America at the Crossroads, Part 1
by Kay Arthur

O Beloved, my heart is greatly burdened, and it's not just my heart, it is the hearts of multitudes across this nation. We don't realize the grave danger that America is in. America is at the crossroads. Our nation is looking at two different paths. There is a broad path that leads to destruction and there is a narrow path that leads to life and the blessing of God, and the Bible says there are few that take that narrow way. And yet I believe that those of us that take the narrow way, those of us that fear God, those of us that know God, who live according to His statutes, according to His precepts for life, according to His commandments, can be used of God to stop the judgment of America. How do we do that? We have got to go to the Lord in prayer. We need to seek God and ask Him for another great awakening: an awakening to our sin; an awakening to righteousness.

We know that there's a God in heaven. We know that He sovereignly rules over all. We know we have access to the throne of grace. God tells us in 2 Chronicles 7:14 that if we confess our sins, turn from our wicked ways and seek His face, He is going to listen to us. At Precept Ministries International, God has laid it upon our hearts to call the people of the United States of America to prayer on behalf of our nation. Every Thursday, through the election and the rest of the year to Christmas, I would like to invite you to unite with us in corporate prayer. Let's open churches and places of business and call people to prayer. And in calling people to prayer, let's ask God to bring another great awakening.

You may say, "Listen, I don't want to hear about that. I just want someone to straighten out the economy for us. I just want a secure future." Well, listen to me, Precious One. According to the Word of God, it is God that secures the future of a nation, and He does that depending on the nation's faithfulness-or lack of faithfulness-to God, whether the nation is in rebellion towards God's commandments, or whether the nation has acknowledged that there is a God in heaven. Now the scary thing is this: many people do not want conservative Christians influencing what happens in this country. They want to take us and put us in a room, lock the door, and throw away the key so that we won't interfere. But what does God want of us?

Go with me to the 14th chapter of Ezekiel. In verses 1 through 12, the word of the Lord has come to Ezekiel because these elders have come to God and said, "God, I want to hear from You." And yet they had idols in their hearts; stumbling blocks of iniquity. Precious One, iniquity is sin. It is a perversion of what God has said and what He has written. What is God's word to the elders? He tells them that they need to repent. You may say, "Ezekiel only belongs to the house of Israel." But we see in verse 13 of chapter 14 that God says, "If a country sins against me," judgment will come upon that country. I want to ask you a question. Has America sinned against God? Has America committed unfaithfulness against God? So many times when we look at America, I know that we can feel absolutely impotent. We think: there is no way that I can do anything about the deplorable moral state of this nation. But there is a way.

Beloved, is there a sin in your life that is causing you to stumble? Are you guarding your heart? Don't set up idols in your heart and then expect to be able to go to God and to pray and to have Him answer your prayers. How do you overcome sin? Examine your own life as you cry out to God. When you see the sin in your life, confess that sin. Then determine to turn from that sin-that's repentance.

These are critical times in our nation, and only God can save us from our sin, our perversions of God's word and rebellion against Him. God can use you, Beloved, to stop His judgment on America. You and I are not here for ourselves; we are here to glorify God. We are here to serve Him. God tells us, "To whom much is given, much is required." He is opening the eyes of your understanding, and He has given you a heart for Him and a heart for the Word of God and He wants to use you. Get on your face and ask God to break your heart with the things that break His.

Our times today are similar to those of the Second Great Awakening of the early 1800s. Religious fervor had greatly waned, and there was a burden of prayer on people of various denominations and ministries. In New York City, during the Fulton Street revival which came a few years later, businessmen started reaching men in all walks of life, and prayer meetings grew from weekly to daily prayer meetings until they filled three floors of a church facility on Fulton Street. Eventually the meetings spread to other cities where thousand were converted. This was a move of God on the hearts of men who saw between 500,000 and one million people come to salvation through Jesus Christ.

Beloved, would you like to be a part of a great awakening in America? Go to "preceptsforlife.com", and download "A Call to Corporate Prayer." Join us in the months to come as we pray for our nation.

Kay Arthur

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Friday, August 01, 2008