Does America Have A Prayer?

Not long ago I read about a scandal at an Ivy League College. The article claimed that the student body at Yale, which ironically was founded to train men for ministry, was following after the latest fad philosophies and cared little for anything Christian. An Atheist club had been formed and a mock communion observed. Members of the senior class had jokingly assumed the names of the world’s leading atheists. All this is probably what you’ve come to expect from colleges and universities. What you probably did not expect is the fact that the year under discussion was 1798! Yale president Timothy Dwight subsequently challenged his rebellious student body to a series of debates in which he systematically decimated their atheistic arguments. The debates resulted in a revival among the students at and this helped contribute to other revival fires that were burning in America that soon produced the roaring conflagration that today has become known as the Second Great Awakening.

With so many traditional values being jettisoned, so many court decisions being established on the shifting sands or moral relativism and not on legal precedent, much less common sense, one might conclude that America doesn’t have a prayer. Yet, prayer may be all we have and, if history is any indicator, exactly what we need.

Partisan bickering, political wrangling and terrorist threats should prompt American Christians to lead the way in turning back to God. Psalm 127:1 warns, “Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain.”

Please remember these words from I Timothy 2:1-2: First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for … all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. If you will heed these words then you will be able to say with certainty, “Yes, America does indeed have a prayer!”

National Day of Prayer is Thursday, May 4. YOU can pray for America by joining us on that day at 6 p.m. at the Bellville Band Stand.

In Jesus’ love,
Pastor Mike