Help us be like Abraham

 “Abraham's obedience followed the call of God as thunder follows the flash.”
  — Pastor Dan Schiel
 Sermon - The Stranger

Lord, help us to be like Abraham … to follow you as believers hungering for your Word. We repent of succumbing to the temptations of plenty and clinging to the things of this world so tightly that we have lost our thirst for you. Forgive us for exchanging our dependence on You for provision, for the false promise of security through our own knowledge, efforts and accumulation of wealth.

When we read the words of our nation’s founding fathers, we catch a glimpse of the reverence many of them had for You, and the utter dependence on you they displayed in the building of this place we call America. Like Abraham, they followed Your call and were willing to give up their former life for an uncertain future where they could, not only live a free life independent of tyranny, but worship You as they were called, each in his own unique way. And worship You they did … and trusted You to fulfill the promise which had called them away from the world they knew and cross an ocean to these hallowed shores.

We thank you for these predecessors who built a nation where we are yet free to worship You. Save our redemption through the blood of Christ, there is no greater blessing we could imagine for a people such as we … American Christians. This freedom to worship as we please, of course, brought along with it the freedom for all religions to worship as well, and we are charged to proclaim the name of Jesus as our Lord before them and invite them to know you as well. Also with that freedom comes the responsibility you set out in Jesus’ words in John 17, “Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.” Have we been “the one” body of Christians that Jesus prayed about, or have we instead exercised our individual freedoms beyond the intentions of the founding fathers to become fractionalized and ineffective in our witness because of our lack of adherence to your Word?

We pray not, but fear so.

Help us come together as the body of Christ here in America today so we can be a witness to the world around us of what it means to be yours, wholly and completely … not just as individuals, but as united, American Christians who stand for the values so vital to the building of this nation.

Help us to unite under your hand, rise up, and seek you first in each of our individual lives so that we can again become the driving force of the nation instead of conceding control to the worldly forces who seem to be taking us ever downward in a national death spiral.

We beseech you, Lord. Show us the way back to a time when we will, as a nation, call you Lord and be the salt and light you intended us to be.

In Jesus’ name, Amen!