A Prayer for Our Country for Her 244th Birthday

Father God,

We thank You for the United States of America.

  • What a privilege You grant us, O Father, to live in the first country that stated in its core documents that “All men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.”
  • What a great blessing to have wise founders who agreed with Your revelation of the fallenness of man, and therefore set up a system of checks and balances within the Constitution to diminish the opportunity for power to corrupt.
  • What a further blessing that our first president voluntarily stepped down from office, and therefore set an example for peaceful succession that we have followed for over 200 years.
  • Thank You for the previously unheard of economic freedom we have had in this country, and the consequent abundance of material goods that we are blessed with.
  • Thank you for those who have given their lives that this experiment in government of the people, by the people, and for the people might not perish from the earth.
  • Thank You for the freedom we have to worship as You instruct, without interference from the state, and for the freedom to speak against our leaders and their policies without fear of imprisonment or worse.
  • Thank You for the blessings of past revivals and awakenings that have led to the salvation of millions and the transformation of entire communities.
  • Thank You for the strategic role You have allowed the American church to play in reaching so many people groups with the Gospel of Your grace.

Whether we ourselves arrived recently or our ancestors have been in the US since its founding, we are blessed to live in this great country – and we acknowledge and thank You that this, along with every good gift, comes from You, and is undeserved by us.

We also confess, Father, the sins of our country, how so often we have failed to live up to our founding ideals.

  • Chanting security and freedom, we have tolerated or even advocated the oppression of different ethnic groups, including Native Americans, African Americans, and Japanese Americans.
  • In the name of “freedom” of choice we have tolerated or even advocated the killing of tens of millions of babies before they took a single breath.
  • In the name of “freedom” we have excused a lack of concern for the poor and downtrodden.
  • Crying out “freedom of religion” we have spawned distortions of Your Word and have bowed down to idols – including those of security, power, and wealth.
  • We have even replaced You with the USA, worshiping our country instead of You, while acting as if Your honor and glory are yoked together with the success of the United States.

We acknowledge, Father, that You have no more need of this country than you had of the Roman Empire. We continue to exist as a country because of Your mercy, and You could justly sweep us away in a moment, with no harm to Your plans for the coming Kingdom.

We confess in addition, gracious Father, that we as individuals have been infected with the virus of the false conception of freedom promulgated so widely in our country – as if freedom only means freedom of choice. You tell us in Romans 6 that true freedom is found in Christ, as we are free from sin and so slaves to righteousness. Cure us of this virus, we pray! May we be free to become what our Creator intends us to be, thereby becoming like Christ! Vaccinate us against further infection, and so use us to help others to find the only true freedom and the only lasting joy: Slavery to You.

By Your command, we seek the welfare of this country where you have sent us, even as we know that our true country is Your Kingdom. Enable us to be good citizens that bless our neighbors, shining the light of Your Gospel in all of our interactions. Make us truly instruments of Your peace and witnesses to Your grace, and so use us to bring many to Christ and to heal our land of its remaining ethnic and racial hatred, thereby forming a more perfect union. Grant us, Your church, wisdom, love, unity, and boldness to be the salt and light you intend.

O Loving Father, we so long to see Your Name magnified in all the cities, towns, and rural areas of this great land. Open eyes, by Your grace. Stir up Your church, by Your Spirit. Conform us to Christ, by Your power. Bless us so that we might be a blessing – and so bless this our country on its 244th birthday.

For the glory of Jesus our Savior we pray, Amen.

Jesus the Perfect King

This Sunday Christians around the world celebrate Jesus entering Jerusalem riding on a donkey. Remember the scene: The crowds are excited, seeing this event as the fulfillment of prophecy (Mark 11:7-11). Finally, at long last, the promised descendant of David has come to reign!

What do the people expect Jesus to do? Why are they so excited?

Undoubtedly most are thinking about Jesus overthrowing their Roman oppressors. Some also may want him to do away with the present religious establishment (see Mark 12:35-37). Few if any see Satan and indwelling sin as the great enemy whom Jesus has come to destroy. But this is the battle Jesus fights: by dying Himself to redeem His people from sin and death; to open the eyes of the spiritually blind; to shed light on those who are walking in darkness; to proclaim salvation to Gentile and Jew alike – to complete and make possible the good news of the gospel of God that He has been preaching (Mark 1:14).

