Devotionals

Praying for America With Compassion

by Dale Buchanan 
06/25/21
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Jonah 4:10-11: “Then said the Lord, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night and perished in a night: And should I not spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?”

You are probably familiar with the story of Jonah, the runaway, rebellious prophet whom God chastened with the great fish.  After that experience, he was willing to go to the undesirable location to preach a warning message that he didn’t want to deliver to an enemy he hated.  He definitely didn’t want them to repent and he didn't want God to deliver them from judgment.

When the people repented, and God chose not to judge them, Jonah became angry and sat and sulked outside the city.  God prepared a gourd that grew quickly and gave him shade for a day.  Then God prepared a worm to destroy the gourd.  It made Jonah wish to die.  God then gave him the message in our text.  Jonah had compassion on the gourd that gave him comfort, but no compassion on the 120,000 innocent children and their families.  He had seen one of the greatest spiritual awakenings in all history but was angry because his comfort was disturbed and God had delivered his enemy.

In 21st century America, we are concerned because of the significantly increased violence, the destruction of the economy, and traditional values being discarded.  It moves us to pray.

When we pray for America, do we do it because of compassion for millions of lost people?  Or do we pray for America because we don’t want our comfort and way of life disrupted? Or because we are afraid persecution might come our way?  God not only wants us to pray. He wants us to pray for the right motives.  Why do you pray for America?