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There is an epidemic inflicting our nation. This national disaster began many years ago when we, as a nation, decided to expel God from our public schools and reject Him as a central part of our public life. The Bible was chosen as the primary textbook in our public schools from its inception, until a 1963 court case which resulted in banning its reading - for "fear of psychological harm on the child[ren]". Prayer was a necessary part of our public school system since 1647, that is, until 1962, when it was ruled unconstitutional. The Ten Commandments has long been recognized as the basis for all civil law for thousands of years, until 1980 when it was stripped from our public walls in a ruling that stated: "If the posted copies of the Ten Commandments are to have any effect at all, it will be to induce the school children to read, meditated upon, perhaps to venerate and obey, the Commandments...[which] is not a permissible...objective." Perhaps if these three pillars had remained intact, our classrooms would not have the excessive violence, drug abuse, immorality, profanity, disorder, and, more tragically, murder, which has become increasingly prevalent in the past 50 years.

What made our nation great was our acknowledgment and dependence upon God. The blessings and strength our nation has experience for hundreds of years have all come from the hand of God. Sadly, we have forgotten Who brought us to this position of liberty and prosperity. We have dismissed God and have attempted to take matters into our own hands; regrettably, this has only led us down the road to destruction and further away from God. Our quest for independence as a nation was never meant to lead us to independence from God - this was never our founding father's intention. Unfortunately, this has become the relentless pursuit of a relatively small group of ignorant people who have no understanding of the catastrophe they are causing. "When the righteous thrive, the people rejoice; when the wicked rule, the people groan" (Proverbs 29:2).

The damage is not irreparable, however. There is a remedy to this calamity, but it will require the people of God to respond with repentance and prayer (2 Chronicles 7:14)! "In repentance and rest is your salvation; in quietness and trust is your strength" (Isaiah 30:15). Our healing will come when the Body of Christ is willing to respond in this time of weakness by turning wholeheartedly to our Source of strength (1 Peter 4:17). One of our greatest privileges, as the children of God, is prayer. Only in exercising this privilege do we acknowledge our dependence upon God. It is through prayer that we unleash the power of God in the world and we become a threat to the plans of the enemy. Corrie ten Boom once said, "The enemy finds great humor when we are up to our ears in work, but he trembles in fear when we are on our knees in prayer". Prayer is an absolute necessity in the life of the believer and for the building of the Kingdom!

Jesus taught His disciples to pray to the Father: "Your Kingdom come" (Matthew 6:10). This is the enemy's greatest fear, because he knows that when the Lord returns his time will be up. E.M. Bounds writes, "The Church on its knees would bring heaven upon the earth". If we truly understood the power of the spiritual weapons at our disposal we would not fall so easily to the daily deception of the enemy and lose precious ground for the Kingdom of God (2 Corinthians 10:3-5). We must arm ourselves with the weapons of God's warfare - the Word of God and Prayer! "The Word of God and prayer are inseparable; the power of one is dependent upon the presence of the other". The disciples knew this truth and made it their utmost priority (Acts 6:4). We can do nothing, achieve nothing, and accomplish nothing, of any eternal value apart from the Lord (John 15:5). When we neglect prayer we leave the Lord out of His word and we become a hindrance to the Kingdom. May we get out of the way and get on our knees. Let us become a help instead of hindrance to the work of God!

Jesus' greatest priority was maintaining His love relationship with the Father through prayer. In doing so He didn't waiver in His commitment to accomplishing the will of the Father. He set an example for us - one that we should joyfully and obediently follow (Matthew 14:13, 23; 21:17; 26:39; 27:46; Mark 1:35; 6:46; 14:35; 15:34; Luke 5:16; 6:12; 9:18; 11:1; 21:37; 22:41: 23:34; John 4:34; 6:15; 7:35; 8:1). If you do not know how, or what, to pray for our nation in this critical hour, when the foundations are beginning to shake, consider praying through these power national prayers found in the Scriptures: Exodus 15:1-18; Deuteronomy 32:1-43; 1 Kings 8:23-61; 2 Chronicles 20:6-12; Ezra 9:6-15; Nehemiah 1:5-11; 9:5-38; The Psalms; Daniel 9:4-19; Matthew 6:9-13; John 17:1-26. May healing come to our land and salvation come to all people because each one of us has submitted to the Lord with repentance and prayer!