A Prayer for the Church Today

I think Psalm 74 could be a prayer prayed by the Church today.  In Psalm 74, Israel's enemy is running rampant.  The Sanctuary is being desecrated.  The places where God is worshipped are being destroyed.  And God sits silent.  There are no miracles, no sudden turn of fortunes that stop the enemy's progress.  Instead, Israel is subdued.  The worship of God is threatened.  The nation is left to wonder what has happened to the Mighty God they read of in the Scriptures of their people?

We in the church today could ask many of the same questions.  As faith is torn part by the idolatries of secular culture and material greed, we could ask where is our Mighty God?  What has happened to the miracles of the Bible?  Has our God been rendered domesticated and powerless by the heresies of the age?  The answer of course is no.  God is at work in mighty ways.  Sometimes he works in other corners of the globe where it is hard for us to notice.  Other times He works ways almost imperceptibly seen until they produce a dramatic result.  God is at work, but we need to pray for His work to be seen in our churches.  We need to pray for Him to breakthrough in our communities in dramatic ways.  We need to pray the prayer of verses 22-23: "Rise up, O God, and defend your cause;
remember how fools mock you all day long.  Do not ignore the clamor of your adversaries, the uproar of your enemies, which rises continually" (NIV).

Israel prayed the prayer of Psalm 74 because they noticed God was missing and knew they needed His presence.  Somehow we in the church today seem not even to sense that God is often absent.