Musings on Australia Day Sunrise Prayer for our Nation
Filed on 26 January 2022 in Food For Thought category. 
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Musings on Australia Day Sunrise Prayer for our Nation 26 Jan 2019 (echoed 2022).
SHAME on all those who had no valid reason for not sharing in a sunrise prayer somewhere in some way either by yourself or selves at home. But, read on…
OK, you might have committed or will be committing yourselves and our nation to God later in the day – even perhaps while watching the best fireworks display in Australia also on the banks of the Swan looking at the prettiest and best capital city in Australia.
And you might have had to go to work or have worked late into the night. God bless you and we thank you for that service to our community. Yes, there are many valid reasons. You will have your own service for God and we would not dare to minimise that.
But Sunrise Prayer on New Year’s Day and Australia Day are special opportunities to set the scene.
For young and old. At Success Hill in Bassendean WA we had nine very special people – last year on Australia Day I think it was 24 – from 5 different churches representing 3 denominations with the Anglicans in the majority. It was so good to be praying for and dedicating ourselves and our nation. But average age was 60+.
For young families. If you aren’t camping elsewhere then why not celebrate these special days with prayer at sunrise and then have a BBQ breakfast on the powered BBQs or a picnic breakfast down on the pier on the banks of the Swan, the prettiest and cleanest capital city river.
We need to CELEBRATE New Year’s Day and Australia Day. What better way than with sunrise and prayer and breakfast? Celebrate family. Celebrate children. Celebrate Jesus. Celebrate God. Celebrate the freedom we still have in this nation and pray earnestly for the future that we will continue to have this freedom and be able to uphold and teach Christian truth in our homes (yes, even “around the kitchen table”), in our Christian schools, in our churches and in public.
Seek to protect our children and their future. Implant in them a need and privilege for commitment for themselves and our nation, a consciousness of the privilege we have as children of God created in His Image; and the need for implanting God’s Word in our head and our hearts with memorising His Word. Protect and Celebrate!
Sunrise Prayer on New Year’s Day and Australia Day are special opportunities to set the scene.
Small (but eternal picture): our kids are increasingly exposed to temptations seemingly approved by community and increasingly mandated by bad government – “Safe Schools” and “Respectful Relationships” falsehoods and lies; increasing control over what we teach in our homes and schools. Erosion of family values. The urgency is now.
Bigger national (also eternal) picture: increasing restriction on freedom of speech; freedom of conscience and expression of conscience; freedom of belief – freedoms enshrined in international covenants. Progressive devaluation of the intrinsic value of human life as created in the Image of God evidenced by the promotion of abortion and euthanasia, viable babies being accidentally born alive after abortion and left to die, embryo selection even for sex of baby (yes, even before “it” has decided what gender it is going to be – so how do the parents know which baby to kill?). Then there’s surrogacy and transgenders… The urgency is now.
International (also eternal) picture: the suffering church; religious/cultural conflicts and persecution of Christian minorities increasing year by year; decay of “western” civilisation and Christian values; the intrinsic enmity between the children of Abraham; the peace of Jerusalem. The urgency is now.
Eternal picture: yes, the great gulf between heaven and hell and the urgency to make known the gift of God in Jesus Christ for forgiveness of sin. The urgency is now. We need to pray that we do not miss an opportunity.
WE NEED a new generation with
- A new sense of urgency
- A new sense of grief for our nation
- A new sense of reality and the challenges facing us
- A new sense of perspective – for us, between earth and heaven; for others between heaven and hell
- A new sense of the Glory of God and of the glory that awaits us in eternity
- A regaining of our First Love
And so, we need a new sense of determination (and privilege) to commit ourselves and our nation to God, every hour, every day and including special days when we can join in spirit with each other in this dedication. There are many times for special reasons e.g. before elections! And then there are fires, floods, drought, a pandemic, earthquakes, volcanoes and tidal waves.
In humility to my friends.
