Prayer for Our Nation #7

Prayer #7:  Prayer for Gratitude

Dear God,

Thank you for your sovereignty.  Thank you for your holiness and wholeness.  Thank you for being in complete control, and thank you for guiding our steps even when we don’t realize you are the one leading the way.

Help us Lord, as a nation, to grasp the vastness of your goodness and the infinite nature of your love.  Help us to better understand who you are and who we are in you.  As a result, Lord, I believe we won’t have the capacity for any other response, any other posture, any other perspective than that of gratitude and gratefulness.

We are blessed.  

Despite the bad days and bad news and bad breaks, we are blessed.  

We are favored.  We are loved.

Those are the facts.  Help us Lord to magnify the good.  Give us your lens for our life.  Help us to see what you see, and I believe in doing so, we will have a greater propensity toward a spirit of thankfulness.  It will emanate from our pores and be the scent other sense when they come near.  Let us emit and radiate gratefulness wherever we go and in whatever we do.  Let our aroma of gratitude draw those around us to you.

Your word says to enter your gates with thanksgiving and enter your courts with praise (Ps. 100:4).  Help us to start each day with words of gratitude on our lips, clothing ourselves with the garment of praise.  Forgive us for coming to you with our “want list” and forgetting entirely the millions of blessings we’ve already been given.  Help us to start with “Thank you Lord …”  After spending time in an atmosphere of thanksgiving, I believe our prayers, our priorities, and our petitions will shift into alignment with your heart and your will.

So, Lord, we just want to take time now to let you know that we ARE thankful.  We are grateful beyond measure for the gift of your son Jesus who has saved us and set us free.  We thank you for your infinite love for us that knows no bounds.  Thank you for being our provider, protector, healer, and way maker.  You are our all in all, and we need you now more than ever before.  

We are believing that things in our nation are shifting back into alignment with your will and your word.  As we continue to pray for our nation, Lord, we vow to do our best to begin each day and each conversation with you by acknowledging your goodness and our gratefulness.

We love you Lord, and we thank you for hearing our prayers and fighting our battles.  In you, we already have victory.  

In Jesus’ name we pray,

Amen

Prov. 17:22 – A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit saps a person’s strength.

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Prayer for Our Nation #6

Prayer #6:  Prayer for the Lost

Lord, many of these prayers were meant to stir up the faith of the believers in this nation and remind them that our nation needs their intercession.  However, today’s prayer is specifically for those who don’t know you as their savior — those who have not received the FREE GIFT of everlasting life that was wrapped in love through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

We pray today for those who have never heard of you, those who’ve heard but rejected you, and for those who were once close to you, but have chosen to walk away.  We ask that you wrap your loving arms around them, revealing who you are.  Help them to know they are yours.  Allow them to hear the Gospel today — the Good News of your son Jesus dying to save them from sin to give them life everlasting and Kingdom purpose.  Allow your children to hear it in words, actions, events in their life, experiences with you, and in any other way that causes the message to penetrate deep into their hearts.

Your heart longs for the lost — it grieves for the lost.  

2 Peter 3:9 says that it is your will that NONE should perish, but that everyone come to repentance.  Jesus came to SEEK and SAVE the lost.  

If it was Jesus’ mission, it’s our mission.

In Luke 15, you gave us a clear picture of how significant it is for the lost to be found.  The shepherd left the 99 to find the lost 1, the woman searched high and low in every nook and nesting place to find her lost coin, and the prodigal son’s father waited patiently for him to arrive back home, welcoming him with open arms, an open heart, and so much more.  Every lost one is significant to you.  Help us to feel the longing for the lost that you feel.  Help us to go to the unpleasant places and uncomfortable spaces to bring them home.  Forgive us for our lack of urgency in this area.  

So, today Lord, we ask you to use us in the lives of your children who are lost to show them your love, reveal to them the free gift of salvation that you’ve already purchased, and celebrate with them as they become a part of the family of God.  Heaven is celebrating — like wild, crazy, loud celebrations over ever single person who’s saying yes to you.  Let us join with the angels in Heaven as we praise you for your goodness and your unending love.

In Jesus’ Name,

Amen

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Prayer for Our Nation #5

Prayer #5:  Prayer for Faith

Dear Lord,

Today, we want to pray for another fundamental area in which our nation desperately needs your help, your hand, and your heart.  We’ve spent the last few days praying some significant prayers for our country.  We’ve spoken the words and allowed them to penetrate deep within us, but the words mean nothing if we have no faith.

Faith is the SUBSTANCE of things hoped for, the EVIDENCE of things not seen.  Another version of Hebrews 11:1 says “Faith is CONFIDENCE in what we hope for and ASSURANCE about what we do not see.”

