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WEEK TWENTY-TWO: Friday, April 21—Thursday, April 27, 2006

I. REPENTANCE FOR SIN IN THE CHURCH: SELF-PITY

Let’s now focus a little on self-pity, the “woe is me” attitude. This is a form of pride.

You may ask, “Where was God when I went through my particular problem?” He was in the same place when His son Jesus died on the cross for your sins. You may not want to be God’s child but He always wants to be your Father.

I’ve heard it said, “Negative Christians are high maintenance, low impact . . . and positive Christians are low maintenance, high impact.” Which one are we? We need to get our focus off of self and focus on Jesus. Learn from our past; don’t live in it. Jesus delivered us of our sins. “All things have become new, old things are passed away . . .” (2 Cor. 5:17) if you’ve received Jesus Christ as your personal Savior.

I heard someone say, “Sorry looks behind; worry looks ahead; faith looks up.” Self-pity and a feeling of hopelessness will destroy us. We need to be victorious in our thinking and actions.

(Source: Riding with the King in Unity, by Giles F. Mack, P.O. Box 1761, Branson, MO 65615, page 83)

II. REPENTANCE FOR THE SINS OF THE NATION: THE FEMINIST MOVEMENT (Part One)

This week, as we continue in prayers of repentance for the sins of our nation, we will begin to explore several “root” causes of current dysfunctions—sins whose seeds were sown in the history of America, and which still cry out for cleansing today.

We begin, first, with the issue of feminism in America. This movement—like many others—began with a “righteous cause,” but included tares sown along with the wheat that still cause division and dissension in our own time. The classic definition of “feminism” is “that women should have political, economic and social rights equal to those of men.” (Webster) Although there were a few events prior to 1848 that were precursors to this movement, feminism was not actually organized until July of that year at a spontaneous gathering in Seneca Falls, New York. Out of that gathering came the Seneca Falls Declaration—the trumpet call for the suffragette movement of the next 72 years. Here is a brief summary of that event:

Seneca Falls Declaration (1848)

One of the reform movements that arose during the "freedom's ferment” of the early nineteenth century was a drive for greater rights for women, especially in the political area. Women were heavily involved in many of the reform movements of this time, but they discovered that while they did much of the drudge work, with few exceptions they could not take leadership roles or lobby openly for their goals. Politically, women were to be neither seen nor heard. The drudgery of daily housework and its deadening impact on the mind also struck some women as unfair.

The convention at Seneca Falls, New York, in July 1848, was organized by Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, two Quakers whose concern for women's rights was aroused when Mott, as a woman, was denied a seat at an international antislavery meeting in London. The Seneca Falls meeting attracted 240 sympathizers, including forty men, among them the famed former slave and abolitionist leader, Frederick Douglass. The delegates adopted a statement, deliberately modeled on the Declaration of Independence, as well as a series of resolutions calling for women's suffrage and the reform of marital and property laws that kept women in an inferior status.

Very little in the way of progress came from the Seneca Falls Declaration, although it would serve for the next seventy years as the goal for which the suffrage movement strove. Women's suffrage and nearly all of the other reforms of this era were swallowed up by the single issue of slavery and its abolition, and women did not receive the right to vote until the adoption of the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution in 1920.

For further reading: Ellen C. DuBois, Feminism and Suffrage (1978); Eleanor Flexner, Century of Struggle (rev. ed. 1975); and Lois W. Banner, Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1980).

Although we thank God for the courage of these women in pioneering the breakthrough that led to the right to vote in America, we nonetheless stand in repentance for the hostility, venom, and “skewed agenda” of the feminist movement in our nation today. This “skewed agenda” will be examined in Part Two of this series. In the meantime, we offer the following prayer of repentance on behalf of the women of our nation who suffered unjustly in days past:

“Father God, we stand in identificational repentance on behalf of the women who pioneered America and who suffered unjustly for doing so. We ask You to forgive the men who brought such oppression to these women—married and single—in that time, and who disdainfully mocked them, despised them, and abused them for their own pleasures. We also ask You to forgive any men who hold these attitudes towards women today; and to bring Your healing to all who have been abused. We ask this prayer in Jesus’ Name. Amen.”

[Next week: Part Two—Feminism in modern America]

III. THE BLESSING OF ISRAEL: LEADERSHIP/GOVERNMENT/COALITION TALKS

"In that day will I make the governors of Judah like an hearth of fire among the wood, and like a torch of fire in a sheaf; and they shall devour all the people round about, on the right hand and on the left: and Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place, even in Jerusalem” (Zechariah 12:6).

"And I will set up shepherds over them which shall feed them: and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking, saith the LORD” (Jeremiah 23:4).

We prayed:

For the right people to fill the government post they are most fit for.

For the Lord to thwart corruption and give us compassionate leaders who will do what is best for the poor, needy and weak.

For Wisdom, courage and conviction for our leadership to withstand the powerful and rich on behalf of the people. (See Nehemiah 5:9)

For vision and understanding and support in the government for the Land and for Aliya (coming back of the Jews to their land.)

For the right combination in the coalition to make Israel strong and secure, while fighting the deep set corruption rampant in the Land and government.

(Source: Intercessors for Israel)

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