Daniel 9:18-19 “Give ear, O God, and hear; open your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears your Name. We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy. O Lord, listen! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, hear and act! For your sake, O my God, do not delay, because your city and your people bear your Name.”

Daniel is one of the finest examples of an intercessor recorded in the Bible, perhaps second only to Jesus. He was personally righteous, so much so that the Lord used him as an example when He spoke through Ezekiel. (Ezekiel 14:14, 20) However, Daniel didn’t for a moment think that exempted him from needing to be humble and repent. He repented of the sins of Israel even though he hadn’t personally committed them! As we have recorded here, he didn’t pray on the basis of being worthy to be answered, but on the basis of the character of God. So often we get that backward, thinking we don’t have the right to pray or ask God for something because we know we have messed up. That’s a trick from the devil! We do need to acknowledge our sins and repent of them, but we could never be righteous enough ourselves to cause God to do anything. God answers prayer because that’s who He is! That level of humble understanding didn’t keep Daniel from praying earnestly, though. You can almost hear the anguish in his voice as he prays about and for his nation and his people. America needs intercessors like that! It strikes me that some people pray about America; that is, they catalog its sins before the Lord, basically asking God to zap the baddies. That’s not true intercession! Like Daniel, we need to pray for America, repenting of the ways we have been complicit in her decline, either by action or inaction. God has not changed, and we must not act like He has.

This hits close to home. My visit to the US, just concluded, let me know that the situation is at least as bad as I had been thinking. The results of recent elections were not as I wanted them to be, and I saw many examples of people who do not take being a Christian seriously at all. However, I also I ran into people who are grieved for the state of the Church and the nation and are pressing in to God personally. I must not limit my prayers to praying about America, but like Daniel I must pray humbly for her, because He hasn’t changed, and nothing is impossible for Him.

Father, it’s interesting to realize that when I have been ambivalent about my nationality most of my life, having been born and raised in Japan, on this issue I identify with America. Japan has never claimed Your Name as a nation, but America has from its inception. I love both, and both are expressed in who I am, but right now I grieve much more for America than I do for Japan. I desperately want Your Spirit to be poured out on Japan for the salvation of millions, but I equally want Your Spirit to be poured out on America to wake up sleeping and/or deceived Christians and bring the nation to repentance. Help me be faithful as a Daniel, praying on the basis of Your character for both nations, so that Your Name may be hallowed and Your kingdom come as Your will is done, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!