A Prayer for the Nineties

Almighty and gracious God, as we cross over the threshold from the eighties and enter the nineties, may we humbly pour out our hearts in adoration of Thee and unto Thee. Grant us, oh God, as we enter the last decade of this century and this millenium, to glorify Thee and Thy worthy Name and attributes with relish of soul, mind, strength, and life. Thou art worthy— supremely worthy, to receive all honor.

Dear Lord, we pray for the continuance of Thy blessings which Thou hast consistently poured out over us in past years and decades in such abundance. Help us not to take these blessings for granted. We can’t understand why Thou hast condemned us so little and blessed us so much. Thou hast been faithful to us as unfaithful people. Thou hast been far better to us than we have been to Thee. May Thy goodness lead us in this decade to authentic repentance for the first time or by renewal.

In and of ourselves, oh God, every blessing condemns us, for we have been rebels before Thee. We have offended Thee with our grievous sin. We have broken Thy law and covenant, scorned Thy majesty, dishonored Thy attributes, rejected Thy lordship. We have forfeited everything in Paradise and continue to do so daily. By nature, we are lost—not just going lost, but truly lost. We are dead—not just dying, but spiritually and truly dead. We are re-jectable and condemnable in Thy holy sight. Our actual and original sins mount to the heavens, crying for vengeance.

We pray for those of us who enter this final decade of the millenium as spiritual strangers of Thee. Save the unsaved; convert the unconverted. Teach us what it means to be unconverted. Persuade us that as certainly as this millenium will soon draw to a close, so our lives are rapidly hastening to the certainty of death, the solemnity of judgment, the reality of eternity.

Show us the emptiness of life without Thee. Make it real, Lord, that by nature we are without Thee, Christ, and hope in the world. Let sin become sin. Unveil for us the spirituality of Thy law, the holiness of Thy attributes, the irrevoc-ableness of Thy justice, the damning power of sin. Search the motives of our hearts, and—though painful it shall be— strip away all our righteousnesses and make us naked beggars before Thee. Let the Spirit’s convicting power through the law lead us as a schoolmaster to Jesus Christ. Discover to us our own fallen unrighteousness and Thy redemptive righteousness in Jesus Christ.

Undeceive the self-deceived. Strip away false, sandy foundations. Let none build for eternity upon the quicksand of historical or temporary faith, common convictions or impressions, fears of death or hell. Let us not be like Felix, Orpah, Esau, Ahab, Saul, or the five false virgins. Grace us with the miraculous work of Thy Spirit in our hearts through true, saving faith.

Bless Thy children in the 1990’s with a close life with Thee. Help us to grow in self-depreciation and Christ-appreci-ation. Cause us to increase in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. Teach us afresh that the old man must be mortified by Thy Spirit and the new man quickened in Christ. Out of the never-failing intercessions of Jesus Christ, grant us more spiritual life. Ex-perientially, grant more divine acts of grace, more progress in the steps of grace. Cause us to know Thee increasingly in Thy work and Persons. Make room for the revelation of Thy Son as Elder Brother, Thyself as Father, Thy Spirit as Sealer. Practically, draw us back from backsliding ways. Give fresh oil. Provide new aspirations after holiness. Cause us to hate sin more, and to love Thee more. Enable us to say with Samuel Rutherford, “I do not know which of the three divine Persons I love most, for I cannot live without any of them.”

Oh Lord Christ, we pray for grace to exercise uprightness through Thy righteousness. To persevere through Thy perseverance. To pray through Thy intercession. To thank through Thy thanksgiving. To live through Thy death. To die through Thy aliveness. May we live more from Thee, in Thee, out of Thee, and unto Thee. Enfold us in Thy shepherding arms. Let us hear Thy high priestly beating heart. Pencil upon us the image of Thyself. Ripen us for eternal communion with Thee. Let the eyes of our faith not only look backward to the cross for the ground of our redemption, and upward to Thy right hand for the preservation of our redemption, but also forward to Thy Second Advent for the completion of our redemption. Cause us to cry out at times in this decade, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus” (Rev. 22:20b). Help us to live more above the horizontal plane of this world; enable us to know more of the intimate vertical relationship with Thee. Make us hungry to taste the psalmist’s confession, “As for me, I will behold Thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with Thy likeness” (Ps. 17:15). Give more godliness in family life, more prayerful prayer, more childlike fear for Thy holy Name, more reverence for Thy Word, more submission to its divine authority, more genuine piety. Cause family worship to prosper. Grant the Spirit of worship between husbands and wives. Grant opening in prayer to fathers at the family table. Assist them in speaking to their loved ones about Thy truth and Thy ways. Fill them with integrity and courage as heads of their households. Enable them to vow with Joshua, “As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD” (Josh. 24:15b). Strengthen mothers for their lofty task. May they be examples in word and deed. May they aspire after the petition of David, “I will walk perfectly within my own house,” even as they bemoan their shortcomings. Provide perseverance for all the challenges and demands placed upon child-rearing. Grant to both fathers and mothers wisdom to discipline children and teens with the firmness, consistency, and love Scripture commends and commands.

