How do people around you describe you as a family? How do the people in your community describe the church you go to?
In the early church Christians were known as the people who “call upon the name of Jesus Christ.” Saul, “breathing out threatenings and slaughter” sought to arrest and imprison all those who called upon the name of the Lord.
This should be the lifestyle of every believer and the testimony of every God-fearing family.
Is it your habit to gather your family each day to call upon the name of the Lord? Jeremiah 10:25 is a big challenge to families: “Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not, and upon the families that call not on thy name.” This Scripture says that if we are not families who call upon the name of the Lord, we may as well be heathen families.
There is so much for which we need to call upon the Lord. For our own family. For this nation. The nations of the world. For Israel. For the persecuted church. How can we forget about our fellow brothers and sisters who are being persecuted around the world? We dare not forget them in prayer. Hebrews 13:3 9 (NLT) says: “Remember those in prison, as if you were there yourself. Remember also those being mistreated, as if you felt their pain in your own bodies.” Is this how you pray for them each day?
What is another priority in prayer? 1 Timothy 2:1-3 says: “I exhort therefore, that, FIRST, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men: for kings and for ALL THAT ARE IN AUTHORITY: that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.” Therefore, we have a responsibility to pray for our president and those in authority. Do your hold them up in prayer each day as a family?
Recently my husband was speaking to a group of men—good, upstanding, faithful Christian men. And yet when he asked who prayed for President Trump in their home each day, only one man put up his hand.
It’s time to take up our responsibility. We are obligated to hold up Trump’s hands. Remember the story of Joshua fighting the Amalekites? When Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed, but when his hand got tired and he let it down, the Amalekites prevailed. Therefore, his brothers, Aaron and Hur stood either side of him and held up his hands and they wasted the Amalekites!
We now have Trump’s slogan to make America great again. But this can’t happen without prayer. The prayers of God’s of families. Because if families are not praying together, churches will not be praying. Everything starts in the home.
Can you imagine what could happen in our nation if every God-fearing family prayed daily for our president and those in authority? We miss so much of God’s blessings because we do not pray.
I am challenged by the words of Norman V. Williams: “God didn’t make the course and destiny of nations and of individuals dependent on the decisions of Congresses and Parliaments, nor did He lay this power in the hands of rulers and kings; but rather God placed it in the praying family! Therefore, the devil cannot ruin nations of men until he has destroyed the homes of prayer! That’s why Satan hates the family altar.”
Praying families have the power to turn the tide in this nation. But will we, do it?
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
Calling on the name of the Lord, OT: Genesis 4:26; 1 Kings 18:24; Psalm 116:17; Joel 2:32; and Zephaniah 3:9.
Calling on the name of the Lord, NT: Acts 9:14, 21; 22:16; 1 Corinthians 1:2; Romans 10:13; and 2 Timothy 2:22.