During 2009 we posted a prayer every week. During 2010 we posted less frequently and focused on prayers that reflect our country’s history. During 2011 we will continue to post occasionally with more of a focus on current events. We invite you to read over and reflect on past prayers, and also to contribute your prayers by sending an e-mail to prayforourcountry@gmail.com. Together we can make a difference. Matthew 18:19-20.
A Note For Our Readers
January 3, 2011Good News
December 27, 2010But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I will bring you news of great joy that will be for all the people.” Luke 2:10
The good news is this: God is with us. Our troubles will not last. We will move forward. We are not alone. God is with us, and God will see us through. Amen
Truth and Courage
October 17, 2010“I am a firm believer in people. If given truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts. ” Abraham Lincoln
Lord, we can be a hardheaded, stiff-necked people, resistant to your word. (Ex. 32:9, Heb. 3:8)
We are often a fearful people, easily swayed by those who would manipulate and divide.
We can be a selfish people, obsessed with material comfort.
We are often an angry people, more willing to blame others than to accept our own accountability in creating a world where so many suffer.
Help us O Lord. Give us the courage to face real facts and look for long term solutions.
Give us the compassion to share our material wealth with those who have little or none.
Teach us to forgive, and to look at the plank in our own eye before pointing out the splinter in others. (Lk. 6:42)
Help us to listen, with open hearts and minds, to the cries of those around us.
Help us to be worthy of the trust and hopes of those who came before us.
Lead us forward O Lord.
Amen.
Loving, With All of Our Mind
September 11, 2010Jesus replied: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” Matthew 22:37
Help us O Lord to love you with all of our mind. Help us to challenge the “facts” we are fed when others would lead us astray. Teach us to ask hard questions, to study our history, to learn from our lapses, and to imagine how our world might be if we followed your message of love, compassion, and self-control. Save us from demagogues who would narrow our vision with appeals to fear and anger. Turn us from our eagerness to grasp at easy but false truths. Renew in us a love of learning and a willingness to explore new information and new ideas. Help us to turn away from false gods and counterfeit promises. Turn us instead to mercy, to justice, and to a closer walk with you. Guide us, O Lord. Amen
Laying Down Our Lives
August 16, 2010Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. . . . This is the message you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another. . . . This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. . . . Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. 1 John 2:7; 3:11, 16, 18.
Who is our brother? Not just the one who looks like us or worships with us or lives like us. Luke 10:25-37. Lord, help us to see our common humanity. Let us look with compassion on those who seek safety and security in a new country. Help us to understand and accept those who would build a new house of worship — different from ours yet with a message of peace and tolerance that mirrors your own. Help us to meet the needs of those who struggle to find food and shelter, and to build basic skills. When we distort facts for partisan ends, rely on our own faith as a reason to hate, judge without mercy, and hold fast to our fears, forgive us O Lord. Forgive us and help us, through love, service and self-control, to find the peace, patience, kindness, and goodness that are the fruit of your Spirit. Galatians 5:22-23. Show us the better way O Lord, for our hope is in you. Ps. 25:4-5.
Amen.
Those Who Went Before Us
May 31, 2010Lord, on this Memorial Day we give you thanks for those who gave us life, who taught us how to live, and whose memories bring both pain and laughter. We thank you for the stories that shape our lives, and the gift of photography that helps us to understand our past. We thank you for our families and our friends O Lord.
On this Memorial Day we give you thanks for those who fight for our country and those who have died in its service. Let us be ever aware of their sacrifice and the full costs of war. Help us be wise in our use of the freedoms they defend and in the policies we choose. Help us to be generous in our support of those who serve and of their friends and families. Help us to pursue peace in our lifetimes O Lord.
And on this Memorial Day we give you thanks O Lord for your presence in our lives and for your promise of eternal life. Help us to follow in your ways, to lean not on our own understanding, and to find comfort and meaning in our memories. Help us to guide our children to value the past, find hope for the future, and follow us in faith.
We thank you O Lord, for lives present and past, and for the cycle of life that keeps us searching for you.
Amen
Loyalty and Justice
May 2, 2010If you have understanding hear this; listen to what I say. Can he who hates justice govern? Will you condemn the just and mighty One? Job 34: 16-17
. . . O my people, your guides lead you astray; they turn you from the path. Is. 3:12
Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray . . . 1 John 3:7
Lord, when political parties require “loyalty oaths” which they seek to enforce regardless of a representative’s conscience, hear our cry for freedom.
