you sought was a thermometer? What if you confused the indicator for the cure?

An individual’s political stance is the outgrowth of one’s deepest philosophical beliefs. This is a big part of why there is such political polarization in our country today, and why it is often so difficult to find common ground between different political ideologies. Much of the tension can be traced back to two distinctly different philosophies: the Secular view of government’s role is distinctly different from the Bible’s view of government’s role.

In America today, the greatest ongoing injustices and inequities we currently face stem primarily from unbiblical ideas and policies that have been allowed to take root in our land. These policies have done great damage and brought incalculable pain, especially to the weakest of society.

Like a lawyer intercedes for his clients in a court of law, we petition God.

Like an assistant carrying out the orders of her boss and becoming the go-between of him and the other employees, we can ask for God’s will to be done here on earth as it is in heaven.

Intercession is delegation. It is mediation. It is carried authority through representation.

Behind the greatest evangelist of the Second Great Awakening — Charles Finney — knelt a man of intercession: Daniel Nash.

Finney, through his passionate appeals for people to come to God, saw hundreds of thousands of conversions happen all over New York and beyond in the early 1800s. Unknown to most, this move of God contained a secret weapon. Nash.

Gametime.

It is the 9th inning, and the score is in our favor. Everyone expects a huge defeat is going to be delivered to the other team - who for decades seemed to have won. For years with fervent fight, we have chipped away at their successes and are about to win. Cheers will be heard across the nation!

Here is the warning though - The season is not over, your team needs YOU! 

When the righteous increase, the people rejoice, but when the wicked rule, the people groan. (Proverbs 29:2)

God’s Word shows us the best way to live. Believers are supposed to live righteous lives marked by virtue. We are supposed to honor and obey the government. But when the wicked rule, they harm the people by enacting unjust laws and unbiblical policies. So Scripture also authorizes civil disobedience, that is, obeying God’s law when doing so requires disobeying human edicts. But biblical civil disobedience doesn’t mean we can just do whatever we want, and it doesn’t mean we can disobey any law we don’t like. So what should we do when the government becomes unjust? And what should our civil disobedience look like?

Nebuchadnezzar was king of the whole known world. His empire was vast, his word was law, and his temper was infamous. That’s why the actions of the three young Hebrew men were so remarkable. Throughout their service to the king they had shown courtesy and obedience, but now they refused him to his face. Stubbornly, defiantly, they disobeyed his command. What would cause these otherwise respectful men to act this way? Aren’t God-fearing people supposed to obey the government?

At 78 with 50 years of ministry and almost 60 years of marriage, I could reminisce about the past seasons of my life and talk about retirement, but scripture exhorts us to “forget the past and reach forward to those things which are ahead; pressing toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus”. (Philippians 3:13-14)

I am anticipating with great joy the adventure that awaits me in this next season of my life, because I am daring to go farther with God rather than just take retirement.

He could have had anything. All he had to do was ask. It would be his.

Few people have ever had such an opportunity. No conditions. No expectations. No restraints.

“What do you want? Ask, and I will give it to you!”

It was a breath-taking generosity.

It is easy to feel overwhelmed and not know where to start when praying for government. 

There is so much going on and so many needs that you could find yourself praying 24/7 and still not include everything burdening your heart.

The charges of racism levied against the United States of America as a whole are very grave. We have experienced and chronicled countless tales of racially-charged police brutality, mass incarceration, and the tragic murder of young Blacks, particularly men.

Ethnic minorities endure continual unwarranted suspicion, false accusations, and unprovoked assaults. Slavery, Jim Crow, the Ku Klux Klan, purposeful disenfranchisement, lynching, and redlining have brought incalculable pain.

Does the Bible deal with human/earthly government? 

Yes. God instituted human government in the beginning with Adam. In Genesis, God created the world and established Adam as the head of the world government at that time.

God gave Adam dominion over all the animals, plants and every living thing.

America was not handed freedom as a gift. Liberty was not bartered at a treaty table. This country was not bequeathed independence by a benevolent tyrant. America fought for freedom.

Our nation was born in the crucible of war. Independence was declared and liberty secured because courageous men and women chose to risk a “leap in the dark” over the inevitable dismal prospect of subjugation.