Prayer for Our Nation

Leslie Basham: In a time of great need and big decisions, we need to pray.

Priscilla Shirer: Lord Jesus, thank You so much for the privilege that we have of being in a country where our vote matters. Thank You God for our freedom.

Janet Parshall: So help us in obedience to put aside our own partisanship, our own biases, and to simply pray for those that You have placed in authority. You raise up kings, and You pull down princes, Father. None of the people serving in government today come as any surprise to You.

Mary Kassian: So Father, I pray for all the women who are joining me right now. And I pray that in their hearts they may be begin to hunger and thirst for righteousness and that they may turn to You and seek Your face so that You may fulfill their thirst.

Leslie: This is Revive Our Hearts with Nancy Leigh DeMoss for Monday, November 5.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: Well, if you are listening to Revive Our Hearts here in the United States, you are well aware that there’s been a flurry of election activity going on in recent days and weeks. Each party has had organizers who are knocking on doors and making phone calls and putting up yard signs and doing all sorts of things to promote their favorite candidates.

I’m so thankful that in the U.S. we have a chance to vote for our leaders. That’s a great privilege but it is also a great responsibility. I hope that you’re planning to get out tomorrow and vote—to vote prayerfully and carefully and intelligently and based on a thoughtful and biblical worldview and where different candidates stand on important issues.

Now, as important as an election is, we know that change in our communities and in our nation happens from the inside out. And the fact is, the answers are not going to come from the State Houses. They aren’t going to come from the White House. Ultimately, they are going to come from the people in God’s House. True change happens when God transforms hearts. And that’s true not only in the U.S., but for our listeners who live in other countries around the world as well.

Now during this important time in the U.S. as we’re making big decisions about our nation’s leadership, it’s so important that we take time to pray for wisdom and to pray for God’s intervention in our national affairs. It’s critical that we ask the Lord to change families, to change communities, and to work in this nation by first reviving the hearts of His people.

So today we’ve decided to devote this entire program to prayer. Some good friends of this ministry, many of whom you’ve heard on this program before, are going to be leading us through a series of prayer topics. And I want to encourage you, wherever you are, if it’s possible, not just to listen but to join in your heart in crying out to the Lord as we seek Him together in relation to these critical issues.

Perhaps you’re even in a place where you could stop what you’re doing, you could get on your knees, you could bow your heart before the Lord—and let’s just make this a nationwide prayer meeting as we cry out to the Lord together. And to start us out, my friend Mary Kassian is going to pray for a wide-spread movement of people seeking the Lord above everything else. Here’s Mary to lead us in prayer.

Mary: Heavenly Father, I pray that You will give people a heart to seek You. Give me a heart to seek You. Father, help me to put aside the distractions of my day. Help me put aside all the busyness and all the things that clamor for my attention. Help me put aside my worries and my lists and my cares and my concerns.

Father, help me seek Your face. Help me seek Your face above seeking my own wellbeing and my own pleasures and my own priorities and agendas and to-do lists. I pray that I may seek Your face and that I may hunger and thirst after righteousness because You said if we hunger and thirst after righteousness, we will be filled.

So Father, I pray for all the women who are joining me right now. I pray that in their hearts that they may begin to hunger and thirst for righteousness and that they may turn to You and seek Your face so that You may fulfill their thirst.

Nancy: And here’s Janet Parshall praying for our nation’s leaders.

Janet: Our gracious heavenly Father, we thank You so much that You gave us the privilege of peering into the tutorial that Paul gave his student, Timothy. And Father, You told him as You’re telling us that we are to pray for those in authority. What You didn’t say was, “Only if we appreciate the way in which they govern; only if we appreciate the political party they belong to; only if we appreciate the way they cast a vote on a particular issue.” None of that is there, Lord. You said, “Pray.” Then You said something was available to us when that happened—that as the benefit and the result of praying for those in authority that we ourselves would get to live peaceful and godly and quiet lives. Father, we pant after that.

So help us in obedience to put aside our own partisanship, our own biases, and to simply pray for those You have placed in authority. You raise up kings and You pull down princes, Father. None of the people serving in government today come as any surprise to You. Now, woo us to a place where whether we appreciate the way in which they’ve governed or not, we are to pray. Convict us in this area. Widen our vision, enrich our perspective and quicken our hearts as we pray for those who are placed in authority.

We thank You that You care about government. You’ve told us that the government rests on Your shoulders. You’ve written books called Kings and Judges. You’ve told us, Father, that when the righteous rule, the people rejoice; and when the wicked rule, the people groan. Father, we want to be a rejoicing people. So we pray that You would raise up a standard of righteousness by putting in place those leaders who hunger for truth; who are unashamed of truth; who are willing to proclaim truth in the marketplace of ideas.

Father, give us the discernment to know how to support those leaders that You have put in place. We thank You for the opportunity we have to influence and occupy until You come. And we pray this in the name of Jesus, the most perfect and precious name of all, amen.

