Woe to those who lie upon beds of ivory and stretch themselves upon their couches…Who drink wine in bowls and anoint themselves with the finest oils, but are not grieved and sick at heart over the affliction and ruin of Joseph (Israel)! – Amos 6:4,6, Amplified Bible (AMP)

How often do you pray for your country, your state, your city, or your local community? How much do you grieve for the sins of your people? If you are like me, the answer is, “Not nearly enough!”

It is easy to get disgusted with the folly of the people around us. As our cultural peers prove over and over how much they care about themselves and how little they care for God, we are tempted to follow their pattern, turning our gaze away from the greater good to focus solely on our own. As a result of our self-focus, our prayers center around ourselves and around our immediate spheres of influence, virtually ignoring the needs of the culture we live in.

Although we should tend to our spiritual needs and to the spiritual needs of those in our immediate vicinity, God is very interested in the greater good, and we should be, too. Throughout the Bible there are numerous instances of God punishing national sin and rewarding national obedience, indicating that God cares deeply about cultural faith just as He does the faith of the individual.

In Amos 6, God chastised those Israelites who were so enthralled with themselves that their fellow countrymen meant little or nothing to them. Such disregard for the greater good frosts the Creator, and we need to be wary of our own tendency to ignore the spiritual needs of our country while pursuing our own needs, both spiritually and earthly.

As James 5:16b teaches us, “The earnest (heartfelt, continued) prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available [dynamic in its working].” As Moses, as Daniel, and as Nehemiah begged for repentance and for mercy for their nation, we ought to do the same for whatever nation God has given us to call home. If we are so caught up in ourselves that we never intercede for our people, we have missed the mark, and we have displeased our Lord.

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