If we have no faith, we have no substance.  If we have no faith, we have no assurance.  Without faith, it’s impossible to please You, Lord (Heb. 11:6).

So, what is faith?

One dictionary definition states that it is “complete trust in someone or something … a strong belief in God based on spiritual awareness rather than proof.”  It’s trusting.  It’s believing.  It’s knowing … despite the lack of physical, tangible proof … that what you believe and who you believe are real.  

So, Lord, today we ask you to reveal more to us about the essentiality of faith.  Help us to grasp how significant faith really is.  It’s our lifeblood as believers.  It’s our oxygen.  It’s our manna from heaven.  And the best part is it’s so much more than can even be described with words.  Words cannot contain the power that faith brings.  Letters and syllables cannot express the complete shift that takes place in a person’s life when he or she moves from fear to faith, from blindness to sight, from darkness to light.

Our heart’s cry today, Lord is to see FAITH stirred up in your children, in our nation.  Stir it like you’ve never stirred it before.  Unleash our capacity for faith.  Enlarge our faith and help us to tap into the vastness of it … even if we cannot quantify or qualify it.  We are believing that as this takes place in us and in those around us, we WILL SEE change.  We will see fires ignite in the hearts of your people, and we will see faith open doors, open windows of heaven, open hearts, open hands, and open up the realm of the miraculous in ways no eye has seen and no ear has heard.

We thank you in advance for the stirring that is taking place in our nation right now.  Faith is rising deep within your people, and we are excited to see all that is to come, because your word says that “our latter shall be greater.”  We are standing on that promise right now, by faith, and we decree that we WILL SEE the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

In Jesus’ Name,

Amen

Paraphrased Verses:  1 Cor. 2:9, Haggai 2:9, Psalm 27:13

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Prayer for Our Nation #4

Prayer #4:  Prayer for Wisdom

Dear God,

We thank you for your word that is so powerful and so filled with treasure we have barely begun to understand.  Help us to glean from your word today in ways that allow our minds and hearts to be changed.  Give your people a new or renewed hunger for your word.  Remind us that from it, we can hear you speak and begin to deepen our relationship with you.

Right now, Lord, it seems as if our nation is consumer focused.  We have allowed THINGS to replace you in our lives, and they are empty and will never fulfill.  Help us to recognize that no one and no THING can satisfy us … no matter how shiny or new or eloquent or appealing.

You said in your word, in Proverbs 4:7,

“WISDOM is the principal thing;  therefore GET WISDOM:  and with all thy getting get understanding.”

The Message Bible puts it this way,

“Never walk away from Wisdom — she guards your life; love her — she keeps her eye on you.  Above all and before all, do this:  Get Wisdom!  Write this at the top of your list:  Get Understanding!  Throw your arms around her — believe me, you won’t regret it.”

We have abandoned wisdom, Lord.  We have put her on the last line of our “Want List.”  Forgive us for putting temporary, meaningless things above you and above wisdom.  Reorder our priorities, Lord.  You said in your word that the last shall be first, and the first shall be last.  I pray that’s true for our nation’s priorities right now.  We’ve made the essential optional and the optional essential.  Flip it, Lord.

And, how does one GET wisdom?  

The only way we can increase in wisdom and understanding is if we spend time with you.  Reading your word and developing our relationship with you is the only way.  You are patiently waiting for us to return to you.  You long for us to return.  

We are like prodigals, but you already have our coat and our fatted calf waiting, and you’re ready to strike up the band and start the party.  You’re staring out into the distance LONGING to see a glimpse of us returning home.  Help us to return.  Guide us away from the pig pens we are eating from, and help us return to you with more passion and love and longing than ever before.

When we do so, Lord, I KNOW our hearts will change, our relationship with you will deepen, and wisdom and understanding will reign in this land.  Let it be so, and let it be now.

In Jesus’ Name,

Amen.

Prodigal Son Verses – Luke 15:11-32

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Prayer for Our Nation #3

Prayer #3:  Prayer for Unity

Dear Lord,

Thank you for giving us the gift of one another.  Thank you for the uniqueness that you built into every single one of your children.  We are blessed to be so different, but we are even MORE blessed when we use our differences to draw us together.

Your word says in Romans 12:4-5, “Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ’s body.  We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other.”

If we are all part of ONE body, what are we doing when we harm those around us, whether it’s verbally, physically, or in the thoughts that run through our mind?  We are cursing our own body.  We are cursing YOUR body, Lord.  We are like cancer cells attacking our own system.  

Is that healthy?  Is that helpful?  Is that loving?  

