A Prayer For Our Nation

Lord God, today I seek your face to lift up the people of the United States of America before you in prayer.

God I want to begin by praising you and thanking you. You alone are worthy of our worship and praise (Ex 20:1-6). You alone are our source of true comfort (2 Cor. 1:3-7). You alone are over the nations both when they prosper and when they rage (Job 12:23, Ps 46:8-10). It is because of this I want to give thanks to the One to whom it is due.

God, you have done a mighty and unique work in this nation. From it's founding, you directed imperfect, yet godly men to create a government according to principles and statutes found in your Holy Word. In their writings, they quote you far more than any earthly man. Because of this, the work of America in history, and all other nations, is your work.

I thank you for our freedoms. Initially, men fought and died to be able to erect a government that accorded with Justice and Righteousness. A government where there was equality under the Law, as your Word commands (Lev. 19:15-16). God, as we know from studying history, that it took almost 100 years for this nation that you raised to fight another war. In this Civil War, it was anything but civil. Father against son, brother against brother, blood was shed to fully realize the words that were penned at the start, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. Father, many men who claimed your name falsely believed that they could treat another image-bearer as mere property. Under the leadership of President Lincoln, this slavery that was an affront to you was abolished, and you were honored and glorified by this. However, the stain of slavery ran deep, and this war did not bring full equality. African-Americans were mistreated and discriminated against, something you repeatedly condemn all throughout your Word. It would take another 100 years for the Civil Rights movements to take hold and win systemic legal victories, another huge step forward toward achieving those words in the Declaration. God, as we know, we as a nation still are dealing with the after-effects of those deep sins against you and against your image bearers.

I thank you for directing our nation away from these sins and toward equality as your Word would have us. I thank you that we are all now free- free to worship, free to speak, free to defend ourselves from harm, among so many wonderful freedoms, the price of which is vast and immeasurable. I thank you that there is no legal discrimination against our fellow men of any ethnicity, and that there is finally equality under the law. You alone God can direct a nation is such a trajectory and I acknowledge before you that your goodness has triumphed and prevailed over a great many things in this nation. Thank you, I praise your name for this.

God I turn, now to concerns I see in this nation that you've raised up according to your will. God, there is so much division, strife, enmity, and confusion among the people. Over the past few years, there have been what might very well be dozens of high profile altercations between African-Americans and police officers. In some instances, justice was upheld, either for the victim or for the officer, but sometimes, as is likely to happen in this fallen world, justice was not upheld and your word disregarded, and we weep over this. We also take heart in that you will always judge evil, even if it reigns here on earth, you will judge it and it will be made right. My concern lies with how Americans deal with Truth.

Father, many worldly ideologies have crept into the minds of these people over the past 100 years. Ideologies that do not value the things you place value on. God, you say in your word that you abhor lieing and deceitfulness (Prov. 12:22). If we are to honor you, we must prioritize truth, truthfulness, and truth-telling. However, post-modern ideologies are rampant that state that truth is in the eye of the beholder. This is contrary to your Word, and it is a lie that Satan has used to corrupt many hearts and minds in this current culture. This has caused ethnic divides, men and women influenced my politicians and media outlets to view the same facts and come to opposite conclusions. Truth does not prevail, as we are swept away by our emotions, and carried further and further away from one another by worldly ideologies. Even many Christians have fallen prey to these ideas, setting false gods of ethnicity, anger, and division, on the throne of their hearts in place of you. I pray for these men and women to turn their hearts back to you, God.

Lord, I ask that your Spirit invade the hearts of the people in this nation over which you reign and place in our hearts and minds a commitment to you and to the truth. I pray that you give us a deep sense of guilt for the sins that we commit. Sins of responding too quickly without hearing both sides (Prov. 18:13, 17), sins of calling evil good and good evil (Isa. 5:20), sins of rejecting Truth for lies (Rom. 1:25) all must come under condemnation and contrition before your holiness, God. I pray that you embolden your pastors and teachers in this nation to condemn these errors, and bring unity to those to whom you have placed earthly care for your sheep. I pray your Spirit convict the people and open their eyes to their sin and pave the way to salvation.

God, once again, I turn this conversation to thanks, but this time I'd like to thank you for your plan of salvation for us, wretched sinners. God, you save us while we are enemies of you (Rom. 5:10). There is no God like you! We are all sinners, but more than that we are slaves to sin (Rom. 6:20) and enemies of you and your holiness and righteousness. Only a perfect sacrifice could ever make us clean before your eyes and you sacrificed Jesus Christ on the cross to be that sacrifice (Heb. 10:11-14). You did not leave us to our sinful demise, you made a way of rescue. Through Christ, the bonds of sin are loosed and we are free to glorify, honor, and worship you in spirit and in truth (Jn. 4:24). As the Apostle Paul divinely inspired said: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve. Then he appeared to over five hundred brothers and sisters at one time; most of them are still alive, but some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one born at the wrong time, he also appeared to me. God, these words are true, they happened! Jesus took our sins to the cross to die, and when he resurrected, he resurrected us into new life with him and with you! Praise you, for we do not deserve this! God, open the eyes of this people to the truth of Jesus, of his sacrifice for us, for the salvation he brings. In the church, we have all peoples worshiping you as one, unified, righteous people (Eph. 2:11-22).

I pray this for our nation, as your salvation is truly our only hope. The gospel of Jesus Christ reconciles us to you, but it also reconciles us to one another, all people as equal sinner, as equally in need, and as equally made righteous by his death, burial and resurrection. And this is the hope of all nations, including ours.

I pray all these things in the great and glorious name of Jesus Christ,

Amen.

Offered by Jesse Gruber

Spiritual Disciplines Resources- Prayer

This week we have numerous resources lined up for you on the Spiritual Discipline of Prayer. Let’s dive in.

1. First we have an article by John Piper called Tips for Praying the Word. Here, Pastor John gives us very practical steps and examples of what it might look like to pray through a passage, thus further linking prayer and the discipline of meditation. Give it a try this week!

2. Since we’re talking about praying the word, here’s the link to one of the Elder’s favorite messages from the Living Scripture CCEF Conference from 2018. I’s called Praying Scripture: The Cry of the Longing Heart by Joe Novenson. In addition, here’s the outline that accompanied the talk. We highly recommend giving a listen.

3. The third is one of my (Jesse’s) favorite books on prayer I’ve read thus far. It’s called A Praying Life by Paul Miller. It comes with an optional study guide to guide you through different practices and really getting the practice of prayer down to an efficient yet effective system. Plus is has a forward by David Powlison so that’s a big plus.

4. Next we come to the Prayer Mate app. If you want to digitize your prayer lists, this is a great, free way to do so. Here’s what Nathan has to say about it from his time with the app: “The Prayer Mate app is a great app to keep track of all of your prayer requests. It not only keeps your prayer requests, but it also reminds you to pray for them throughout the day. It even allows you to add Bible verses and biblical prayers. It’s a solid prayer app that can be a great support to your prayer life.” So what are you waiting for? It’s available on iOS and Android.

5. Finally, we come to another article, this time written by Don Whitney himself (he’s the man behind the “tome” Spiritual Disciplines). The article is called The Gospel and Prayer and it examines whether or not the prayers of an unbeliever are heard an answered by God. An interesting and tricky question handled by a skillful theologian.

Next week we’ll be examining the discipline of Stewardship so stay tuned for more resources.