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I used to watch Indiana Jones movies and still love to catch them on television. The suspense, action, and general family friendliness get me every time. Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade was on recently, and I couldn’t help but relate to Jones as he searches for the Holy Grail in the midst of troubles and tribulations. As he finally reaches the caves where the grail is located, he has to rely on figuring out riddles relating to God. In the very first one, he figures out that he must get on his knees to avoid the incoming lethal blades that would have certainly killed him.
How often must we get on our knees to solve the problems that invade our lives on a daily basis and threaten us and our families?
As a country, we’re faced with innumerable problems – from a worsening economy to high unemployment to a crumbling moral foundation. Where is the hope? Where is the comfort? As our nation searches for help, whatever form that takes – whether it’s a better economy, or overturning ObamaCare and all its mandates, or making sure our kids have a future without being debt-ridden, or helping others pick up after natural disasters or somehow patching up the moral fabric – I believe prayer will get us there.
I’m participating this weekend in The Response, a day of prayer and fasting in Houston, Texas. I’ll be there because I agree with Gov. Rick Perry’s assessment: “America is in the midst of a historic crisis. We have been besieged by financial debt, terrorism, and a multitude of natural disasters. The youth of America are in grave peril economically, socially, and, most of all, morally. There are threats emerging within our nation and beyond our borders beyond our power to solve.”
All throughout the Bible there are examples of praying and fasting for nations who were beyond hope. Prophets asked God for mercy on numerous occasions, and we are continuing that tradition at this special event.
Like Indiana Jones falling to his knees to be saved, thousands of participants will be doing the same and asking for God to have mercy and compassion on our great nation. The problems facing our nation are indeed “beyond our power to solve.”
Were it not for the eternal promises of God and knowing that He listens to prayers, even though they may not be answered in the way we would like, hopelessness would cover our lives. I’m not going to this event just to pray, since I can do that anywhere and at any time. I’m going to join with thousands of others who see the need for the intercession of God at this crucial time in our nation’s history. I’m going to join with my brothers and sisters to proudly proclaim that the hope for our nation is in the saving grace of Christ.
As the head of the largest public policy women’s group in the nation, I’m honored to have been asked to participate.
On Saturday, my prayer will be that God somehow leads our nation out of the moral black hole in which we currently reside. My prayer will be for the mothers of unborn babies considering abortion, that they give their children life. My prayer will be for our nation’s leaders, that they act responsibly – both morally and fiscally – and put politics aside to focus on real solutions, instead of smoke and mirrors. My prayer will be for our families, that they resist the temptations of worldly goods in favor of spiritual food that satisfies the soul.
The time to plea for mercy from God is now. We are on the brink of moral and economic destruction. We were founded as a nation of Christians, and as a nation of Christians we must now stand.
Penny Nance is President and CEO of Concerned Women for America.