Ezra 9:5-6 “5 But at the evening offering I arose from my humiliation, even with my garment and my robe torn, and I fell on my knees and stretched out my hands to the Lord my God; 6 and I said, ‘O my God, I am ashamed and embarrassed to lift up my face to You, my God, for our iniquities have risen above our heads and our guilt has grown even to the heavens.’”

WOE

Ezra begins a prayer in these two verses that continues the rest of the chapter. I encourage you to read chapters 9 and 10 to get the whole story. Bottom line – the Jewish people had intermarried with the pagans of the land against God’s commands. And this wasn’t just done by the ordinary people. The religious leaders had been some of the worse offenders, thereby leading by example, poor example. Ezra is grieved at the sins of the people and greatly fears God’s wrath.

Have you ever been grieved for the sins of others? When you see those whom you love err on the side of direct disobedience to God’s Word, how do you feel? We should be just as grieved as Ezra was for them. I am not advocating tearing your clothes, but I am saying we should fall to our knees and stretch out our hands to the Lord.

TEACHING MOMENT

Our children can learn much by observing our prayer life. There are times when it is appropriate to pray alone. Those are my special times when it is just me and my Father conversing. But when we pray with our children they learn to articulate their own prayers. I don’t been we should pray in King James language (there is nothing wrong with the KJV, by the way). But we should allow them to observe us praying.

During this time in our country they need to hear us praying for our national, state and local leaders. They need to hear us praying for our military and law enforcement officers. They need to hear us praying for their teachers and principals. They need to hear us praying for our Pastor(s) and Sunday School teachers.

Our children need to learn to pray for others first, especially those in authority. In our anti-authority world today, we parents must be the ones to teach them respect for authority and what better way than to pray for them. Amen? Amen!