Nancy: Here’s Bill and Holly Elliff praying for marriages.

Holly Elliff: Father, we lift up to You the marriages in our nation. We’re asking, Lord, for restoration in homes so that Your original design can be put back together the way You intended, Lord, so homes can bring You glory.

Bill Elliff: And Father, we pray that You would raise up men who would be men who would accept responsibility to lead their homes, who would love their wives as Christ loved the church. We pray that You would raise up hundreds of thousands of women who would be godly wives and godly mothers and would rejoice in the phenomenal roles You have given them to help raise families who would make an impact for the kingdom of God.

Father, we long for great revival across our land, and we pray that it would begin in our homes, that it would begin in my home. And we ask this, Father, so that You might receive the glory and honor through pictures and examples of great radiant homes filled with the life of God. We pray that all for Your sake and in Your precious name, amen.

Nancy: If you’re just joining us, we’re praying that God will change hearts and revive His people especially during this time when the U.S. is facing such important decisions. Bob Lepine of FamilyLife Today is going to pray for men to embrace the various leadership roles that God has given them.

Bob Lepine: Father, we beseech You to come and stir the hearts of men to be men again—to put in them a desire to lead, to provide for, to protect, to be gentle and kind, and yet to be strong in compassion and grace, to stand firm, to stay alert, and to guard and to guide their wives, their children, the culture. We’re asking You to light a fire, to ignite in them a desire to serve You by serving those around them. Stir that in the hearts of men today, we pray, amen.

Nancy: Here’s Dannah Gresh to lead us in prayer for our children and teenagers.

Dannah Gresh: Father, I just approach Your throne with other moms. I ask, Lord, that You teach us how to pray for our children. Above everything, I pray that while we are concerned with how the culture will impact them, while we desire for them to live holy lives, I pray Father that they would be so desirous of following after Your heart and fulfilling the great commission, Lord, that not only would their hearts be tethered to You, but our hearts would be, too.

Father we want them to live set-apart lives. But the purpose of that is so that they can serve You. And so, Lord, make us praying moms, because otherwise we could easily become paranoid moms whose legalism keeps our dear children from slaying the Goliaths that You mean for them to face. So give us that wisdom, Lord. And help us to release our children to those appointments.

Father God, I just pray for our leaders from our local leaders to our leaders in Washington, DC. I just pray that You would turn their hearts towards You. May You bring encounters in their lives that create neediness in them for You so that they would govern in Your will and in Your plan because they know You.

Lord, I pray that those that know You would make righteous decisions, not political decisions. I pray that they would stand when they’re the only ones that stand in their congressional district or in our capital. But I pray, Father, that You would make the leaders of the United States of America leaders who would honor and glorify Your name. I ask this in Your holy name, amen.

Nancy: And here’s Priscilla Shirer praying for wisdom among all those who will be casting their votes tomorrow throughout the United States.

Priscilla: Lord Jesus, thank You so much for the privilege that we have of being in a country where our vote matters. Thank You God for our freedom. We don’t take it for granted that we have the freedom to pray on the airways, and that we have the privilege of reading Your Word in open settings. Thank You for the freedom that we have to worship You.

Lord, I pray right now for the upcoming elections. So much has to be decided—so much has to be weighed. I’m praying for believers in Jesus Christ to be courageous and to indeed take a stand. First of all that you would place the importance on all of our hearts to actually vote—that our voice matters—that it’s not insignificant that we would actually make our voices known and heard in this process.

So would You please impress it upon our hearts to go to the voting booths on the right day and to place our vote. And then, Lord, would You help us to take a stand for righteousness. Would You help us not to seek personal gain but Lord, rather to choose the way that is most in line and in alignment with Your plan and Your purposes and Your calling for the kingdom of God to be done, the will of the kingdom, rather, to be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Nancy: Susan Hunt is asking the Lord to provide for those who are facing physical needs.

Susan Hunt: Father in heaven, we thank You that You are the great provider, that You are sufficient for our every need. We thank You that Jesus is the Bread of Life. Father, we thank You that You care about every aspect of our lives.

I would pray right now for those who are unemployed, for those who have had been struggling with unemployment for month upon month—for the stress that it brings into families. Father, I pray that You will give strength, that You will give the spiritual power to trust You in these very difficult times.

Father, I pray for Your church. How I pray that Your church will reflect Your heart. We know that You care for the oppressed and the poor. We know that You care for those who are afflicted. And I pray that we as Your church will show Your heart in these times. Give us eyes to see, give us hearts to minister. Show us exactly how to come alongside and to help our brothers and our sisters.

Father, help us to look beyond Your family and to care for those who do not know Jesus. May we give them bread that they might hear of the Bread of Life. Father, I pray that we will be faithful to You during this time—that we will not be complacent, but that as Your church corporately and individually that we will have hearts of compassion, hearts of mercy—that we will have eyes that see and hands that care. How we thank You, our Father, that You have shown us the way—that Jesus is the way and that we can trust You for it all. In the name of Jesus, amen.

