A Prayer For A Revival In Times of Financial Crisis

 

God of history, whose ear is open to the cries of Your people in every time of difficulty, seldom have we as a nation experienced the financial crisis which we experienced this past week.   The largest and most powerful financial institutions in our country fell like a burned out star in the northern sky.   Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, AIG, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and others were kept solvent only by the take over of our government.  The events of this past week have made such previous catastrophes as the Saving and Loan collapse of a few years ago, followed by the fall of Adelphia Communications, Tyco International and Enron seem like child’s play.

 

We who love our country cry out to You for Your mercy and forgiving grace.   Our land is torn by sin.  It is bleeding through the wounds of corruption, greed, materialism, consumerism, immorality, substance abuse and promiscuity.  We are too embarrassed to report the things that are reported in our daily newspaper.   In Your Word You have said that if You are to heal our land we must turn from our wicked ways.  How better to describe what has been happening in our land, it falls in the category of “wickedness.”  The Bible word for “wickedness” is evil.  You will not heal our land, nor bless it until we turn from our evil; until we repent of it and become a nation of righteousness, justice and peace.

 

We join our voices in our cry to call our nation to its knees.  We ask that You, O God,  would move our president, his cabinet, members of congress, governors, mayors and state and city servants to examine their hearts that all might resist the temptation to use their positions of power for personal gain and selfish interests.

 

But we would not cry out for such repentance without first confessing our own wickedness.  We realize that our sins are of a different nature, but they are nevertheless sins.  We, too, are guilty of the sin of materialism and consumerism.  We too have bought into the philosophy of “I want, what I want, when I want it.”  We are guilty of  ingratitude and indifference.   We are not known for our generosity, our gentleness nor our goodness.     The only thing that we have turned our back on is the plight of the poor and the oppressed, the refugee and the persecuted, the sick and the dying.  We too often have prayed, “Bless me and my wife, my two sons, us four and no more.”   We confess that we have not heeded the words of Paul who wrote, “Do not share in other people’s sins.”

 

Forgive us, forgive us, forgives us, O Lord, lest it be said of us as it was said of Israel of old, “Ah, sinful nation, a people loaded with guilt, a brood of evildoers, children given to corruption!  They have forsaken the Lord; they have spurned the Holy One of Israel and  turned their backs on Him.”  Spare our nation the failure and fall of many who have gone before us.  Let us not be a nation known for its riches and its power, but for its uprightness, honesty, peace and fairness, a nation that values liberty and justice for all.   Hear this our urgent prayer.     Amen.