A Nighttime Prayer

O Father,

On this sleepless night I pour my heart out to You. I'm thankful You always work the night shifts as well as the day ones. So I am not just wasting my time giving into wishful thinking. You are awake. You are alive. You are listening.

I feel discomfort in my soul for our nation. How we have drifted from You. We have forsaken You. We have rebelled against You. We have tried to push You out of the very country You established. How can we push You out of anything. You are Jehovah. You are Creator. You allow Yourself to be pushed out. Our currency reads, "In God We Trust," but we both know that is a lie. We do not trust You. We put our trust in the government. The economy. Education. How foolish. You are our only hope. You have always been our protection. No border wall can ever do for us what You have done since our inception.

Tonight I do not want to just mouth more religious chatter to You that means nothing. You have my attention. I am wide awake at 3:50 a.m. I find my words few in this moment. I see the empty ramblings I have offered You recently. Pathetic. While going through the motions of prayer I rarely really prayed. Shameful. Disgusting. A muse. I repent.

I ask You to give me a desire for holiness like I have never had. I ask You to do this in Your church. Everyplace in our lives where sin is sprouting I ask You to uproot it. All of it. I ask You to call us all back to holiness and let genuine repentance start in Your house among Your people. I pray for the day when tears will openly fall at Your altars again. I pray for the day when religious gatherings will stopped in tearful repentance so that fire is not uselessly kindled. May holiness rule the day over hypocrisy. I pray for sinners and backsliders to run back to You in repentance. I pray for days of restoration among Your people as prodigals come home and find You waiting with open arms and a open heart. May zeal for You reign in our hearts and minds over entertainment.

I ask You to stir Your people back to prayer. Even if Your preachers will not initiate it I ask You to call men and women to start some real prayer meetings. I ask You to give them perseverance to pray until the answers come. To stay at it as long as it takes even if it means a lifetime. I ask You to send fire into these prayer meetings and they spread from home to home,  church to church, community to community, city to city and country to country. I do not want to just mouth these words. I want to devote myself to these prayer meetings myself. Show with whom and where and I will lead such a meeting.

I ask You to send another great awakening. One that dwarfs the others. One that consumes not just one country but an entire world. One where Your people are revived and empowered to serve You. One where the masses turn to You for salvation like in the book of Acts. I ask You for a real change in morality in society. I ask You to heal homes and mend marriages. I ask You to call men to maturity in You and to lead their families under the banner of Your Lordship. I ask You to woo women away from trap of social media in favor of a intimate relationship with You. I ask You draw teenagers from the fantasy of video games to the adventure of walking and serving You.

I ask You to make Your church alive again. I ask You empower her to serve You forcefully in this generation. I ask You to embolden her to testify about You. I ask You restore her passion to proclaim Your name. I ask You to rekindle the wonder in worship. Please put an end to our stale, lifeless, ritualistic religious routines. Instead I plead for meetings saturated with Your presence and where Your Spirit has freedom to work. I ask You to restore the miraculous among Your people. Our programs will never change the world. Your power will. O how we need Your power once again.

I ask You to start in us. Please start in me. I ask You to take this old heart and mind and set them ablaze for Your glory. May I burn for You in such a magnificent way that others will be drawn to the flame and set ablaze as well. May this happen in your servants all over the world until your glory sets this globe ablaze.

I ask it all in Jesus name, amen.