Dear Brothers and
Sisters in Christ,
The
National Day of Prayer is one day when Christian Americans have a right and
responsibility to call down Almighty God’s great mercy and blessing upon our
homeland. But in truth, we need to do this regularly—both individually and
corporately. In national and international issues, the government is at
best never more than an institution that can help, not a final source of
salvation or even responsibility—these belong to God alone. Thankfully, we Christians
get to play a major role, for “the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man
avails much.” (James 5)
When
we pray for our leaders and our country, we should ask for God’s will to be
done. (See the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6 or Luke 11.) Today, tomorrow, and beyond,
please pray as the Spirit leads for our nation. Below are various Scriptures
that might help guide your prayers. They note God’s mercy to the unrighteous; His
power, authority, and victory; good leadership (see Exodus 18); obedience to God and man; deep repentance; great hope, and
giving praise, trust, and glory (see 1 Kings 8) to our good, loving, and mighty
God.
My close
missionary friend wrote: “Christ never promised physical
safety to those who would follow Him. In fact, He promised something far
better: His Presence…Christ does not call us to pursue danger, but He asks our
obedience to His calling. Time and again, God has demonstrated His power over
the enemy’s attacks and His ability to save…Still, there may come a day when
physical deliverance doesn’t occur. Let it be known on that day, God is still
faithful, and the greatest deliverance will have actually occurred. Whether we
live or whether we die, Christ is our life, and His glory is the reward. Jesus
Christ calls us to Himself, not to a life of ease by avoidance, but of intimacy
through obedience that we ‘may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and
may share His sufferings, becoming like Him in his death.’” (Philippians 3)
|Exodus 33| And he said to him, “If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from
here. For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I
and your people? Is it not in your
going with us, so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other
people on the face of the earth?” And the Lord said to Moses, “This
very thing that you have spoken I will do, for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.”
|Leviticus 19| “When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your
field right up to its edge, neither shall you gather the gleanings after your
harvest. And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you
gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor
and for the sojourner: I am the Lord your God…You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him…Love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.”
|Deuteronomy
9| So
I lay prostrate before the Lord for these forty days and forty
nights, because the Lord had said he would destroy you. And I
prayed to the Lord, ‘O Lord God, do not destroy your people and your
heritage, whom you have redeemed through your greatness, whom you have brought
out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob. Do not regard the stubbornness of this people, or their wickedness
or their sin, lest the land from which you brought us say, “Because
the Lord was not able to bring them into the land that he promised them, and
because he hated them, he has brought them out to put them to death in the
wilderness.” For they are your people and your heritage, whom you brought
out by your great power and by your outstretched arm.’”
|Joshua
5| When
Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man
was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand. And Joshua went
to him and said to him, “Are you for us, or for our adversaries?” And he
said, “No; but I am the commander of the army of the Lord. Now I have
come.” And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped.
|1 Samuel 2| Hannah prayed and said, “My heart exults in the Lord; my horn is exalted in the Lord. My mouth derides my enemies, because I rejoice in your salvation. There is none holy like the Lord: for
there is none besides you; there is no rock like our God.”
|1
Samuel 12| “As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by
ceasing to pray for you, and I will instruct you in the good and the
right way. Only fear the Lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart.”
|2
Samuel 22| “The waves of death
encompassed me, the torrents of destruction assailed me; the cords of Sheol
entangled me; the snares of death confronted me. In my distress I called upon the
Lord; to my God I called. From his temple he heard my voice, and my
cry came to his ears.”
|2
Kings 14| Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel, began to reign in
Samaria, and he reigned forty-one years. And he did what was evil in the
sight of the Lord. He did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam the son
of Nebat…But the Lord had not said that he would blot out the name of
Israel from under heaven, so he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of
Joash.
|2
Kings 19| Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the
messengers and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of
the Lord and spread it before the Lord. And Hezekiah prayed
before the Lord and said: “O Lord, the God of Israel, enthroned
above the cherubim, you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the
earth; you have made heaven and earth. Incline your ear, O Lord, and
hear; open your eyes, O Lord, and see; and hear the words of
Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God…So now,
O Lord our God, save us, please, from his hand, that all the
kingdoms of the earth may know that you, O Lord, are God alone.”
|2
Chronicles 14| Zerah the Ethiopian came out against them with an army
of a million men and 300 chariots…Asa cried to the Lord his God,
“O Lord, there is none like you to help, between the mighty and the weak.
