“So I fell down before the Lord.”

Deuteronomy 9:23-10:5, “And when the Lord sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, ‘Go up and possess the land which I have given you,’ then you rebelled against the command of the Lord your God; you neither believed Him nor listened to His voice. You have been rebellious against the Lord from the day I knew you. So I fell down before the Lord the forty days and nights, which I did because the Lord had said He would destroy you. And I prayed to the Lord, and said, ‘O Lord God, do not destroy Thy people, even Thine inheritance, whom Thou hast redeemed through Thy greatness, whom Thou hast brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Remember Thy servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; do not look at the stubbornness of this people or at their wickedness or their sin. Otherwise the land from which Thou didst bring us may say, “Because the Lord was not able to bring them into the land which He had promised them and because He hated them He has brought them out to slay them in the wilderness.” Yet they are Thy people, even Thine inheritance, whom Thou hast brought out by Thy great power and Thine outstretched arm.’ At that time the Lord said to me, ‘Cut out for yourself two tablets of stone like the former ones, and come up to Me on the mountain, and make an ark of wood for yourself. And I will write on the tablets the words that were on the former tablets which you shattered, and you shall put them in the ark.’ So I made an ark of acacia wood and cut out two tablets of stone like the former ones, and went up on the mountain with the two tablets in my hand. And He wrote on the tablets, like the former writing, the Ten Commandments which the Lord had spoken to you on the mountain from the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly; and the Lord gave them to me. Then I turned and came down from the mountain, and put the tablets in the ark which I had made; and there they are, as the Lord commanded me.”

Paul instructed Timothy in prayer, that “first of all” we should pray for kings and all those in authority that we may lead quiet and peaceable lives. This prayer would have been directed towards Caesar for much of the world at that time, a man who held himself out and was believed to be a god. Surely we can pray today for leaders even though we do not agree with their policies or principles. It’s more likely that instead of falling down before the Lord for forty days and nights, we will spend even more time complaining about the situation to those who already agree with us. What if we took that time to pray not only for our leaders, but also for those people who are caught up in sin that does not present a temptation for us? Scripture tells us clearly that God hears complaints, as the people of the Exodus complained that the needed meat to eat besides the daily Manna; God provided an amazing abundance of quail. What if we turned our complaints into intercessory prayers? What if we took time to thank Him for the amazing abundance that He has given us?

Give us Your perspective on our world and bring to mind those who need our prayers as we go through this day, that we may truly pray without ceasing. We thank You for Your great abundance towards us in Christ Jesus.