While America is under attack from terrorist on the outside, we face as a nation the greatest attack from within. The onslaught of moral terrorists has caught many by surprise as it grows with little resistance in the courts and in the halls of power.  America is faced with the threatening reality of homosexual unions devastating the family unit.  While most in our churches sleep in the soft comfort of complacency, a small number of judges with no respect for God’s absolutes, redefine family values.  Further, the qualification of sexual immorality, violence, and the death culture as “normal” in our society ranks us more closely with Post-Christian Europe than our national motto, “One Nation Under God.” God calls upon His Church in every generation to be responsible for their culture, in ours the call is not less definite, and the stakes are not less severe.

The atrocities of Hitler’s Nazi regime during the Second World War are perhaps the darkest hours of the twentieth century. In what some have called the “conspiracy of silence,” many German citizens who did not agree with Hitler said nothing to prevent his genocide. The fear of reprisal ruled the day as many who had the platform said nothing. It was in this climate that a band of college students came together to print a leaflet called the “White Rose.” The White Rose was committed to exposing the government’s moral depravity, in spite of the risk to the lives of the publishers. As their mission they declared, “We are Christians, and we are Germans; therefore we are responsible for Germany!”

If there is hope for regaining America’s roots, it will spring from a church that embraces its God given responsibility. We are Christians, we are Americans and we are responsible for America. Let us not forget the words of the apostle Paul to the philosophers at Mars Hill. He reminded them that God has “fixed a day in which He will judge.” We will give an account for our idleness and prayerlessness, to Christ our righteous judge.

The chief step toward reclaiming our nation from the slippery slope of immorality is regaining the weapon of prayer and travail. We have little hope to reclaim America if we do not come to the place of intercession. God’s command is “if My people pray.” It was in prayer that the Continental Congress overcame the devastating impasse. It was in prayer that the first and second great awakenings were born.  It was in prayer that the American Missionary Society was born and it is in prayer that we the Church of Jesus Christ will reclaim this Nation.  We must exchange our cashmere for sackcloth and travail. If we do not become consumed with a burden for our nation, we will become consumed by trouble such as we have never known. Sin crouches at our door and we must wage war in prayer.

1. We must heed the admonishment of Paul to Timothy and pray for those in authority over us. The decisions they make in positions of authority will affect everything from the safety of the unborn to the sacredness of the ages in society.  They affect our personal finances, our national morality, our religious liberty, and our national sovereignty.  We cannot afford to undermine these issues when we pray.

2. We must pray for a national awaking of the Body of Christ. If the church sleeps, the enemy roars in sweet delight.  But if the church will man its post and pray, the war we wage will be the war we win, without failure.

3. We must pray for the American family, which is under attack by every form of division and strife.  Without a strong family unit in America, we stand no chance of remaining as great as we are.  We must pray to defend the definition of marriage, the sanctity of human life, and the spiritual inheritance of a coming generation.

(This Article was originally published in “The Standard” on May 2006)