J. Matt Barber
A prayer for this presidential election
By J. Matt Barber
Father God, Son and Holy Spirit, Maker of heaven and earth, You are the First Cause of these United States of America.
You are sovereign.
You knew before time began who You would appoint as our 45th president. You ordained that this soul might be a tool of Your judgment, holy and merited, or a gift of Your mercy, wholly undeserved.
Please come, Holy Spirit, and dwell among Your people. Though we deserve Your wrath, we entreat Your mercy. Do not abandon us in our time of need.
Like Israel of old, America's own, today, is a life marked by pride, selfishness, murder, idolatry, hypocrisy, greed, lust and every form of moral privation.
We have called evil good and good evil and have turned from Your face to our own treasured wickedness.
We have danced with the prophets of Baal and have made sacrifice to Moloch.
We repent. We need You now, alone and together, as much as at any time in our fleeting history.
Kyrie Eleison, Christ Jesus.
You are God, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. We confess that Your ways are not our ways and that Your thoughts are not our thoughts. As the heavens are higher than the earth, Your ways and thoughts are higher than our own.
And so we humbly seek wisdom in all we do and say. We covet Your spiritual discernment, Holy Spirit, and ask that, as we, a nation founded on Your principles and to Your glory and Honor, endeavor to elect our next chief executive, that You might direct our path, and that Your will might be done on this earth, as it is in heaven.
You use broken people, dear God – sinners who sin.
King David, a murderer and adulterer, was fallen.
But he humbled himself.
He repented.
And was a man after Your own heart.
You anointed, 150 years before he lived, Cyrus the Great, a pagan king debauched beyond redemption in the eyes of Your people, as the conduit through which You might free Your beloved from 70 years of captivity.
Cyrus humbled himself before You and was used mightily.
And the great Apostle? Saul of Tarsus murdered Your bride. He mocked her and held the executioner's cloak as Christ's followers were martyred in Your name.
But even then he was blinded by the Light of the World and made to see with the clarity of spiritual crystal.
He was made to love with a love that belied his fleshly character and, from Saul to Paul, was used by You to lead billions to the foot of the cross.
Have You chosen for us a King David, Lord? Is he a man, like all men, who has hated his brother and coveted his neighbor's wife, yet, by Your grace and through Your stripes, has been healed and, while yet imperfect, has repented and revealed, by way of earthly fruits, that he is a man after Your own heart?
Or have You chosen for us a King Cyrus? A man, or a woman, who has yet to display through word or deed a heart broken and a will surrendered – a life marked by humility and repentance?
If You have chosen a candidate Cyrus, Abba Father, please surround him with men like Daniel.
And if You have chosen a candidate Saul, will You, we pray, break his or her heart and give to us a President Paul? If done before the eyes of the world, oh what a testament to the transformative power of Christ!
Who have You chosen, Father?
We cannot know.
But Your way is the right way, perfect and good.
If we are under Your judgment, let us be judged.
And if under Your blessing, let us be blessed.
We pray for the 45th president of the United States, that You might reveal Your will and purpose, and bless his or her soul.
And we pray for each candidate who falls short of the goal.
Remind us to love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us.
Guide us all, as we cast our ballots.
We pray that You might bless us with a David, a Cyrus or a Paul.
And humbly ask that You spare us our just deserts – an unrighteous leader, an Ahab or a Jezebel.
Yet either way, Thy will be done.
Because Your ways are higher than our ways.
And Your thoughts, higher than our own.
© J. Matt Barber
March 14, 2016
Father God, Son and Holy Spirit, Maker of heaven and earth, You are the First Cause of these United States of America.
You are sovereign.
You knew before time began who You would appoint as our 45th president. You ordained that this soul might be a tool of Your judgment, holy and merited, or a gift of Your mercy, wholly undeserved.
Please come, Holy Spirit, and dwell among Your people. Though we deserve Your wrath, we entreat Your mercy. Do not abandon us in our time of need.
Like Israel of old, America's own, today, is a life marked by pride, selfishness, murder, idolatry, hypocrisy, greed, lust and every form of moral privation.
We have called evil good and good evil and have turned from Your face to our own treasured wickedness.
We have danced with the prophets of Baal and have made sacrifice to Moloch.
We repent. We need You now, alone and together, as much as at any time in our fleeting history.
Kyrie Eleison, Christ Jesus.
You are God, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. We confess that Your ways are not our ways and that Your thoughts are not our thoughts. As the heavens are higher than the earth, Your ways and thoughts are higher than our own.
And so we humbly seek wisdom in all we do and say. We covet Your spiritual discernment, Holy Spirit, and ask that, as we, a nation founded on Your principles and to Your glory and Honor, endeavor to elect our next chief executive, that You might direct our path, and that Your will might be done on this earth, as it is in heaven.
You use broken people, dear God – sinners who sin.
King David, a murderer and adulterer, was fallen.
But he humbled himself.
He repented.
And was a man after Your own heart.
You anointed, 150 years before he lived, Cyrus the Great, a pagan king debauched beyond redemption in the eyes of Your people, as the conduit through which You might free Your beloved from 70 years of captivity.
Cyrus humbled himself before You and was used mightily.
And the great Apostle? Saul of Tarsus murdered Your bride. He mocked her and held the executioner's cloak as Christ's followers were martyred in Your name.
But even then he was blinded by the Light of the World and made to see with the clarity of spiritual crystal.
He was made to love with a love that belied his fleshly character and, from Saul to Paul, was used by You to lead billions to the foot of the cross.
Have You chosen for us a King David, Lord? Is he a man, like all men, who has hated his brother and coveted his neighbor's wife, yet, by Your grace and through Your stripes, has been healed and, while yet imperfect, has repented and revealed, by way of earthly fruits, that he is a man after Your own heart?
Or have You chosen for us a King Cyrus? A man, or a woman, who has yet to display through word or deed a heart broken and a will surrendered – a life marked by humility and repentance?
If You have chosen a candidate Cyrus, Abba Father, please surround him with men like Daniel.
And if You have chosen a candidate Saul, will You, we pray, break his or her heart and give to us a President Paul? If done before the eyes of the world, oh what a testament to the transformative power of Christ!
Who have You chosen, Father?
We cannot know.
But Your way is the right way, perfect and good.
If we are under Your judgment, let us be judged.
And if under Your blessing, let us be blessed.
We pray for the 45th president of the United States, that You might reveal Your will and purpose, and bless his or her soul.
And we pray for each candidate who falls short of the goal.
Remind us to love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us.
Guide us all, as we cast our ballots.
We pray that You might bless us with a David, a Cyrus or a Paul.
And humbly ask that You spare us our just deserts – an unrighteous leader, an Ahab or a Jezebel.
Yet either way, Thy will be done.
Because Your ways are higher than our ways.
And Your thoughts, higher than our own.
© J. Matt Barber
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