Prayer for our Nation

From John Stonestreet on Breakpoint.org (Sept. 30):

Nations like ours are set up so that, typically, we get the leaders we deserve. Elections reflect the cultural realities of a particular time and place. Biblically, we know that God is sovereign over leaders and nations.

In light of these two things, my prayer each election has long been that God is merciful, and that He will not give us what we deserve. Like Nehemiah and others from the Old Testament, it would be appropriate for us to pray for our nation with a posture of repentance.

Today, I’d like to share with you this kind of prayer from historian, author, friend, and colleague, Dr. Glenn Sunshine. The words are his but worthy to adopt and use as we pray together for our nation.

Here is Dr. Sunshine:

Lord, these are dark and dangerous times for our country. Our politics is full of hate, and it’s spilling over in how we think of and treat each other. And like any nation, we have guilt for the evil that we have done and permitted.

We have the blood of over 65 million unborn children on our hands. How do you even begin to atone for this? No political party is willing to defend the unborn, and some of those who speak up for them have even been imprisoned. We can only appeal to your mercy and pray for an end to the slaughter of innocents.

We have dismantled your design for marriage and sexuality and given in to a spirit of confusion over simple biological facts. We are engaged in a destructive project to do the impossible and transition people from one sex to another, and more victims will pay the price for our folly.

We have deep injustices in our criminal justice system against the marginalized and politically disfavored, resulting in many false convictions and plea deals done by the innocent to end their ordeal. In this way we have corrupted justice in violation of your commands to judge with truth.

We have made idols out of our possessions, out of sex, out of ourselves, out of politics, out of our nation, and out of the government, and we have viciously attacked anyone who questions our false gods. We treat them as heretics to be despised and hated.

We hate and malign our political opponents, forgetting that they too are made in your image and forgetting Jesus’ teaching that to hold another in contempt is the equivalent of murder, an attack on the image of God and thus on God himself.

May we as your people resist the temptation to hate, to insult, to lash out. May we love our enemies and pray for those who insult or persecute us. May we be peacemakers.

May our allegiance be first and foremost to your Kingdom of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. May we live by Jesus’ teachings and the values of the Kingdom as agents of reconciliation and shalom in a world that desperately needs them. May your priorities be our priorities over party, tribe, or faction. May we seek first your Kingdom and your righteousness, working for your justice in the world but especially for your rule over all areas of life. May we be disciple-makers in accordance with your final command to us.

May we live by the law of love—not the kind of sentimental love our culture promotes—but love that seeks the ultimate good of all persons, not their temporary satisfaction. May we love people enough to speak the truth with compassion and gentleness. May we care more about their wellbeing here and in eternity than about what they think of us.

Politically, the issues we are facing are many and complicated, and no party stands for your Kingdom in all areas. May we affirm and support what is good: the right to life, liberty of conscience, our fundamental freedoms, equal justice under law, government that carries out its responsibilities before you but stays out of things beyond its legitimate authority. May we oppose what is evil: infanticide, abuse of all sorts, injustice, and dehumanizing rhetoric from all sides. And above all, may we put our hope in you, not in the election or defeat of candidates or parties.

We pray against the demonic forces driving these and other evils in our society and the increasingly overt embrace of the occult among cultural elites.

Lord, you and you alone determine the rise and fall of nations. Only your Kingdom lasts forever. If this is the time when we will see the decline of our nation, keep us from despair, remembering that our citizenship is in Heaven from which we await our Savior, Jesus Christ our Lord. Your promises remain unchanged, and whatever happens, we know you are true. Our hope is in you, not in politicians, parties, laws, or constitutions. We commit our nation into your hands, and by your grace we will live in faith, hope, and love, whatever happens.

We ask all this in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen. [source]

A nice prayer not just for America but for the whole world in these troubled times.