The following is my prayer for my country and our world. May God have mercy on us all.
Heavenly Father,
I come to you as your child, humbly entering your throne of grace. You said I could come because of what Jesus did for me on the cross and because I became your adopted daughter when I believed in His Name. I come in faith and in accordance with your will because you say that you do not want anyone to perish but all to come to repentance.
Oh Father, how we need your grace and mercy to give us faith and courage to repent of the many, many sins we have committed against your Holy Name. We confess that we have indeed sinned against You, not only personally, but as a nation. We have done much harm to those whom You have made in Your image, and You are justified in judging us.
But we plead with you even now to look down on us in Your great kindness that leads us to repentance.
We admit that as a nation we have turned away from that which is good and right–as everyone does when they no longer acknowledge Your way. We have done what is right in our own eyes.
We have spilled much innocent blood for generations. We have done as the nations of old who offered their sons and daughters on the altars of their false gods, of their own ambitions. We have murdered, lied, stolen, and shunned every moral law You gave us to follow. We have offended Your Holiness, and now our country, our world, is sliding ever faster toward evil and destruction. You have foretold the end of evil and the hearts of humans have become as they were in the days of Noah – only evil continually.
We celebrate sin in the streets and no one even blushes any more. We care more about saving a planet that You will one day destroy and make new and less about the people You have made who inhabit it.
We live with our minds set on things of earth, our success, our interests, our desires, without ever considering the passing swiftness of our lives. Eternity has been set in our hearts, according to Your Word, and yet, though we all know deep down that this life is not all there is, we give little attention to where we will spend eternity. Forgive us for taking You so lightly. For thinking we are all powerful and in control when in fact we control nothing.
Lord God, we acknowledge that You alone are God and Your Son Jesus Christ is our only Savior. No political hopeful can ever replace You or fix our nation much less our hearts. There is no kinder Savior for He alone came seeking us when we were His enemies, running from Him as fast as we could.
Forgive us, Lord God. Our nation is crumbling from within as happened in Ancient Rome. We do not learn from history and therefore, we are destined to repeat it. But we also know that one day all history will come to an end, the end You have planned for it. And we are hurtling headlong toward bringing the prophecies in Your Word to fulfillment.
And while Your people long for Your return to set things right and take back the universe from the usurper, that serpent of old, the devil, we also take great comfort in Your patience and kindness that still waits for those who will turn from the evil they’ve embraced and run into Your arms. We want to see everyone repent and believe and escape the judgment that will one day surely come. Like You, we don’t want anyone to perish, not even those who are causing the world harm.
You love the world, Lord. You loved it so much that You sent your One and Only Son so that whoever believes in Him, will not perish, but have everlasting life. You didn’t send Your Son into the world to condemn the world but to save it.
But Your Son, who is the Light of the World came, and the world did not want to walk in Your Light because their deeds were evil. And they still are. We would all be lost if not for Your grace.
We desperately need Your grace now, Father. We need You to forgive Your church for failing to be light in the darkness. Forgive our unbelief. Forgive us for choosing our own way rather than Your way. We have walked away from Truth. Your Word is truth.
Return, Lord God, to our churches, to our families, to our neighborhoods, to our schools, to our government at every level. Please heal our land. Rescue those who are lost. Seek and find those who are wandering. Comfort those who are dying of anxiety and depression rather than seeking You. How we need You to do what we cannot.
We admit that we can’t fix anything in this world. We are watching our freedoms threatened piece by piece, and yet, we can’t stop the tide from washing away the values You hold dear. The values You gave us – because on our own, we would not choose right over wrong.
We have become a nation of no absolutes, no truth, vacillating “Christian” teachers who do not even believe Your Word, and a people called by Your Name but who make little difference to those around us because we do not trust You as we say we do.
But in this desperate hour, when Your return looks ever more imminent, we pray for grace and mercy that we do not deserve. We ask that You not only heal Your people but that You rescue and save those who do not yet know You that we might rejoice in seeing righteousness grow and evil pushed back in this land and in the world for yet a while longer. Give us time and give us an awakening that we can see Your house full and that we may give You all of the praise and glory for staying Your hand of judgment. For now.
In time, we know You will return and judge and there will be no more chance, just as there was no more chance once You shut the door of the ark. But right now…we are still breathing and there is still time…and You want us to know You.
Help us not to squander that time. Open our eyes to see Jesus as He truly is–the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Whose love is beyond our comprehension. And show us Your mighty power that we might also fear You, because You truly are all powerful, and You are to be feared. And give us faith to believe in You with all we are and have.
In the Matchless, Mighty Name of Jesus Messiah, Amen.
