Is there any hope for America?

By Pastor Tim Fellure – Victory Baptist Church, Milton Florida

We must get honest with ourselves.

     It is my privilege to be a member of a strong, growing church, where the pulpit is still hot, the building fills up for regular services at least three times each week, missionaries are being supported, and the finances are stable. But this kind of church is no longer the norm; it is the exception.

What happened in England is happening in America

     Revival fires once swept across England, with men called to the ministry who held evangelistic crusades and saw thousands of people come to Christ, and churches springing up all over that country. But somehow England lost the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, and today a large percentage of their population profess atheism, and empty church buildings are scattered across the land. America is following the same trend.

     We have a problem Political correctness has affected the world of politics, but it has also found its way into the church. A positive approach in every conversation is the language of the day, but neither positivity nor negativity is ever encouraged in the Bible. Honesty is! And while some are still calling every church, regardless of its condition, a great church and commending every pastor for the tremendous job he is doing, the sad, agonizing, heart breaking truth is that, while your church may be doing well and going in the right direction, many others that were once vibrant, growing, and full of life, with a testimony that even influenced the communities around them, are closing their doors. And many that are still having services are just barely hanging on; they are in an ICU on life support, and the devil would like to pull the plug.

     Other churches that seem to be vibrant and healthy are pastored by older men who realize that their days are limited, and the only hope their church has of surviving after they can no longer function as a pastor is for some young man with the call of God on his life to come over and help them. But where do we find such young men?

     If a church is financially able to hire a young ministerial student fresh out of college, they will usually go that route. Others will advertise in the classified ad section of religious periodicals, while yet others will put the word out among their preacher friends. But our efforts to get help have been like a drowning man grabbing for a straw. They haven’t saved us from the dilemma we are in!

Is there any hope?

     Yes, there is hope!  The only prayer request that Jesus ever gave, has been, for the most part, ignored or overlooked:

“But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. Then saith he unto his disciples, the harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.”  (Matt. 9:36– 38 & Luke 10:2)

     Our churches need revival now more than ever, but it will not come unless we learn to pray to the Lord of the harvest and trust Him to meet our every need. Going to a “prayer room” thirty minutes before service time and spending fifteen minutes with small talk, telling the most recent joke, discussing the scores of our favorite sports team or the president’s last decision on tax reform, etc., then moving our lips and making noise for the next five minutes and calling it prayer is only deceiving ourselves.

     Over one hundred prayers in the Bible begin with “O God.” O denotes a seriousness, an emergency, a crisis, a burden, or a dilemma that we can’t control.

One writer declares that people quit praying when they left the O off.

We have a choice

      We can continue this downward spiral and watch the churches struggle to survive while they slowly but surely die an agonizing death, or we can reestablish the old-fashioned prayer room and treat it like the ICU of a local hospital, where our nearest of kin or best friend is just barely hanging onto life by a thread, and in that atmosphere honor the prayer request of Jesus and trust Him to meet this extremely critical need.

     “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”  

—II Chr. 7:14