A Prayer for our Nation

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.  (2 Chronicles 7:14)

Dear Father,

I pray for the humbling of our land.

Lord, we do not walk humbly (Micah 6:8); in fact, we elevate the arrogant. We are a nation of people and institutions who seek glory for self rather than for You. We have disregarded You and your Word. Instead of following Your Word, we do what is right in our own eyes (Judges 21:25b). We attempt to understand scripture through the spectacles of culture, rather than understanding culture through the spectacles of scripture. We accept, embrace, and celebrate what You call sin; we reject, ridicule, and discard what You call righteous.

Instead of a nation filled with the fruit of the spirit: "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control" (Galatians 5: 22-23) ... we embody those characteristics warned about in "the terrible times in the last days ... lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God" (2 Timothy 3:1-4).

Humble us as a nation, as you did with the people of Israel in the time of the Judges; humble us, as you did Nebuchadnezzar in the time of Daniel (Daniel 4:37), so that we, as a nation and as individuals, seek your face and turn from our wicked ways. 

I pray that You heal our land.

Lord, we live in a wounded world in need of healing. Because of our arrogance, we do not love our neighbors as ourselves (Mark 12:31) and we are not "quick to listen and slow to speak" (James 1:19). Raise up your people to heal our land through loving and listening. 

We live in a wounded world in need of healing. Because of our arrogance, we do not "act justly and love mercy" (Micah 6:8), and we do not care for "the least of these" (Matthew 25:34-45). Raise up your people to heal our land through justice and mercy. Raise up your people to heal our land through caring for the hungry, thirsty, naked, and sick, through welcoming the stranger and visiting the prisoner.

Let us, as Christ-followers, be known as healers in this wounded world. Let us, as Christ-followers, be known by our actions of neighbor loving, listening, and caring, and by our actions of justice and mercy. Use us, as your humble hands and feet, to heal our land.

In the power of your son,

Amen