There comes a point when it’s too late for the patient, when the injury is so catastrophic or the disease so widespread, the body can’t be saved. Doctors and nurses know this point.

Spiritually, there is also a point when there is no saving a soul or a people. God and those he gives understanding to know this point. It was reached in Noah’s day for all of early civilization, and again for Sodom and Gomorrah, and again for Judaism during the Roman occupation. There is no coming back from spiritual flat-lining. It is the death of an entity.

I mention this because there is a growing trend these days to “Pray for America” or “Pray for New York” or pray for whatever country or city the organizers believe should be prayed for, but this is a waste of time. The former Christian nations and the cities in them are past the point of saving spiritually. They might hang on for a few more years materially, but spiritually they are so diseased there is no saving them. They are past the point of prayers.

It’s a hard thing for doctors to reach this point with a patient, to have to declare that nothing more can be done and that the patient should be kept as comfortable as possible until the inevitable end. The comfort is usually administered via drugs to dull the pain and provide an artificial high. God administers similar comfort to those at the end of their spiritual road. Remember that when Noah was busy building the ark and gathering the animals together, everyone else continued on with their regular daily activities and suspected nothing of the flood until it washed them all away. Recall, too, that the people of Sodom continued in their sin until fire started raining from Heaven and destroyed them all. In former Christian nations, God is keeping the condemned likewise comfortably numb and unaware. They won’t know what hits them until it does.

If we’re to pray for anyone or anything, it should be to strengthen the remnant. It’s God’s people who need our prayers now, not those who have definitively turned their backs on God and his Messiah, Jesus. They are past the point of our prayers. Recall how David wept and fasted while his son was on his deathbed, but the minute he got word that the son had died, David dried his tears, washed himself, and had something to eat. David realized there was no more point in praying for his son. He was past the point of prayers. Christian nations and all the cities and towns in them, as well as most of the people, are now likewise beyond prayers. They are being kept comfortable by God in preparation for their end.

It’s a hard thing for God to draw this line and declare a person or a people beyond saving, as once it’s done, there is no undoing it. We can weep and pray all we want for those who will be drowned in the coming spiritual flood, or we can direct our prayers to those who still have a chance at Heaven. I’m praying for the remnant. I’m still loving my enemies and wishing them comfort in their final days, but my prayers are now solely for the remnant.