prayer4MYnation #8

IMPORTANT NOTES:

Jason Fong has been sharing his prayers for Malaysia with Christians and the Church at large since June 2011.  This is Jason Fong’s eighth and final prayer.  In many sense, this will be a “closure” of sort, since Malaysia just celebrated her 54^th year of independence yesterday.  Nonetheless, this “closure” in no way means that prayers for our nation should cease.

Please read Jason’s earlier article: LORD, TEACH US TO PRAY in this same blog, which was posted on 23 March 2011.  It would be a helpful reading for us as we continue to learn to pray more biblically for such a time as this.

Please note that the views and opinions expressed in this prayer may not necessarily reflect those of the Christian organization Jason works in, nor the church or denomination he belongs to.

prayer4MYnation #8

Father God, our beloved Malaysia has just celebrated our 54^th year of independence yesterday.  We have come a long way since the days of colonial rule.  I thank You for that part of our history… for both the good and the bad… among others, for all that had transpired in the arenas of politics, commerce, education, social engineering and religion.

And since then, we have charted our own course.  While we may have dismantled quite a lot of the structures setup during the colonial rule, we can never completely replace some of the foundations laid down then…

Have we moved forward?  Have we progressed?  Have we become more matured in our nationhood?  Have we found our identity and soul as Malaysians?  There are no simple answers to these questions.  And the fact is that Malaysians will not have the same answer to these questions.  Father God, continue to provoke us to ask these questions!

As for Your Church and Your people in this land, I continue to pray for two things.  First, that You will cause us to continue to watch and be mindful of what is happening in this nation…  Second, that You will draw us to continue pray for this nation regularly…

In watching, we need to break away from just focusing on the trivial self-centered interests.  In praying, we need to avoid lazy prayers and the thoughts that we need to nothing after we have prayed.  O Lord, please help us.  Please be merciful to us.  The times ahead for us will be perilous, turbulent and challenging.

In that day of reckoning, Your Word declared that every kindred, every tongue and every nation will come before You.  I want to be numbered in that throng.  I want to stand before You as a proud Malaysian.  I want to see many many other Malaysians standing tall beside me.  I want to hear the voices of Malaysians from every ethnic group worshipping You.

By Your grace, wisdom and strength, I will put feet to my prayers.  In Jesus’ Name!  Amen!