Leadership 21: A Call to Prayer for America
Lord, you have been our stronghold and refuge for generations of our lives. You have been faithful to Your promises, Your covenant, Your Word. You have graciously named us “Your people.” You have made us a “peculiar people….a people You have treasured.
But Lord, we have sinned. Your Word tells us that “sin is a reproach to any people, but righteousness exalts a nation.” We have sinned….nationally, corporately, and personally.We live, as Americans, in the midst of a sinful people who value material things over love for You; who treat holy things with disgust and who cherish unholy things that offend You.
We have called pornography art, and elevated it to a protected status in our nation.
We kill our children Who are yet to be born, and call it “freedom of choice.”
We tolerate sexual behaviors that we should shun, and laugh at those who call it wrong.
We have sinned. We have marginalized the poor, the widow, and the orphan…the refugee and the stranger…the very people You trusted us to protect.
Lord, have mercy on us. We deserve nothing but your judgment. We can plead for nothing but your mercy. And yet we continue in corruption through our courts, our Supreme Court, our national leadership and are complicit in their behavior.We cannot separate ourselves from the worst among us and claim to be without sin.
WE HAVE SINNED. Lord, have mercy on us.
As we celebrate today around our meals and our outings, we thank You for freedom purchased, provided, and sustained at great cost. We are grateful for patriots lives given for and in defense of our freedom. And yet we remember that You love more than just America. You love the nations….those who dwell in the uttermost parts of the earth and in utter, spiritual darkness. And too often, we forget that we are to live to see them come to Light and Life in Jesus. Lord, have mercy.
We move this month into a season of elections and significant decision-making as a people, and yet few will seek Your face regarding this decision. Please help us, as we vote this year, to remember that “our citizenship is in Heaven.” WE are first Your Ambassadors for Christ, and then citizens of this land of America. Give us grace not to make the wrong decision with the freedom You have provided.
The righteousness You seek in America, the way we will truly see America great again, is as we humble ourselves and pray, and seek Your face, and turn from our wicked ways. We want to see our nation thrive, that the light and hope of the Gospel of Jesus may go forth from us again…and that we as the people of God may assume our assigned role as the conscience of our nation.
May freedom ever be ours, as we know that freedom may come only from Your hand and only as we first submit ourselves to You. Then our freedom is an eternal gift, and not an earthly one.
Thank You, gracious Father, for the blessings of this land….the prosperity we have known….the privileges we enjoy. And may we ever be a great nation because our God ALONE is great. And may You, our Father, bless America once again.
In the name of Jesus we pray.
Amen