Nancy: And now I’d like to add my prayer to the other prayers we just heard.

Oh Father, I want to join with thousands, perhaps millions of others across this land who have been praying and are praying for You to have mercy and to intervene in this nation at this time. Lord, we just acknowledge our need for You. We are helpless apart from You in all the issues that we’re concerned about in relation to the economy, in relation to the moral issues of our day, in relation to the onslaught of evil that we see all around us, the issues internationally, the threats of wars, the natural disasters, so many things Lord that concern our hearts—the breakdown of the family, the giving away of the sacredness of the marriage covenant.

On so many fronts, Lord, we have sinned against You. We have sinned against You as a nation. We have allowed the scourge of abortion in our land and there are so many other ways where we have violated Your laws, violated Your Word. We’ve flaunted evil, we’ve scoffed at righteousness and virtue, and we’re entertained by that which is wicked. And Lord, on every front we need Your forgiveness. We need Your mercy. We need Your grace.

Now we come to a really important time, always, in the life of our nation, where we’re electing officials to lead us at the local level, at the state level, at the national level. And Lord, we need You. We need You as we vote. We need You to move on the hearts of Your people to vote in a way that will honor You.

We’re asking You to raise up candidates and elected officials throughout this land who respect You and Your Word and Your ways, and who respect the value of life and honor the sacredness of the marriage covenant. Oh Lord, we pray that You would not give us what we deserve, but that You would have mercy and show grace and give us what we don’t deserve so that as a nation we may have the freedom to proclaim the gospel, to live peaceable and godly lives, and to share the gospel with others. We pray, Lord, that You would turn the heart of this nation, not just on an election day, but in the days ahead.

Thank You that this nation doesn’t hinge on the outcome of tomorrow’s election. When tomorrow is said and done, You will still be on Your throne. You are still the Lord and King of the nations. You’re the Ruler of this Universe. And so, Lord, we pray that Your will would be done here on earth as it is in heaven—that Your kingdom would come and that You would reach down in mercy and do a work in this nation that would result in the nations around the world coming to know that You are the true and living God.

I’m thinking of the book of Ezekiel where over and over again it says that the goal of all our prayers is that the nations and the people would know that You are God. And You are God. You are the one true and living God. We pray that in this nation that would be known, that You would be reverenced, that Your name would be hallowed and You would be honored, and that the glory of the Lord would cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.

Lord, please, we cry out to you with this one cry. We’re seeking You together and with thanksgiving we thank You that You have heard our prayers, that You are in the process of answering. And we pray all these things, Lord, in the precious holy name of Jesus, amen.

Well the prayers that you’ve heard today are just a small sample of the way that I hope many listeners are crying out to God every day on behalf of our nation and this world. Now as we close today, I just want to remind you that Revive Our Hearts is participating in an initiative called OneCry for Spiritual Awakening. I’m so grateful for thousands and thousands of believers who are praying through this OneCry effort that God would draw people to Himself in a great movement of revival and spiritual awakening.

OneCry is a movement of people committed to praying for revival. And when you join the Revive Our Hearts OneCry group, we’ll send you regular updates on how you can pray for spiritual awakening. And we’ll send you resources to encourage you to continue crying out to the Lord until as Hosea ten says, “Until He comes and rains righteousness upon us.” I believe the best way that you and I can be involved in bringing about change that is so needed in our word is to pray—to go boldly before the throne of God and cry out to the One who really can make those changes.

I hope that you’ll join your voice along with thousands of others who are interceding on behalf of our desperately needy nation and world. Get all the details about the OneCry prayer movement and sign up to pray as part of that movement by visiting our website ReviveOurHearts.com.

Let me just encourage you also between now and the end of the day tomorrow to be praying earnestly for our nation. Perhaps to invite others to join with you—perhaps to gather together as a small group in your home or in your workplace or at your church or by means of the phone or Skype, invite others to join in praying together that God would be honored and lifted up on this coming election day.

Now one of the things I’ve noticed about today’s younger women is that they have a desire to learn from those who have more wisdom and experience. Tomorrow we’ll be hearing from a grandmother who’s teaching her granddaughters what it means to be true women of God. So be sure to join us tomorrow on Revive Our Hearts.

Song:

This is my Father's world, 
O let me ne'er forget,
That though the wrong seems oft so strong,
God is the ruler yet. 

Oh, this is my Father's world,
Why should my heart be sad? 
The Lord is King; let the heavens ring! 
God reigns; let the earth be glad!

This is my Father's world,
Why should my heart be sad? 
The Lord is King; let the heavens ring! 
God reigns; let the earth be glad!

The Lord is King; let the heavens ring! 
God reigns; let the earth be glad!1

Revive Our Hearts with Nancy Leigh DeMoss is an outreach of Life Action Ministries.

1 Gungor. "My Father's World." A Creation Liturgy. Brash Music, 2012.

*Offers available only during the broadcast of the podcast season.