Lord, when money decides who can run and what views the voter hears, hear our cry for truth.
Lord, when power and celebrity are the guiding forces of many who would seek to govern, raise up stewards of the public good.
Lord, when the noise and fear and confusion threaten to overwhelm us, grant us the wisdom to find our way.
We put our trust in you, O Lord, as we look to build a better future.
Amen.
Guardians of Our Liberty
April 1, 2010The quote that begins this prayer comes from an election sermon preached by Samuel Cooke at Cambridge on May 30, 1770. It followed the Boston Massacre which occurred on March 5 of that year, and laid out themes that served as precursors of the revolution to come.
“The body of a people are disposed to lead quiet and peaceable lives – and it is their highest interest to support the government under which their quietness is ensured — They retain a reverence for their superiors, and seldom foresee or suspect danger, till they feel their burdens.”
Lord help us to pay attention to erosion of our liberties. Protect us from those who would manipulate our fears and discomfort for personal gain. Help us find the time to be informed and to seek your guidance for our lives. Give us the courage to speak up and be engaged, and the self-control to do so in a way that reflects a love of others, even those with whom we disagree. Let us be alert to danger, and prepared to stand our ground (Eph. 6:10-18). Strengthen us and help us O Lord (Is. 41:10).
Amen
The Madness of Mankind
February 21, 2010On June 9, 1754, Samuel Finely, an Irish immigrant and Presbyterian minister preached a sermon in Philadelphia titled “The Madness of Mankind”, following the text of Ecclesiastes 9:3: “. . . The hearts of men, moreover, are full of evil and there is madness in their hearts while they live, and afterward they join the dead.” Portions of the sermon appear in quotes below.
Lord, save us from the madness of the crowd. Save us from those that promote
Precipitant Conclusions concerning Persons, Things, or Opinions, formed without Evidence, and often in Defiance of Demonstration to the contrary
Protect us from those that behave
As if Prudence and Circumspection were mere Names, and no Power of Deliberation had ever been given[.] They live at random, and seem to consider Right and Wrong with absolute Indifference. . . .
Help us discern your truth, especially when
Many appear to have false Views of what is advantageous, or hurtful; and draw false Inferences from Actions and Event.
Forgive us for our lack of progress O Lord, and guide us forward.
Amen.
Focusing Our Politics On The Common Good
January 24, 2010A reader sent in the following background summary and prayer, posted on the Senate website at the end of last year. The prayer at the end is one we can all pray as legislative discussions begin again over health care reform.
“Throughout the years, the United States Senate has honored the historic separation of Church and State, but not the separation of God and State. The first Senate, meeting in New York City on April 25, 1789, elected the Right Reverend Samuel Provost, the Episcopal Bishop of New York, as its first Chaplain. During the past two hundred and seven years, all sessions of the Senate have been opened with prayer, strongly affirming the Senate’s faith in God as Sovereign Lord of our Nation. The role of the Chaplain as spiritual advisor and counselor has expanded over the years from a part-time position to a full-time job as one of the Officers of the Senate. The Office of the Chaplain is nonpartisan, nonpolitical, and nonsectarian.
Duties of the Senate Chaplain
In addition to opening the Senate each day in prayer, Chaplain Black’s duties include counseling and spiritual care for the Senators, their families and their staffs, a combined constituency of six thousand people. Chaplain Black’s days are filled with meeting Senators about spiritual and moral issues, assisting Senators’ staffs with research on theological and biblical questions, teaching Senate Bible study groups, encouraging such groups as the weekly Senate Prayer Breakfast, and facilitating discussion and reflection small groups among Senators and staff.
In order to stay informed of the needs of the Senate community, Chaplain Black maintains a program with a volunteer liaison in each office to assist him. A member of his staff directs this program.
The Chaplain, Dr. Barry C. Black, offered the following prayer
Let us pray.
God of justice, bring wholeness to our world. Keep fear, ignorance, and pride from limiting Your work in our Nation.
Give the Members of Congress the insight to understand the actions they should take during these challenging times. Quicken their hearts and purify their minds. Broaden their concerns and strengthen their commitments. Lord, lead them through this season of challenge to a deeper experience with You, enabling them to feel You in their midst, as they grapple with the problems of our time.
We pray in Your Holy Name. Amen.”
Prayers For Our Country 