Father God,

I come boldly before you on behalf of our country. We are scrambling. We are wondering and wandering through this changing culture, blindly. We are divided. We are scared. We are frustrated. We are angry. There is no peace in our restless sleep. There is no commonality among us. We point fingers. We call names. We puff ourselves up. Our pride is great and our passion misplaced. We have forgotten the way of humility. We have lost you amidst the cacophony of voices, the background noise that never ends. It drowns out your still small voice. We look for you in the wind, and the earthquake and in the fire…but you are not in any of those, but rather you speak in the soft whisper.

Tune our ears to hear your whisper. Help us to find a space of quiet in the sea of noise. Speak to our hearts. Give us eyes to see as you see. Join our hearts to yours. Teach us to love one another. Our country has great needs, but more than any other is our need of you. All good things come from you. You are the Prince of Peace. The counselor. The comforter. The mighty one. The provider. The healer…oh Lord we so need a healer. You are the peacemaker. You are the God who is near. The God of forgiveness. The living, star-breathing, universe creating, powerful God. The giver of life. The Holy One. The originator of laughter. The light of the world. The bread of life. The beginning and the end. The trustworthy and faithful one. The air I breathe. How could we not want these things for our country?

You have more names than we can even comprehend. And every one of them is true. There is no election, no candidate that you do not know about. There is no outcome that can surprise you. While we shake in our fears, you are steadfast. I ask for your assurance to give us confidence. Confidence that you are to be trusted. That your ways cannot be thwarted by men on either side of the aisle. That if you can create the universe, surely you can handle an election. Help us to remember that you don’t need us to make the world go around. That you choose us because you love us…deeply. Help us to recognize you as our leader. If it takes an election to bring us to our knees in prayer then so be it.

Surround us with your protection. Give us hope for the future and not dread. Show us where you are on the move. Break forth and shine your light into the darkness. Thank you that you are making a way in the desert. That you are doing a new thing and it will spring forth as a river. It will flow from your heart to ours and we will not be afraid. We move in dependence on you, no matter the outcome of the election. Hold us close Lord, so we can hear your heartbeat for us. Do not allow our hearts to follow another. Speak your tender love to us. Woo us. Draw us to you. Send our roots deep, grow our faith strong.

Help us to know you have not forgotten us, nor will you. If you are for us who can be against us? You did not spare your son so that we could be in your love. What do we think can separate us from you? Trouble? Calamity? Persecution? Poverty? Danger? Death? NOTHING can separate us from your love. Not death or life, or angels or demons, neither our fears for today, nor our worries about tomorrow, not all the powers of hell, nothing in the sky above or the earth below…nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ. Nothing. Not an election. Not a candidate. Not a vote. Not an economy. Not a republican. Not a democrat. NOTHING. No thing can stop your love. And so I pray that we will remember these truths as we vote in the days and weeks to come. That we will feel your presence behind us saying ‘This is the way. Walk in it.’ Show us Lord, how to walk in your ways…today, tomorrow, and always. We leave this all at your feet and trust you to do what you will and that your glory would be made known in us, as we rest in the knowledge of who you are. Amen.