By: Dr. Jacquelyn Simmons
Scripture: And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting , and sackcloth, and ashes. And I prayed unto the Lord, my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant, and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments. We have sinned, and committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgements: Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, which spake in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land… Neither have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets. Yea, all Israel have transgressed thy law, even by departing, that they might not obey thy voice; therefore, the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against him…O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O my God…(Selected Passages from Daniel 9:3-19).
Dear Lord our heavenly Father,
If we, your children, ever needed you, we need you now! And what makes many of our situations soooo bad is that a huge number of us either do not realize the frightening conditions under which many of us are forced to live and the large number who actually do not care. It almost seems as if we are watching a comedy on television, but have discovered to our horror that we are actually unwilling participants. It is no longer a joke! At one time, America, even though it was almost considered “king” among the smaller countries in the world, exhibits unkindnesses toward its own dark-skinned populace—the darker, the worst treatments. Now, it has become the “laughing stock” of the entire world—not realizing, that in order to “throw mud” our hands encounter the mud, first. The scriptures warn us by saying, “His mischief shall return upon his own head and his violent dealings shall come down on his own pate” (Psalm 7:16).
In fact, some of us are trying to live up to our country’s imprinted motto on our coins, “In God we trust”. Many so-called leaders and their followers do not know You and only trust and worship the monies the motto is printed on.
In our aforementioned text, the prophet Daniel was among others who were uprooted from their homes in Jerusalem and forced to live as slaves in Babylon. He is begging God for forgiveness of their sins and pleading for his mercy which is a pattern all of us need to follow.
Dear Lord, please guide us and our leaders, many self-appointed, to accept your offer of salvation through your Son, Jesus Christ.
Love,
Jacquelyn Simmons
P. S. By the way, my friends, this writer feels that the holy spirit wants you to become enlightened as a result of having read Isaiah 3:1-5. Pray and ask him for his interpretation.
P.S. P.S. My friends, did you know that whoever mistreats or treats kindly God’s people, they are persecuting or treating kindly, his Son, Jesus Christ? He feels it just as we do (Matthew 25:35-40).