Help us, O Lord our God, for we rely on you, and in your
name we have come against this multitude. O Lord, you are our God; let not
man prevail against you.” So the Lord defeated the Ethiopians before Asa and
before Judah.
|2
Chronicles 19| Then he set judges in the land throughout all the fortified
cities of Judah…and said to the judges, “Take heed to what you are doing, for
you do not judge for man but for the Lord, who is with you in the judgment. Now therefore, let the
fear of the Lord be upon you; take care and do it, for there is no iniquity with the Lord our
God, no partiality, nor taking of bribes.”
|2 Chronicles 33| And the Lord spoke to
Manasseh and his people, but they would not listen. Therefore the Lord brought
upon them the captains of the army of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh…and
carried him off to Babylon. Now when he was in affliction, he implored the Lord
his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, and
prayed to Him; and He received his entreaty, heard his supplication, and
brought him back to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord
was God.
|Ezra 9| “O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift my face to you, my God,
for our iniquities have risen higher
than our heads, and our guilt has mounted up to the heavens. From the days of our fathers to this day we have been in great guilt…After all that has come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great guilt, seeing that you, our God, have punished us less than our iniquities deserved and have
given us such a remnant as this, shall we break your commandments again?”
|Nehemiah 9| “Our God, the great, the
mighty, and the awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love, let not all
the hardship seem little to you that has come upon us, upon our kings, our
princes, our priests, our prophets, our fathers, and all your people…You have
been righteous in all that has come upon us, for you have dealt faithfully and we have acted wickedly.”
|Psalm 33| The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; he frustrates the
plans of the peoples. The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of his
heart to all generations. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage…The king is not saved by his great army; a warrior is not delivered by his great strength. The war horse is
a false hope for salvation, and by its great
might it cannot rescue. Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear
him, on those who hope in his steadfast love.
|Psalm 37| Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires
of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act. He will bring forth your righteousness
as the light, and your justice as the noonday. Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; fret
not yourself over the one who prospers in his way,
over the man who carries out evil devices! Refrain from anger, and forsake
wrath! Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil. For the evildoers shall be cut
off, but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land.
|Isaiah 9| For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and
his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his
government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over
his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness
from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts
will do this.
|Isaiah 40| Have you not
understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he who sits above the
circle of the earth, and its inhabitants
are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in; who brings princes to
nothing, and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness. Scarcely are they
planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their
stem taken root in the earth, when he blows on them, and they wither, and the tempest carries them off like stubble…But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their
strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.
|Isaiah 54| “O
afflicted one…No weapon that is fashioned against you shall succeed, and you
shall refute every tongue that rises against you in judgment. This is the
heritage of the servants of the Lord and their vindication from
me, declares the Lord.”
|Isaiah 58| “Is not this the fast that
I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to
let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to
share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own
flesh? Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall
spring up speedily; your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of
the Lord shall be your rear guard.
|Matthew 5| “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and
utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in
heaven, for so they persecuted
the prophets who were before you…Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”
|Philippians
3| Our
citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus
Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious
body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.
|1
Timothy 2| 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.
|1 Peter 2| But you are a chosen
race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his
own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called
you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a
people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now
you have received mercy…Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether
it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by
him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do
good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to
silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using
your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor
everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.
|Revelation 21| He who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life
without payment. The one who conquers
will have this heritage, and I will be his God
and he will be my son.”
