Pray For Muskegon!

Some of us despair because of the trend away from God and his way for his people.  We should be emboldened in prayer because God always finds a way to bring our nation back to him.  Read this short excerpt from a booklet by the late Dr. J. Edwin Orr, "Prayer and Revival".  He quotes Dr. A.T. Pierson as saying that every spiritual awakening is born out of concerted, united, sustained prayer. 

John Erskin, a Scottish Presbyterian minister, wrote a pamphlet, pleading with God's people to unite in prayer for the revival. He sent a copy to Jonathan Edwards in New England, mightily used of God in the first Great Awakening (1731-1755). Edwards responded by writing a book: "A Humble Attempt to Promote Explicit Agreement and Visible Union of all God's People in Extraordinary Prayer for the Revival of Religion and the Advancement of Christ's Kingdom on Earth, pursuant to Scripture Promises and Prophecies...."

But after the Revolutionary war, the effects of the first Awakening had all but disappeared and America found itself in a state of profound moral decay. Drunkenness and shocking profanity were epidemic. Women would not go out at night for fear of assault. Bank robberies occurred daily. Once vital Christian denominations were all in decline. U.S. Chief Justice John Marshall wrote James Madison, that the Church 'was too far gone ever to be redeemed.' Voltaire predicted and Thomas Paine agreed, that "Christianity will be forgotten in thirty years."

A poll at Harvard found not one believer in the student body. Two were found at Princeton, but only five students did not belong to the "filthy speech movement." Students rioted. A mock communion was held at Williams College, and anti-Christian plays at Dartmouth. They burned down Nassau Hall at Princeton, forced the resignation of Harvard's president, stole the Bible from a New Jersey church and burned it in a public bonfire. Christians met secretly on campus and kept minutes in code so that no one would know. But prayer changed things!

In 1794, when things were at their worst Baptist pastor Isaac Backus addressed another urgent plea for prayer for revival to pastors of every Christian denomination in the United States. Pastors grasped the urgency and adopted his plan. America became interlaced with a network of prayer meetings, and churches set aside the first Monday of each month to pray. Before long, revival came, and the Second Great Awakening (1790-1840) ensued. Dr. Orr asks, "Is not this what is missing so much from all our evangelistic efforts: explicit agreement, visible unity, unusual prayer?"

May we NEVER forget to bring our country, our county, and the city of Muskegon before our God in prayer!