Equip Your People to Pray for America!
This Thursday is the National Day of Prayer. Millions of belivers will be gathering in prayer groups in churches, on state capitol and county and city office building grounds to pray for our nation. A powerful new 31-day prayer initiative We Declare by Dave Kubal of Intercessors for America has just been released to equip believers to pray on target over the issues that face Amereica. We highly recommend that you get a copy of this book and engage your entire congregation to pray through it at some point prior to our November election.
Here is a sample day from the prayer guide:
Day 10: If You Can Keep It
When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; but when a wicked man rules, the people groan. (Proverbs 29:2)
In 1787 an inquirer asked Benjamin Franklin what sort of a government the young nation of the United States was to have. Franklin replied: “A republic, if you can keep it.”
Franklin was part of the Constitutional Convention that had for months wrestled over what form of constitution our country was to devise, and what priorities it was to embrace. This wasn’t an easy process, and Franklin knew that the end result of all the heated debates and exhausting deliberations would not be perfect. However, he and the other Framers also saw that the emerging constitution was a solid framework. It would unite the nation based on God-honoring ideals balanced with guardrails that accounted for the fallenness of human nature. The new document would also allow for measured flexibility by means of amendments, should the need arise.
Now, Franklin and the others believed the framework was important—that’s why they poured so much of their energy into it. But they also knew, as Franklin had said, that the citizens of the nascent republic would ultimately be responsible for its success or failure. If the new order was to survive in a dangerous world that was largely hostile to this American experiment, it would require the active involvement of citizens who cherished justice and righteousness. To protect itself from being overrun or suffering self-destruction, the republic would need individuals to spur it on toward its mission of protecting life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
How are we meeting that challenge today? Well, the evidence—the toxicity, violence, and glorification of vices in our society—seems to suggest that we’ve lost our way. Our republic is teetering on a cliff of destruction. Many have strayed from the Way, the Truth, and the Life. They have forgotten the biblical values that are the fabric for any healthy nation.
But that’s not all. Christians—active believers—have also lost their way in the public square. Some of us have co-opted our beliefs to “play the game” like the world. Many of us just avoid the messy political arena altogether.
If we want to keep our republic, Christians will need to reengage as salt and light in our communities and halls of power. We need to exhort our neighbors and our nation onward in the true pursuit of happiness—the true flourishing—with disarming love and the utterance of prophetic truth. Let us pray for the rejuvenation today of a citizenry that can keep our republic strong and secure in the hands of the Lord.
PRAY
- When you think of America’s virtues, what is the first one to come to mind? Pray for that virtue close to your heart to be reinforced in our culture today.
- What about Americas worst sin or vice? What does your spirit specifically grieve over in our society? Pray today for God to do a mighty work to help us all as a nation overcome that darkness.
- Pray for Christians in your community to truly be salt and light to their neighbors. Pray for disarming love and prophetic truth to open the door to spiritual healing and new life for our nation.
ENGAGE
Think now about how you can join with a group of prayer warriors on the National Day of Prayer or a similar opportunity in order to intercede together for the people of our land—that we may keep our republic strong.
Taken from the new prayer initiative We Declare: 31 Days of Intercession for America by Dave Kubal (PrayerShop Publishing 2024).