One of our deacons wrote this prayer, and read it for Call to Worship on Sunday, November 13th.
Heavenly Father, we are a nation divided. We have been increasingly so for a long time, but this year laid it bare in new and unexpected ways. I admit that I have sometimes looked to a political solution for things I should have looked to you for. As it says in Jeremiah 2:13, I have forsaken you and turned to broken cisterns that hold no water. Forgive me.
Lord, where division has occurred in families like mine…someone on all sides and even the sidelines…where there is hurt or misunderstanding between generations or brothers and sisters….as it says in Malachi 4:6, I ask that you would turn the hearts of fathers to their children and children to their fathers.
Within our neighborhoods, there are those who voted differently than us--who may have no interest in bridging the divide. As far as it is up to us, as it says in Romans 12:18, let us live in peace with everyone.
It is hard to love those we don’t understand; please as you tell us to ask for in James 1:5, give us wisdom to know how to communicate in peace.
There are those who are afraid--truly afraid because of the outcome. Please give us an opening to speak, and to weep with those who weep [Romans 12:15]. "How we treat the people that are anxious and afraid over this new presidency will reveal how much like Jesus we really are" [quoted from here].
For our outgoing president and our new president-elect, I know that the heart of the leader is in the hand of the Lord. (Proverbs 21:1) I pray that you would give him and his advisers health and wisdom. I pray too that you would be glorified in the next four years, that it would be your name that is praised, your will that is done.
In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
