Broken Before The Lord

I don't know how many of you can relate to this, but I have had one of those days (thus far) where I have just been broken before the Lord. There has just been an incredible presence of God around me all day. I can't really even begin to express what it is like. It is like, this absolutely incredible presence of God and I have not wanted to walk away from it; yet it is so heavy. I've wept almost the entire day. I've found myself just weeping over my city, for our nation, for the church, and for many other situations and people. I've found myself asking, "What is going on, why is this so heavy today?" Suddenly, a couple of hours ago it hit me. Yesterday, while I was preaching, I mentioned that we have lost the "art" of soaking the altar of God with tears for the lost and dying of the world. Near the end of my message, I felt lead to say, "If you will listen, the Father is calling out to us, "Come up here with me, draw near to me for awhile." I realize that today the Father has been calling out to me to come near and sit with Him awhile. (Sometimes the hardest one to get through to is the preacher!)

I've spent the morning and part of this afternoon just laying before the Lord and pouring my heart out before Him in love and adoration, and at the same time interceding on behalf of our city and our nation.

I believe that the church must begin, once again, to shed tears for the lost before the Lord and to do spiritual warfare over our cities, our families and our nation.

There is a song that Jared Anderson wrote that has these words that express my heart so well:

Lord, hear our cry
Come heal our land
Breath life into these dry and thirsty souls
Lord, hear our prayer
Forgive our sin
And as we call on Your name
Would You make this a place
For Your glory to dwell

Chorus:
Open the blind eyes
Unlock the deaf ears
Come to Your people
As we draw near
Hear us from heaven
Touch our generation
We are Your people
Crying out in desperation

Lord hear our song
Your children worship
As we sing out Your praise
Would You make this a place for Your glory to dwell