A Prayer for Our Nation
“First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.””
Dear Heavenly Father, You call us to pray for our nation daily, but today especially we pray for the healing of our country. In the midst of the suffering associated with COVID-19, we are even more aware of our mortality and our utter need for you. Vaccines, mitigations, and attention to hygiene may heal for a moment, but getting our lives right with you heals for eternity. So, we begin our prayers for our nation by humbly coming before you personally in repentance and faith, asking that you forgive us, bless us, and show us how to live boldly for you and for each other even now. With utter dependence and faith in you, we lift up our prayers this day.
Lord, we begin our prayer for our country with the full knowledge that you are already at work in the world, two distinct ways, to preserve and to save. Especially now we are thankful that you preserve this sinful world, you keep civility, justice, and peace alive through people faithfully serving others in the vocations in which you provide for us to live. We are thankful for faithful mothers and fathers, committed families, as well as good government, healthcare workers, peace officers, all who keep the fabric of this sinful world from unraveling even more than it already is. We also give you thanks for your essential workers in and through the Church, which amidst the physical crisis of COVID-19, offer the crisis-overcoming gift of faith in Christ to all who seek your ultimate solution for sin, suffering, and death in the person and work of Jesus. We give you thanks for your clear, preserving and saving voice during our present trials and tribulations.
To that end, we pray for your continued blessings and wisdom for all fathers, mothers, and families. Bless also blessings and wisdom for our President, Governors, Mayors, police, teachers, and all public servants….Business people, entrepreneurs, inventors, sales people, marketers…writers, artists of all kinds….Bless these and the many other vocations that exist in our world because of your creativity and love. We pray this day for all those in high positions that they would be people of character, honor, and wisdom. We also pray that they above all, fulfill the duties of their office so that we might have a peaceful and just society, one that affords life and liberty to all who pursue it faithfully.
Today we also pray that you would call us back to the moral foundations that are not merely written in our laws and founding documents, but those written in your Word, those written on the pages of the Bible, those written by you even in the hearts of us all. No policy or law can be called just unless it reflects the very laws that emanate from your character and your Word. No “pursuit of happiness” can be blessed by you unless it is a striving for a virtuous life in service to others on your terms. Sadly, our nation today has wandered from your moral truths and continues to wander from the things of life, liberty, and service that reflect your character and your love. Call us anew to yourself and to the moral foundations that civilize and preserve us as a people.
But, finally dear heavenly Father, call the people of our nation this day back to yourself by grace through faith. There is no one holy like You. There is no one just like You. There is no one powerful like You. Yet, despite our rebellion towards you, our sin towards you and each other, you deigned to set aside your power, and to execute enduring justice through the sacrificial life, the eternal suffering and death of your Son Jesus in our place. Because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, you graciously offer each of us, undeserving-sinful as we are, eternal life in Him as a gift. There is no other ultimate solution for what we face in this world each day. May our insecurities, our inadequacies, our unfulfilling “best” efforts finally find their resolve in the gift of life that comes by faith in Jesus Christ alone. And, may that precious message of your Gospel motivate our prayers and our service to our friends and our enemies, to our brothers and sisters in the faith, to our neighbors in the community, and to all who are in authority to lead and to serve. Give us strength to be a people constantly in prayer, available for service, and bold in our witness of the God who is at work in the world to preserve and to save. In the Name of Jesus, we pray. Amen!
