The Associated Press reports that Kenyan President William Ruto announced the plans for the country’s first ever day of prayer on Sunday at a service in the drought-stricken city of Nakuru. It follows a joint call by the country’s spiritual leaders to dedicate an entire day to prayer to ease drought conditions in the nation.
“As a government we have set out elaborate plans for food security, we have seeds, ample fertilizer, and water harvesting strategies including dams. We now need God to send us the rain,” Ruto said. “I urge all people from all faiths … to pray for our country.”
Kenya and other east African nations have been experiencing some of the worst drought conditions in decades, causing crop failure, loss of livestock, wildlife and biodiversity, and malnutrition. Domestic agriculture is also large part of Kenya’s economy, which undoubtedly contributed to the President’s decision to make this announcement.
Although President Ruto rightly seeks rescue from this affliction from God, he still, by including “people from all faiths” in this request, has made a most fatal error. This has made continued drought most likely, for inciting his non-Christian citizens to sin will not turn the rod of God away from his nation; no, the opposite will happen. Rather, what the President must do is encourage his citizens to turn to the Lord in sincere repentance, to not despise the Law, so that their prayer may not be counted as sin (Prov. 28; Ps. 109; Rom. 14). Only after this is done does he have a certain promise that the wrath of the Lord of Armies will cease; for Joel, in the second chapter, so gloriously praises the grace and mercy of God, that he is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, so that it may be made known that those who are repentant, who return to the Lord with all their heart, who rend their hearts and not their garments, may be saved not only from the righteous judgment of Him on the Last Day — where He will punish the wicked and reward the righteous according to their works — but may even be saved from the temporal punishments for their sin (e.g., drought).
However, unfortunately, as the AP further reports, men such as Evans Mukolwe, former director of the Kenyan and U.N. weather agencies, by blaming the drought on climate change and not on the nation’s unbelief — seen very clearly in its President — have all but guaranteed that the Kenyans will remain ignorant of this alien work of the Lord, and will instead look to their demons to save them. Therefore every Christian must pray: “Lord, who has sent this affliction so that the Kenyan people might be brought to repentance, grant that they may — despite the attempts of their leaders — seek you and be grafted into your body, the Church. Amen.”
Altlutheraner 