I'm usually hesitant to post anything too quickly, not wanting to speak too hastily on that which I know not enough of yet, but what I share I hope may be of help to others who are going through the same feelings as they watch on woefully. While it is rooted in my own experience and feelings I felt it could be of value to you.
I had to go to the sanctuary to pray this afternoon, pray for our nation in distress. I pleaded much with God, but most of those prayers can be left between me and Divine. But I found incredible peace and voice to what I needed to say when I prayed the Lord's Prayer at the end. There, what started as a go-to prayer when praying (and if I'm totally honest, a bit of an afterthought), really became for me all the words I needed. Allow me to share in prayerful thoughts those emotions that raged as and after I spoke these ancient words that Christ himself gave us.
Our Father, who art in heaven...thank God I have a God. Thank you Papa God, that on a day when we need a leader, an authority to turn to, we have you. As I listened to the president speak, as I read his Tweets, I was more angry than comforted and more alone than united. But as I spoke to the heavens I remembered I was not alone, I had you. How great, O Lord, that you hear me. How important, when I am absolutely through with my leader to remember my true leader. And to not only remember you, but remember you as daddy, as one who has my interests at heart, who I believe loves me and gives a damn about what is happening. Thank you for listening. Perhaps all I needed to pray were these few words, but Lord, if it is ok I will continue as you taught me...
hallowed be Thy name...when I first got a live feed of the seditious protest gathered outside the capital, I cringed at a big "Jesus Saves" sign among the crowd. A classmate from college said he saw a big cross put up. Lord, your name is being dragged through the mud. I know it happens in many ways every day, including by me, I know I don't always represent you well or hallow your name. But as I saw your name, the name of our salvation, held up while our political process got held up, oh how I pray that your name would be hallowed among us. Oh how I repent of my own foolish use of the name of Jesus! Father - Papa - help us to glorify your name. Let our light shine before others, and let it not be dimmed by the false prophets who use it to their own ends. That same image of that sign keeps flying before my eyes, it must fly before your eyes too, right? How does it make you feel? I pray that you show the truth of who you are, of true holiness, and I pray that I might be a part of that. At the least, spare me from ever besmirching it before others.
Thy kingdom come, yes and come quickly. Our kingdom is in turmoil, yours promises peace. People are being injured in the name of our kingdom, people on both sides, your kingdom has no sides. It has no borders. It has no elections. Your kingdom is free from all this that assails our own. And this is supposed to be the best we have to offer? We are supposed to be the pride of human civilization? The pride of human civilization walked the streets with a healing touch, and taught me about a kingdom that is not of this world. The height of human achievement is what you achieved when you came as a human among us. So bring that same kingdom, in any portion you can, to us today. Maranatha! Lord Jesus, come quickly! Hosanna! Save us, O Lord!
Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven...yes and be done soon. I pray because I believe your will is for our good. I pray because I want your will to triumph. I pray because I see where our wills are getting us. We are better than this, but you are better than us! Your will is better than this. As I remain helpless in my little Wisconsin town, I turn to you whose reach can span the heavens and the earth. My thoughts reside with me, but my prayers ascend. They go to heaven, where you reign and I believe they fall to earth, heard by you who also reigns here. So reign Lord! Let your perfect will supplant the wills that do such wrong. "Though the wrong seem oft so strong" you are the ruler yet. I must believe it, because I refuse to believe that the wills of tyranny and sedition are the only wills on earth. I refuse to believe that the triumph of will is merely a triumph of power. I believe in that kings themselves fall before you, so why not those who stand above the government?
Give us this day our daily bread...When I learned about this petition, dear Lord, I learned that authorities and society played a role. A stable nation made daily bread an abundance. At least it has for me. So when we see instability, what does that mean, O Lord? When our government is truly threatened, when the order of things are attacked, when things are being upturned will this reach me? If it does, may I not forget you, the giver of my daily needs. My bread comes not from my paycheck anymore than from my government. It comes from my God, and these are all means by which you provide me. So as we feel the trauma of political unrest, may you calm that uneasy feeling in my gut - the worry that tells me it is all being threatened. May you cure me of my idolatries that I may see them merely as arms of your gracious giving. Help me believe that you will give to me still. As I earnestly pray for so much, help me be at ease in all that I have in you.
And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us...how hard it is to truly pray as you have taught us! How easy it is to condemn and to desire you put an end of the madness I am witnessing. But how hard to be a bastion of the peace of forgiveness. How hard to believe in repentance enough to forgive before one repents! How hard to look at those I disagree with in total love. Yet you have done that to me, and still do every time you forgive me. Help me desire this forgiveness so much, that I would do as you have taught me and forgive others just as heartily. Let me stake my own forgiveness upon it, not because my forgiveness earns yours but precisely because your forgiveness is so freely given that I might not misuse it by letting grace be in vain. Let that grace beget grace. Let me test the genuineness of my faith by the measure in which it wholeheartedly embraces your ways. And so, let me not sit in judgment but in forgiveness. Calm the hatred in my heart that I may not be so consumed that others pray against me. And let me be sure to pray then for those who stand against me this day. Let me be able to pray for them without in any way giving them an ounce of approval. Let me forgive them.
And lead us not into temptation...some render this "save us from the time of trial", from the great testing that we might undergo, that is, help us, Lord, to not go astray. Do not just hear my prayers, grant my cries, forgive my wrongs, but help me also by keeping me from the wrong in all this. Am I not also flesh and blood? If I need forgiveness as I look on at our capital, I need guidance as well. Don't let this become an opportunity for the devil, for sin, for the wrong to conceal itself amid what is right. And do not let me go in the paths that destroy our world. Make me salt for the earth, and do not let me lose my saltiness. Make me an instrument. Make us instruments! Lord this whole time I pray to our Father. We who all need daily bread and forgiveness need guidance. Indeed, it was probably much these same worries that led my brothers and sisters down paths that I condemn. Rescue us all from this abyss. Help us who watch on and are consumed with emotion, and guide those who are working to bring a resolution, guide them in such a way that they not fall into temptations of any sort.
but deliver us from evil...to this end, may you keep people safe. I saw the stretchers, I saw the image of a woman taken away. I saw the halls filled with tear gas. People are suffering and hurting. Save them! Deliver us from the evil that injures the police. Deliver us from the need for brute force and stand offs. Deliver us, O Lord, from this day. Deliver us from the mess we have sown and are now reaping. Deliver us from our own sinful maneuvers. While people chant, politicians plead, and police warn - we pray. While all this goes down, we pray it stops.
For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen. Who else but you can I turn to now? And should I not believe that you care to hear us as we pray tonight? Is not this whole world yours? Help us, sweet heavenly Papa! I believe you will. For you have already helped me.
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