The Earth is the Lord’s
Heaven, even the heavens, are the LORD’s. So is the earth, but He has given it to the children of men (Psalm 115:16 NKJV). Both heaven and earth belong to God. He has sovereignly chosen to entrust the earth to us to steward. It’s as if He has made us His middle managers over the earth. Now, the earth still belongs to Him, and so does all it contains, as we read here: The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein (Ps 24:1 NKJV). But God has decided to delegate stewardship and dominion over His earth to people, His created beings who are made in His own image. And God always respects our free will. Christians in Australia have honoured and acknowledged the sovereignty of God over our nation for well over 2000 years. “Similarly, the way Aborigines honour and acknowledge their ancestors is also a tradition that has been alive and well for thousands of years in our country and some of their traditions are finding their way into our national culture. They believe that their ancestors live within them, so that by acknowledging the past generations, they forge a bond with their spiritual lineage. It is important though that we acknowledge that our nation, the land and its people, belong to God. It is important for us to understand that when we acknowledge and pay respect to the past, present and future Traditional Custodians and Elders of this nation but ignore the Lordship of Jesus Christ, we are also agreeing to the continuation of the spiritual as well as the cultural, and educational practices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples?”
God has given us as a nation all freedom and liberty to make our own choices. He waits to move on our nation until we ask Him to do so. God respects authority, including the authority He has personally given us and the leaders of our nation. So, if we want Him to move in the nation He has entrusted to us, we must ask Him to do that. We can see everywhere that we need His divine intervention. Although God is sovereign in every way, He allows Australians (the lost and the saved alike) to make their own choices — for good or for evil. But God can turn our hearts. For instance,” The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, … He turns it wherever He wishes (Pb 21:1 NKJV). God can and will move when we pray, even at the national level. He can turn the hearts of kings to do His own will, even if they don’t know Him. They can still find themselves yielding to His work in their hearts whenever He wants them to do something. Our prayers for Australia cause God to turn the hearts of kings and leaders toward righteousness and justice. This prayer watch of which you are part, has for 25 years seen many miraculous answers to prayer. So, let’s pray and keep praying. “And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart” (Gal 6:9 NKJV). Let’s pray continuously and without quitting even when we don’t see progress yet. Let’s keep praying until we do see it and He will answer. (In this prayer point we have made use of material from an article written by Dutch Sheets for Intercessors for America)
Let’s pray:
* Acknowledging that Australia belongs to the Lord and all its fullness, and all who dwell in it, and that He has entrusted His people to be good stewards and trustworthy.
- For the hearts of more Australians to turn toward true righteousness and justice, especially those the Lord has placed in authority in our nation.
*Thanking the Lord for the way Aboriginal peoples have cared for this land for generations and pray that now they and us all will acknowledge Jesus as Lord, be reconciled to Him and honour Him above all other gods.
Praying for Foster Carers in our Nation
This week has been designated as Foster Careers week wherein as a nation we acknowledge the work done by those who choose to offer themselves as carers of those left without normal family support structures for whatever reason. Let us therefore pray for these people as our contribution in supporting the work that they do in supporting some of the most vulnerable in our communities.
Let us pray:
* For those children in need of foster care, that all will find love and care from those who put themselves forward as substitute parents where such is needed.
* That there will be an increase in the number of loving foster carers who can provide them with stable and nurturing homes.
* For the foster carers themselves to be given strength and wisdom as they welcome these children into their home.
The Greens, Religious Freedom and Christian Schools
South Australian Greens have formally introduced a motion to remove human rights balancing clauses from the Equal Opportunity Act and in effect, “destroy Christian schooling” according to the Australian Christian Lobby. The Bill, titled the “Equal Opportunity (Religious Bodies) Amendment Bill, seeks to remove special provisions which allow religious schools and institutions to choose who they do and don’t hire based on religious beliefs – including beliefs regarding sexuality and gender. The Australian Christian Lobby says, “This Bill would bully Christian schools into hiring people whose values and lifestyle don’t align with their own – an absolutely unnecessary but unsurprising political manoeuvre by the Greens. “The Greens are once again showing their contempt for Christian schools and institutions despite the strong support in SA for religious freedom.”
Please pray:
* That the motion introduced by the Greens into the South Australian Parliament will be defeated and the status quo in relation to the Equal Opportunity Act will remain.
* That the anti-Christian agenda of the Greens will be fully exposed at all levels of State and Federal Governments and that it will be opposed by both major parties at every attempt to override policies that protect our Christian heritage in practice and legislation.
* That the public understanding of the Greens as a harmless environmentally friendly party will be overturned and that its destructive Marxist policies opposed both publicly and at the ballot box in every election they contest.
Praying for Issues in the News
* Big mining has warned the Albanese government that it is returning the nation to the 1970s era of industrial warfare with many of the policies it is trying to bring back in the Industrial Relations space. A dispute between the largest sector of the Australian economy and the Federal Government is not conducive to the best running of the economy as a whole and could do further damage to the nation in the run up to the next election. Please pray that differences will be settled, and the Government will modify its policies so that agreement can be reached with those who will be most affected by such changes.
* The 3,000-page report handed down this week by the Royal Commission inquiring into the Australian Defence Forces, and in particular veterans suicides, has been received as a blue print for possible action that needs to be taken to fix the myriad of problems that were highlighted during the term of the Royal Commission. Pray that as the Government considers the report that it will implement the recommendations suggested by the Royal Commission, particularly those related to veteran suicides and sexual violence within the defence forces. Pray that significant cultural change will occur within the defence Forces as a result of this report.
Praying for our Nation
“It is not widely known that education in Australia was first established, not by the state but by the Christian Church. The history of Australia’s Christian day school movement is traced from its colonial beginnings to the year 1880, when government education officially began. The bible-based church related school of early colonial times was remarkably successful in meeting the academic and spiritual/moral needs of the younger generation of that day. It also shows that when certain principles undergirding this Christian school movement were disregarded, Australian education began to lose its dynamic. It is suggested that this Christian dynamic can and must be restored to Australian education today.” Prof. A.S. Roberts. Let us pray that our elected Federal and State Governments will restore the Christian dynamic to education today.
Deuteronomy 11:18-21, Proverbs 22:6, Matthew 11:25-26
Source: Australian Prayer Network
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