This is definitely one of the most beautiful prayers of national repentance I’ve ever heard coming from the lips of a sitting Congressional representative. Read the article and watch the short video on the same page.
Here’s Representative Weber’s beautiful prayer, which I think you’ll agree is, in both tone and substance, very reminiscent of the prayer of Daniel in Daniel chapter 9. You might even consider it a short and updated version of Daniel’s prayer:
“Father, you say in your Word that the man who meditates on your Word is like a mighty oak tree. Blessed is he if he meditates on it daily. But Lord, we have endeavored to try to kick your word out of public schools. Father, we have endeavored to take the Bible out of classrooms, the Ten Commandments off the walls. Oh Lord, forgive us.
“Father, we think we’re so smart. We’ve replaced your Word and your precepts with drug-sniffing dogs, with metal detectors, with uniformed police officers in our schools. Oh Lord, forgive us.
“Father, we have trampled on Your holy institution of holy matrimony and tried to rewrite what it is, and we’ve called it an alternate lifestyle. Father, oh Father, please forgive us.
“Lord, we have gone to killing the most innocent among us. Your servant Moses warned in Deuteronomy 30:19 warned us to choose life so that we and all of our descendants might live.
“Father, we’re killing our descendants, and we’re calling it a choice. Oh, God in heaven forgive us, please.
“Lord, we’ve even disregarded the wisdom of Solomon, Lord, the wisdom of the Proverbs where you say the borrower will be slave to the lender. Twenty trillion dollars in debt, and nations have to be laughing at us.
“Father, Abraham Lincoln said that we have forgotten to pray to the One Who made us. Lord, forgive our sins. Father help us. Help us to get back on your precepts, on your path, to a true understanding of “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.”
“Lord, let that please be us. Don’t remove your hand of protection from us, Father please. Lord forgive us our manifold sins. In your great mercy bring us back to you. Father I beg of you. I plead of you. In Jesus holy name. Amen.”
This is what our heavenly Father wants to hear from us, straight from our hearts. This is precisely why He admonishes us, in Joel chapter 2:15-18, that when we see the heathen hordes pouring in among us, we are to call a “solemn assembly” and turn to HIM in prayer. As it’s written:
“Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly: Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet.
Let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O LORD, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God? Then will the LORD be jealous for his land, and pity his people.”
Daniel the prophet understood the crucial importance of national repentance. In his stirring prayer to the Father, he stated:
Dan 9:4 And I prayed unto the LORD my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments;
Dan 9:5 We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments:
Dan 9:6 Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, which spake in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.
Dan 9:7 O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, that are near, and that are far off, through all the countries whither thou hast driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against thee.
Dan 9:8 O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee.
Dan 9:9 To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him;
Dan 9:10 Neither have we obeyed the voice of the LORD our God, to walk in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets.
Dan 9:11 Yea, all Israel have transgressed thy law, even by departing, that they might not obey thy voice; therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against him.
Dan 9:12 And he hath confirmed his words, which he spake against us, and against our judges that judged us, by bringing upon us a great evil: for under the whole heaven hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem.
Dan 9:13 As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us: yet made we not our prayer before the LORD our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and understand thy truth.
Dan 9:14 Therefore hath the LORD watched upon the evil, and brought it upon us: for the LORD our God is righteous in all his works which he doeth: for we obeyed not his voice.
Dan 9:15 And now, O Lord our God, that hast brought thy people forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and hast gotten thee renown, as at this day; we have sinned, we have done wickedly.
Dan 9:16 O Lord, according to all thy righteousness, I beseech thee, let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from thy city Jerusalem, thy holy mountain: because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are become a reproach to all that are about us.
Dan 9:17 Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant, and his supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord’s sake.
Dan 9:18 O my God, incline thine ear, and hear; open thine eyes, and behold our desolations, and the city which is called by thy name: for we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousnesses, but for thy great mercies.
Dan 9:19 O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O my God: for thy city and thy people are called by thy name.
Again, that’s precisely what our heavenly Father is looking for, from each and every one of us. And it hurts Him deeply when we substitute adoration for, and dependence upon, a flawed man-king in place of confession and repentance to Him, and a sincere call for His merciful intervention.
Everything has a time-limit on it, folks. There’s a time to repent. And then there comes a time when our heavenly Father won’t even listen to our repentance because we waited too long — waiting on a man-king to save us.
As it’s written:
Psa 118:9 It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in princes.
Pro 29:25 The fear [i.e., reverence] of man bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his trust in the LORD shall be safe.
But what saith the Lord to those who want His day to arrive without doing things His way? He says this:
Amo 5:18 Woe unto you that desire the day of the LORD! to what end is it for you? the day of the LORD is darkness, and not light.
Amo 5:19 As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him.
Amo 5:20 Shall not the day of the LORD be darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it?
When we do things His way, the day of the Lord will be a day of blessing and reward to us. When we do it our own way, via that seemingly eternal pursuit of a new man-king to save us rather than depending upon God, it will indeed be a day or “darkness, and not light.” In other words, national and personal tragedy.
Oh, we’ll get through it all, alright. But how many of us will be in good standing with the Lord when it’s finally over with?
Regards in Christ,
Steve Barwick
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