GATHER TOGETHER AND PRAY

 

Zephaniah 2:1-3  Gather together and pray, you shameless nation.  Gather while there is still time, before judgment begins and your opportunity is blown away like chaff.  Act now before the fierce fury of the LORD falls and the terrible day of the LORD’s anger begins.  Beg the LORD to save you—all you who are humble, all you who uphold justice.  Walk humbly and do what is right.  Perhaps even yet the LORD will protect you from his anger on that day of destruction.  NLT

      Nothing of any significance is going to happen in the world unless God’s people gather together and pray.  The failure of the Church to come together and pray has caused most of the world’s problems.  We have failed to seek the Lord’s favor.  We have failed to see the need to pray.  We have failed to see the need to come together and stay together for the sake of the souls of the world.  Instead of attacking Satan on a united front, we have separated ourselves from one another and allowed ourselves to be divided over matters that should never divide us.  We, the Church, have just as much shame as the world does.

      But, it’s not too late.  There is still time to unite and pray.  God has not come yet to judge the world and until He does, there is time for the Church to have a profound impact on the world.  We will never make much a difference in the world until we unite ourselves at the foot of the cross.  We must repent of our willingness to let petty things divide us.  We must repent of our self-centered agendas.  We must repent of the sins we have allowed in our hearts and churches.  We must repent of how we have allowed ourselves to be led away from the absolute authority of the Scriptures. 

      We must get on our knees together and beg the Lord to save us from ourselves before we can beg Him to save the world.  We must humble ourselves before Him and acknowledge that He is our Lord, the head of the Church and not us.  We must unite ourselves in Christ and set a godly example for the world to follow.  We must walk humbly before the Lord in the world and do what is right before Him.  We must, by our example, give the world a reason to want to come to Jesus.

       It is not too late, but our days of opportunity are swiftly fading away.  The Lord is coming soon to take the true Church out of the world.  Today is the day of salvation whereby many can still be saved.  The question is, “Will we do it?  Will we be part of God’s solution for the sins of the world, or will we be part of its problem?”