But the crowds do not understand Jesus’ purpose. They are focused so completely on the relatively minor problem of political oppression that they cannot see the spiritual forces of darkness that control almost the entire world. So although the crowd praises Jesus, although they even praise him by using words of Scripture, they, like crowds throughout His ministry, have not comprehended the nature of the gospel He preaches. And because they are blind to the truth, they are fickle; only a few days later, the crowds of Jerusalem will be clamoring for Jesus’ crucifixion, with nary a word of protest.

Recall that much earlier, after the first feeding of a multitude, a crowd wanted to make Jesus king (John 6). They wanted relief from the Romans. They wanted free, delicious bread every day. The crowds did not repent of their sins and seek spiritual healing; they focused on meeting present material needs. So Jesus refuses their offer of kingship, even though He really is their king.

Yes, He really is their king. The crowds are right to say, “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David (Mark 11:10);” Jesus is indeed the heir to David’s throne (Luke 1:33).

“But surely,” you say, “Roman oppression was wrong. Surely it wasn’t wrong for the crowds to desire freedom from political slavery.”

The desire for an end to political oppression is not wrong. We are to pray for God’s kingdom to come; and in God’s kingdom, there is no oppression. God promises that He will right all wrongs, including the wrong of political oppression.

But when will that kingdom come? In one sense, God’s kingdom has already come; Jesus reigns today. But His enemies have not yet been made into a “footstool for his feet,” the promise in Psalm 110. In the future, God will destroy all evil, throwing Satan and his allies into the lake of fire. That total destruction of evil is yet to come, as is all too obvious to every one of us every day. In the interim, however, Jesus exercises sovereignty over evil prior to destroying it.

But what does His sovereignty mean when evil still exists? In what sense is Jesus the perfect king?

Jesus is the perfect king in the sense that He fulfills four key purposes of government – four purposes, indeed, that are outlined in the preamble to the US constitution. Let’s consider each of these in turn:

1) “To form a more perfect union:”

Jesus makes a perfect union, a perfect unity out of those who are divided.

In Jesus’ kingdom, there are no racial distinctions, no ethnic distinctions, no class distinctions, no sexual distinctions in how we approach God (Colossians 3:28). Every Christian comes before God by grace through faith. All these areas that divide us in the world are insignificant compared to the unity we have in Jesus.

Through His rule, we are free to love across all the barriers that separate us.

2) “To establish justice and insure domestic tranquility:”

Jesus establishes justice, righting all wrongs; no evil will go unpunished

Those who have never received Jesus will suffer eternal punishment for their sins. Justice will be done.

For those who do receive Jesus, His sufferings cover our sins. He pays the penalty. Jesus bore all the suffering and pain that we deserve for every sin we commit. Justice once again is done.

This frees us to refrain from taking vengeance ourselves (Romans 12:19). We can trust King Jesus with implementing justice. In the present time, He may use the state to implement temporal justice; He will always exercise perfect justice Himself in eternity.

3) “To promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity:”

The US constitution envisages a government that provides public goods – that is, goods which benefit everyone but no one pays to use. Jesus our King goes further; he guarantees that all things that happen work together for God’s glory and our good (Romans 8:28). No matter what happens, God is in control. He will turn around the evil intentions of men and use them for our good. We are thus free from worry, free from concern. We are free to be bold, to take chances, to follow God wherever he leads. For He supports us. He will never let us go. He will never leave us nor forsake us.

4) “To provide for the common defense:”

Jesus, our perfect king, is in control of all opposing forces. For all authority in heaven and on earth belong to Him (Matthew 28:18). Even God’s enemies end up accomplishing His purposes (Revelation 17:17, Acts 4:27-28).

In His good and wise purposes, God allows evil to appear to flourish for a time. But the time is limited, and God will work together all things – even evil, even suffering, even disease, even pain, even oppression – so that in the end He is most glorified and we become like Him, reigning with Him in glory for all eternity.

So praise God that He has promised us a new heavens and a new earth, when the kingdom of this world will become the kingdom of our God and of His Christ (Revelation 11:15).

And praise Him for his present reign, delivering us from the domain of darkness, transferring us to Jesus’ kingdom (Colossians 1:13).

May we then live in the freedom that comes from King Jesus’ perfect rule: Free to step out in faith; free to love with His love; free to give of ourselves and our resources; free from worry about the future; free from vengeance and hate; free to trust Him with all our hearts, today and tomorrow and forever.

[This devotion is an edited excerpt from a sermon preached April 30, 2000. You can read the entire sermon at this link.]