Day 119: A Week of Prayer for Our Nation in Crisis - A Prayer for Our Country

DAY 119

Faith in the Midst of a Pandemic

A series of daily reflections for people of faith

by Rev. Robert Bayley, Interim Pastor

Patuxent Presbyterian Church, California, Maryland

Week Seventeen – Saturday 11 July 2020

A WEEK OF PRAYER FOR OUR NATION IN CRISIS

A Prayer for our Country

Almighty God, who has given us this good land for our heritage: We humbly ask you that we may always prove ourselves a people mindful of your favor and glad to do your will. Bless our land with honorable industry, sound learning, and pure manners. Save us from violence, discord, and confusion; from pride and arrogance, and from every evil way. Defend our liberties, and fashion into one united people the multitudes brought here out of many ethnicities and tongues. Endue with the spirit of wisdom those to whom in your Name we entrust the authority of government, that there may be justice and peace at home, and that, through obedience to your law, we may show forth your praise among the nations of the earth. In the time of prosperity, fill our hearts with thankfulness, and in the day of trouble, do not allow our trust in you to fail; all which we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. - The Book of Common Prayer: Prayers for the National Life

Praying for a country is never easy: I find my prayers lapsing into partisan petitions believing them to be right. Are they? A clue for me is that when I do pray partisan prayers, I find myself literally getting viscerally upset, angry and feeling helpless and hopeless when it comes to the future of this county I love. I need to find a deeper place of intercession that abandons temporal partisan prayers and pray instead “thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” To want His will to be done on earth is to want His will in this nation and in my heart. During times of difficult prayer, we confess ‘we don’t know how to pray as we should, so we ask the Holy Spirit to intercede through us because He knows what we don’t know: God’s will.’ Romans 8:26-27.

Reflective question: What is your number one prayer for our nation? Hang on to it and pray it every day.

Reflective Scripture: 2 Chronicles 7:14 – “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

Reflective hymn:

“If My People’s Hearts are Humbled” – Clair Cloninger (1942-2019)

If my people’s hearts are humbled, if they pray and seek my face;

If they turn away from evil I will not withhold my grace.

I will hear their prayers from heaven; I will pardon every sin.

If my people’s hearts are humbled, I will surely heal their land.