A Prayer For Our Times (2020)

My Saving Lord, in times past You spoke to Your people to comfort and console them and I’m asking You to do that now.  See the anguish and sorrow being felt as we awake each day to the unrelenting news of more corruption, death and destruction, tearing down of monuments and founding principles, lying and deceptions, etc. that afflict our lives.  I believe You called this nation into existence.  As a witness to Your faithfulness, You’ve brought us through depressions, wars, internal unrest, corruption, etc.  I’m not sure how we got through those trials, but it had to be You.  And through all of this, I am absolutely convinced that … You and Your Word never fail … You are faithful and true … You stand for what is right and just … and You have an abundant love for all people.  Deliver us and return us to a nation that loves freedom, desires the best for everyone, upholds Your holy name and esteems the origins of this nation.

In reflecting on the current situation in this country, I am reminded of the story of the apostles taking out ahead of You to cross a body of water … a storm overtaking them … the apostles becoming fearful … Your coming to them walking across the water … and Peter’s failed attempt to leave the boat and walk out to You on the water.  What I see us in the apostles, the boat being the Constitution which You gave to us to carry us to safety through all times, the storm as the adversity we are seeing through riots, looting, destruction of physical property, livelihoods, lives and our founding principles.  Like Peter, many of us feel like stepping out from the protection You’ve established for us … but what You want is for us to stay in the boat.  I see Your walking on the water as Your ability to stay above the fray and become a source of safety, comfort and stability in the middle of a storm.

I also recall the story of Elijah who, in fear for his life, escaped into the mountains and hid in a cave.  I sense that many of us feel the same way.  Like Elijah, we are praying for deliverance from the evil that is trying to destroy us.  We feel a calling to defy the evil that has sprung up and help perpetuate the founding principles You established in forming this country.  However, we are feeling fatigue from the negativity in the news and helplessness in confronting the evil we’ve seen come over our nation.  You calmed and comforted Elijah by showing him that You were not in the wind, earthquakes or fire that went before him.  You came in a gentle whisper that told him to go back to what he had been called to do and trust You to preserve justice.  In the quietness of a humble heart, instill in each of us the hope, courage and faith to persevere until we see Your deliverance.  And it’s in Jesus’ name I pray.  AMEN!!

Matthew 14:27 But Jesus said to them:  “Take courage!  It is I.  Don’t be afraid.”   

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