Is it any wonder our nation, our body, is suffering?

Lord, forgive us for attacking ourselves!  Forgive us for seeing each other as the enemy when you have clearly said that “we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness …” (Eph. 6:12).  We are not our own enemy.  Help us to discern the true enemy and call a ceasefire in our own land.

You came that we might have LIFE and have it more ABUNDANTLY!  The only way we can do so is if we unite with those who trust in you so that those who have not yet trusted in you will WANT to become part of the body.  

Unite us Lord.  Give us eyes to see that we are more alike than we are different.  Remind us daily of your will for us in this vital area.

Today, Lord, this is our plea for our nation:  “I appeal to you, dear brothers and sisters, by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, to live in harmony with each other.  Let there be no divisions in the church.  Rather, be of ONE mind, UNITED in thought and purpose.” ~ 1 Cor. 1:10

Help us value unity over division … righteousness over “right”ness … love over hate.

In Jesus’ Name,

Amen.

Psalm 133:1 – How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in UNITY!

Eph. 4:3 – Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.

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Prayer for Our Nation #2

Prayer #2:  Prayer for Love

Dear God,

We lift our nation up to you right now, and we ask that you help us to love.  Love was your mission, first and foremost.  John 3:16 begins by saying “God SO LOVED the world that he sent His only son, so that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.”

Help us Lord to be better lovers … lovers of You and lovers of one another.  Help us to see one another the way you see us.   As your children, you see us clothed in righteousness.  Our sin has been cast as far as the east is from the west.  Help us to see each person we encounter on a daily basis, whether through personal interaction or through the media, as YOUR child.  Give us YOUR eyes to see every person as a beautiful child of God, for whom you loved enough to die and take away the sin that separated us from you.

We thank you that you are a God who loves us more than we can even fathom.  Help us to be FILLED with YOUR love, SO MUCH that we can’t help but OVERFLOW into the lives of those around us.  We cannot give what we do not have.  Help us to be filled with more of you … and as we do, Your love will flow through us in greater measure, allowing the world to see greater glimpses of you every single day.  

In Jesus’ name we pray,

Amen

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Prayers for Our Nation

It is evident that our nation needs prayer now more than ever before!  I am going to post seven prayers, one for each day of the week, and I am asking you to pray WITH me.  God answers prayers, and when we join together, our prayers are even more powerful.  So, feel free to pray the prayers I post here, but also I encourage you to pray those God lays on your heart as well.  I believe when we do this, we WILL see change.  God bless! ~ Jeanna :)

Prayer #1:  Prayer for Humility

Dear Lord,

We come to you now, thanking you for allowing us to live in such a great nation.  Thank you for our freedoms and for all the blessings that we receive simply by living in the United States of America.  We especially want to thank you for our freedom to pray.  

So today Lord, we are leaning in and exercising our right and our responsibility to pray for this great nation.  We are in a tough season.  That is evident.  However, we know that you alone can help us through this turbulent time.  

We are standing on your word, which says in 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.”

This day, Lord, we are HUMBLING ourselves and declaring out loud that we are lost without you!  Our nation needs you.  The people who reside in this country need you.  From north to south and east to west … we need you … desperately.  

Right now, we are declaring John 15:5 over our nation:

You are the vine and we are the branches.  If we REMAIN in you, and you in us, we will bear MUCH fruit, but apart from you, we can do NOTHING.

We are falling on our face before you asking for your forgiveness.  Forgive us from believing we can survive without you.  Forgive us from believing we don’t need you every single day.  Forgive us for believing we are powerful on our own and that we are leaders in this world when we’ve tried to shut you out of every system and every circumstance.      

We have created a façade and have been living in a fantasy world believing we are succeeding when we have failed in the only areas that matter:  

Keeping you FIRST in our lives

Living our lives according to your will and your plan

Loving you and loving people.  

Yes, we have had glimmers of victory in these areas, but as a nation … as ONE nation UNDER GOD, we have failed.  Forgive us Lord and right our ship once again.

We ask you now to help us recognize our need for you and to walk in humility as a nation and as a people.  Help us to refocus and remember the ultimate sacrifice you made to save us from our sinful selves.  Help us to put YOU back on the throne.

In this turbulent time, Lord, when our nation needs healing more than ever before, we recognize that humility must come first before healing can take place.  Humble us Lord.  Humble our leaders and those in positions of influence and authority.  Remind us that we need YOU as OUR leader first and foremost.  

We thank you in advance for all you’re doing … all that we can see and all that we cannot see.  You alone are sovereign, and we glorify you and thank you for being a God who answers the prayers of your people.

We love you, Lord.  In Jesus’ name we pray.  Amen.

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