Prayers For Our Country

Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded him. 1 John 2:9-11

Lord, we look to Iran and see that people who we feared and disparaged have more in common with our own hopes and dreams than we once thought possible. As we observe their struggle, help us to examine our willingness to label others, to judge without understanding, to fear those who are different, and to separate our world into “us” and “them”.

Hate isolates us from others, helping us to ignore those in need. Hate feeds our anger and fear, enabling others to manipulate our emotions and actions.  We fail to look within and hold ourselves accountable, preferring to  shift blame “to those people”– democrat or republican, young or old, rich or poor, immigrant or foreigner, white or black — who are our current target.

Help us Lord to move past hate.  Help us to see those in need and respond with compassion and empathy.  Whether talking to neighbors or listening to political leaders or media reports, help us to challenge the simple solutions, personalized attacks, accusations, and catch-phrases, that only serve to inflame and mislead rather than inform.  Help us to reach out to one another in respect and in love.  Help us each to take on the responsibility of working to build a country, and a world, that better reflects your grace.

Help us O Lord.

Amen

Tags: country, hate, politics, Prayer, USA, wisdom

This entry was posted on June 28, 2009 at 8:47 pm and is filed under politics, Prayer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.