As I was walking away from casting my vote at St. Michael High School over lunchtime I found myself wanting to crawl in a hole and wake up after this whole thing is over. If this goes the way some are suggesting, I might be looking at a season of hibernation. That is only half way funny, I suppose.
What I really need is to calibrate my heart with the truth of Scripture. I wonder, is it possible to be joyful in Christ on the day of a very contentious election? An election for which many possible outcomes have been speculated?
Here is a prayer that I wrote out that is designed to shepherd my own heart and hopefully, yours too.
For our collective joy in Christ,
Pastor Kevin
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Father in heaven,
We give you all the praise and all the glory for who you are and how you have worked throughout history to save a people through Jesus for your glory.
-We praise you for being the God who sits enthroned in the heavens and does all that he pleases.
- We praise you for being a God who sits in the heavens and laughs, holding those in derision who stand against you and your anointed, who take counsel together, who plot and rage in vain.
- We bless your name forever and ever for your wisdom and might, the God who changes times and seasons, who removes kings and sets up kings, who gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding.
Oh Father, we confess our sins to you and ask for your forgiveness for the many ways we have rejected you and turned against you. Even though we are your children and the sheep of your pasture we are still prone to wander and go astray. Forgive us:
- For neglecting our citizenship that is in heaven and for awaiting an earthly savior rather than eagerly longing for Jesus, our true and living Savior.
-For our idolatry and all the ways we have put our hope in broken cisterns that can hold no water. For the ways that we have shown wrath and anxiety and fear as an offering of worship to our idols who have the appearance of a hope but cannot satisfy us. For they have eyes but do not see, mouths but do not speak, ears but do not hear, noses but do not smell, hands but do not feel, feet but do not walk and they do not make a sound in their throat.
- For the ways we have treasured and valued our political unity and hopes above the ways we have treasured and valued Christ and our unity and hope in him. For the ways we have lived for an earthly mission more than the heavenly mission given to us by Jesus himself: to go and make disciples of all the nations.
And Father, we come to you with thankful hearts that are filled with gratitude for the Gospel that forgives us and cleanses us from all unrighteousness:
- We thank you for bearing our griefs and our sorrows, for understanding us by taking on flesh and dwelling among us so that you can be a high priest who sympathizes with us in this world that is filled with tribulation.
-We give you thanks for not keeping a record of sins, for removing them from us as far as the east is from the west and refusing to deal with us according to our sins or repaying us according to our iniquities.
- For giving us your Spirit as a down payment to guide us through the many trials and confusions that we face upon this earth.
So Father, we pray and we ask you to help us. Help us in a myriad of ways that we cannot even find words to express.
- We ask that your Spirit will intercede for us with groans too deep for words, according to the will of God.
-We ask that the eyes of our hearts will be enlightened and that we may know what is the hope to which he has called us, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe.
- We ask that you will grant us a deep fear of the Holy God, a fear that drives away all earthly fears.
- We ask for grace to not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow has enough worries of it’s own. May we learn to find your new mercies morning by morning and to be sustained in the confidence and security of your Fatherly love for us.
- We ask that you would give your church a spirit of unity in the bond of peace no matter what the results of this election might be and no matter what outcomes might befall us. May your church rise up in unity, in mission and in love to be a city on a hill that cannot be hidden, that our lights will shine before men so that all who see your church will give glory to our Father who is in heaven, that we would treasure Christ and our joy in living for him will not be shaken.
In the mighty and matchless name of Jesus we pray these things, AMEN
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