Bless the work of our hands and minds—at home or school, in offices or businesses, or on farms. Continue to provide fruitful harvests, but humble us beneath Thy beneficent hand.

Provide families—parents, young people, children—strength to reject worldliness and to avoid an abuse of the world’s inventions. May the contemporary sins and dangers of television, theatre, and an illegitimate use of video be repudiated. Help us to disavow wrong friendships, to spurn the idolizing of sports and sport-heroes, to ban secular or religious reading material of an unedifying and unsound nature. Preserve us from the humanistic spirit of self-serving permissiveness.

Grant more obedience, love, and respect from children to parents. Give young people courage and integrity to purpose in their hearts, Daniel-like, not to defile themselves with worldly ways. Plant the childlike fear of Thy Name in many youth. Strengthen singles. Let them be living testimonies of Thy grace. Care for the elderly. Grant praying grandparents. Fill empty places for the lonely and grieving. Let widows and widowers serve Thee with singleness of eye. Strengthen cross-bearers in and through the cross of Christ. May they surrender thorns in the flesh unto Thee and experience, “My grace is sufficient for Thee: for My strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9a). Tailor-make and sanctify all our afflictions. Grant us patience in adversity, thankfulness in prosperity, and a firm trust in Thee for the unknown future.

Bless the work of Thy church and Thy means of grace to many in the final years of this millenium. Let the preaching and reading of free grace doctrine bear saving fruit. Grant Aarons and Hurs to Thy servants. Make the unconverted, spiritually concerned; make the concerned, established in grace. Grant conversion and instruction among our youth and children in catechism, Sunday school, and confession of faith classes. Sanctify family and pastoral visitations. Grace our consistories with wisdom, love, and humility. Provide God-fearing servants, elders, and deacons. Enlarge the number of Thy ambassadors among us. Thrust forth young men into Thy vineyard with an irresistible Spirit-wrought call and with holy compulsion. Bless theological teachers and ministerial students with the anointings of Thy Spirit Prosper printed truth— books, periodicals, sermons, tracts—to the upbuilding of Thy kingdom. Bless tape ministries. Let Thy approval rest upon all church committee work. Bless organists, custodians, and those who volunteer in church and school work. Make Satan ashamed.

Keep us united as a denomination to the “old paths” of the precious doctrines of free and sovereign grace. Help us to retain fidelity to inerrant Scripture, to uphold its truth as so ably expounded by our Reformed, Post-Reformed, and denominational forebears. May the love of the truth—so evident in our rich heritage—bind us together. Grant that this unity may provide us with impetus to bring Thy Word to others less fortunate than we—yes, to distant mission fields, to home missions, to our peers at school or work, to our neighborhoods and our own homes. Make us more mission-minded. Grant us more zeal and love for the souls of the perishing. Bless our labors to establish a mission in Bolivia. Augment the glory of Thy own Name. Oh, may the 1990’s be a decade in which many souls—near and far—lying under the seal of gracious election, must be saved! And may we ourselves not be found castaways.

Grace our schools, principals, teachers, and students with divine favor. Sanctify education to many young hearts. Add to the number of young people and children who are concerned about spiritual matters. Bless efforts of home and church as well to their spiritual nourishment. Be with those students who are not able to attend a school where Christian teaching is foundational. Grant them double strength to be preserved from evil.

With regard to our nations, “in wrath remember mercy” (Hab. 3:2). Save us from the spirit of our day in which every man does what is right in his own eyes, trampling law and conscience underfoot. Save us from the liberal, powerful media which often chips away at respect for Thee, Thy Word, Thy servants and Thy service. Save us from widespread Sabbath-desecration. Save us from our dreadful abortion holocaust, as well as from the spirit of self-service which lies behind our murderous tendencies. Save us from euthanasia, and all such sins that downgrade the value of life as a gift out of Thy hand. Help us to do more for the poor, the handicapped, and those who have been injured in serving our countries in war. Preserve us from war.

Give our political leaders more integrity to walk, legislate, and nurture by precepts consistent with Thy Word. Grant them courage to avoid the amor-alistic tendencies of our day which teach that power belongs to the majority, that “might is right.” Help us to be more active in alerting our leaders to the evils of our day, and in admonishing ourselves, each other, and them, “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this Word, it is because there is no light in them” (Is. 8:20).

Lord, for our souls, families, churches, missions, schools, and nations, we desperately need revival. The times are dark. Thy judgments are imminent. Teach us to pray: “And now, Lord, what wait I for? My hope is in Thee” (Ps. 39:7). “Turn us again, O LORD God of hosts, cause Thy face to shine; and we shall be saved” (Ps. 80:19).

Forgive our many sins. “A mighty stream of foul transgression, prevails from day to day” (Psalter 419:2). Wash it away through the mightier stream of Christ’s bloody righteousness which prevails from eternity to eternity. Amen.

Dr. J.R. Beeke is pastor of the First Netherlands Reformed Congregation of Grand Rapids, Michigan.

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