Archive for the ‘politics’ Category
November 6, 2022
“. . . We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy. O Lord, listen! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, hear and act.” Daniel 9:18-19
O Lord help us to be better than we are.
Quick to forgive and slow to anger (James 1:19-21), seeking the still and quiet space where we might hear your voice.
Give us the will and wisdom to seek out truth, to turn away from those who cause deceit to prosper (Daniel 8:25),
from those who use your name and dishonor you with their actions (Matthew 15:8).
Restore in us a vision of one country, working together, towards liberty and justice for all.
Raise among us those who will lead with love and compassion and calming words,
so that we may be at peace and together find our way.
Guide us O Lord.
Amen
related past prayers:
Freedom
Autocracy
Seeing
Anxious
Turning Point
Preserving Our Democracy
Guide Us Towards Peace
Tags:compassion, country, deceit, election, elections, finding our way, love, peace, politics, Prayer, USA
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July 4, 2022
Lord we thank you for our freedom and your many gifts.
O beautiful for spacious skies for amber waves of grain.*
We thank you for opportunities to grow and for a prosperous land. Help us to share so that all might thrive.
For purple mountains majesty, above the fruited plain.
We thank you for the beauty and abundance with which we are surrounded. Let it inspire and encourage us to reach out to others and share your love.
America, America, God shed his grace on thee.
We thank you for your forgiveness and mercy. May we extend that to others, forsaking tribalism, factionalism, and hyper-partisanship. Help us to love our neighbors as ourselves. (Luke 10:25-37; Galatians 3:26-29).
And crowned thy good with brotherhood, from sea to shining sea.
We thank you Lord for the many diverse peoples that make up our country. May we see the richness of your creation in this diversity and resist those who would exploit our differences and sow division.
Help us Lord to use our freedoms wisely, overcoming evil with good and serving one another with love. (Romans 12:21; Galatians 5:13).
Guide us towards peace, O Lord.
Amen
*italicized lines from the hymn America The Beautiful
Other July 4 Posts:
Freedom, 2021
Preserving Our Liberties, 2020
Pray For Our Country, 2015
Freedom From Fear, 2013
Tags:abundance, beauty, brotherhood, courage, diversity, freedom, Independence Day, July 4, love, peace, wisdom
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July 11, 2021
Today’s prayer borrows from Psalm 83
See how the enemies of democracy are astir.
With cunning they conspire against your people; they plot against the freedoms you cherish.
“Come” they say. “Let us destroy this diverse nation, let democracy be no more.”
With one mind they plot together; they form an alliance against us.
All those who lie, those who deny justice, those who seek power at our expense,
Make them like tumbleweed, O Lord, like chaff before the wind.
As fire consumes the forest, or a flame sets mountains ablaze, so pursue them with your tempest and terrify them with your storm.
May their efforts perish in disgrace.
Cover their faces in shame, and let those who seek your love, your compassion, your mercy prevail.
Amen
Tags:autocracy, compassion, country, democracy, enemies of democracy, love, mercy, politics, Prayer, tyranny, United States, USA
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July 4, 2021
On this 4th of July Lord help us pause and see how much we have to lose if we lose our democracy.
Move us away from the resentments, and divisions that enable the slow creep of autocracy.
May we recognize how much we use our shared freedoms of thought, expression, and association, and the vibrancy those lend to our communities.
Help us protect these for both ourselves and others, slowing the corrosive attacks on views that differ from our own, and challenging appeals to hate and fear.
For the growth of tyranny in its many forms will eventually threaten even those of us who enjoy quiet neighborhoods, regular schedules, good food, and adequate pay.
Without change, even we will some day awake and look at the wreckage and wonder, how did we go astray?
O Lord, do not abandon us to our sinful ways.
Awaken us, guide us, and help us to be better than we are.
Amen.
Tags:autocracy, country, division, fear, freedom, hate, peace, politics, Prayer, resentment, sin, tyranny, United States, USA
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June 13, 2021
Today’s prayer is from Psalm 72, v. 12-14
For he will deliver the needy who cry out,
the afflicted who have no-one to help.
He will take pity on the weak and the needy
and save the needy from death.
He will rescue them from oppression and violence,
for precious is their blood in his sight.
Amen
Tags:country, hope, justice, oppression, politics, Prayer, rescue, United States, USA, violence
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June 6, 2021
The prayer today incorporates a paragraph from Across That Bridge by Congressman John Lewis.
“[N]o matter how tarnished or weak the flame, when the forces of darkness seem like they are about to consume us, we will ourselves to survive, and we begin to stand in the center of our inner light and invite its power to clear away the darkness that has clouded the soul.”
Help your light shine in us and through us Lord, that we might find a better way to live and work together.
Amen
Tags:change, hope, light, politics, Prayer, United States, USA
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May 31, 2021
This day Lord we remember and commit to your care all those who fought over the generations to save our world from tyranny and anarchy, and for those, both military and civilian, who are in the struggle still to preserve our democracy. John Dewey said that democracy needed to be reborn in every generation, and we confess Lord that we have been poor midwives. Help us recover and recommit to liberty and justice for all. Help us Lord extend your love and forgiveness to each other, and to move forward with care, particularly for the least among us. Amen
Tags:compassion, country, democracy, justice, liberty, love, Memorial Day, politics, Prayer, Unted States, USA
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May 23, 2021
Today’s prayer borrows from and adapts the hymn “O Holy Ghost, Creator Blessed”.
Holy Spirit, please protect, guide, and comfort our children as they bear the burden of our political obsessions and resentments.
Help us to see and repair the damage we have done that we might leave them a better democracy and country.
Come Holy Ghost, Creator blessed, and in our hearts take up your rest.
Come with your love, and heavenly aid, and heal the world which you have made.
Heal our hearts O Lord.
Amen
Tags:country, democracy, healing, Pentecost, politics, repair, United States, USA
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May 16, 2021
Widen our lens O Lord, well beyond the narrow aperture of our phones.
Help us to lift our heads and see the beauty and the wonder of the world around us, and know that you are with us, that we are not alone nor in charge.
Help us to see your love and and forgiveness in the people around us, so that we too might respond with compassion and mercy.
Help us to see the many revelations of your grace that surround us, inviting us to move beyond our resentful and quarrelsome ways.
Open our eyes Lord to the possibilities of our future were we to work together.
Amen
Tags:beauty, compassion, country, forgiveness, future, grace, invitation, love, mercy, politics, possibility, Prayer, see, seeing, United States, USA, working together
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May 10, 2021
Today’s prayer borrows from Psalm 46.
God is our refuge and strength, an ever present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, even as the very foundations of our democracy come under attack, and the political norms that gird our Constitution are threatened in the swelling waves of extreme partisanship and disinformation.
We will not fear for we know that God is with us, and the truth will someday set us free to pursue His paths of justice and peace.
Amen
Tags:country, disinformation, future, justice, partisanship, peace, politics, Prayer, refuge, truth, United States, USA
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Prayers For Our Country 