A Prayer for Our Nation

R.C. was recently in our studio to record an upcoming question and answer session for Renewing Your Mind. As we concluded that time I discussed with R.C. the upcoming National Day of Prayer. We discussed the importance of praying for our country and our leaders and noted how many ecumenical groups and denominations cluster around this national event with a variety of incompatible theological commitments.

Those differences not withstanding, we should pray for our country often and we should pray that the freedom to do so is not taken from us. We should pray that our leaders will lead with grace, honor and truth. May righteousness prevail in our hearts and theirs.

The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will. Proverbs 21:1 (ESV)

R.C. took a moment to encourage us in intercessory prayer for the nation and it's leaders, and offered this prayer. We wanted to share that moving prayer with you.

Our Father and our God, indeed You are our God, and Your sovereignty extends over all things. That as God, Your relevance and Your dominion can never be restricted merely to the realm of the spiritual or the religious, but that Your sovereignty extends over all creation, over every aspect of our life and of our culture, over our government, over our church, over our schools, over our health, over our wealth, over our thinking, our planning, and our crying. And so we, as Your people, are pleading with You to have mercy upon us, to give us leaders who have a regard for You, who will regard Your name as holy, and who will understand that in whatever office they hold, they are to be Your servants, for You have ordained them. And we ask that You would bring new life to Your church and that we may begin our repentance at our own house and in our own churches as we plead with You to have mercy upon us as a nation, as a people, as a culture that the light of Christ may be rekindled with great glory and intense brightness in our land, and that there would be a revival of a knowledge of Thee without which our land will mourn and our people will perish. And we ask these things in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Amen.