I am so thankful for God’s word. We get to read about how other believers lived and how God related to them. We learn what they did wrong so that we can hopefully avoid it, and we learn what they did right so that we can hopefully emulate it. But they all have one thing in common. With the exception of Jesus, all of the people in the bible are only human - which is good because then we can relate to them. Daniel was a person in the old testament who at one point cried out to God on behalf of the Israelites. He knew that his people had strayed and that they needed to repent. So, he took it upon himself to pray to God in chapter 9 verses 4 through 5 which says:
"I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed: 'O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with all who love him and obey his commands, we have sinned and done wrong. We have been wicked and have rebelled; we have turned away from your commands and laws.'”
This is only a portion of his prayer, but I think you get the idea. This prayer could be a template for our country. It might even be a good template for some of us who need to turn back to Christ. The point is that when we sin - whether it be individually, or as a nation, we need to be quick to repent. We need to pour our heart out to God and ask him to forgive us. Then, with the help of the Spirit, we need to make every effort to turn from our sinful behavior. If you don’t want to have any level of separation between you and God, you need to repent. There is no better feeling, spiritually speaking, than to be right before the Lord.
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Daniel cried out to God on behalf of his people. He confessed their sin and asked for forgiveness appealing on their behalf. If you feel so inclined, I encourage you to do the same for our country because God knows we need to repent. But if you need to do it on an individual level, I encourage you not to wait. Remove any barrier between you and God by asking him to forgive you of your sin. Come clean with him - he knows your sin anyway. When we humble ourselves before him, he can and will forgive us. He will cleanse us, and restore our right standing with him. So I encourage you, if you need to; confess, ask for forgiveness and repent.