Truth to Power --- Prayerfully
February 02, 2023
I am all for criticizing leaders, speaking truth to power, and holding that power accountable. However, I also know, that behind every position and title, there is a person who is a vulnerable, needy, and human as the rest of it.
If I do not devote more time praying for them than criticizing them, I am not acting in anyone's best interest.
Therefore:
Lord, God, I pray for our leaders and potential leaders, for our President and anyone who may come into that office. May they be blessed and guided, refreshed and equipped. You know no party and affiliate with none of our artificial labels.
May those who make critical decisions consult wise adviser and weigh the consequences of their decisions. May they act with compassion toward the poor and powerless and with fairness, justice, and pragmatism tempered with truth. May they be seekers, whether they be elected or candidates for election. Temper their speech. Grant them the grace to agree with their opponents when their opponents ring true. Grant them the courage to speak truth when no one else agrees. Grant them the confidence of their convictions and the humility of those who are willing to test those convictions.
May we, who occupy the highest offices of the land, citizens with the power to vote and speak, listen deeply, ignore rhetoric, and inform our consciences.
Then, when all the votes are counted, may we continue to speak truth in love and pray for those whom we have called to office, loving them and respecting them as our leaders, but also challenging them to greatness and righteousness.
Help us to appreciate those who differ with us, who challenge our own presumptions and assumptions. Teach us to listen to one another and respect our differences. Help us to embrace those who do not share our faith and appreciate the insights they bring to bear upon our minds knowing that You can speak to us through them.
Center us in truth. Thy Word is truth and you love truth wherever it leads us.
This is my prayer of the moment. In Jesus' Name. Amen.
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LOVING ONE ANOTHER IN PRAYER
“For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.” – I John 3:11
“Brethren, pray for us.” – I Thessalonians 5:25
Love is such a strong criterion for all our relationships that we are driven to prayer; that we might drink from wells of unconditional love. We plunge into the depths of God’s love that we might love one another. Therefore, we are compelled to seek him deeply in prayer for God is the source and the force of love. The Spirit’s course through our lives is an endless supply of agape.
We are called to seek God’s strength to love one another in prayer and to pray for one another that the love of God might flow through us substantively and visibly in a dark world.
Prayer is the expression of a love relationship with God that cannot help but overflow with love for others.
As we pray for one another, a miracle takes place. It is the miracle of empathy, for that is the soul of intercession. We feel the pain of the other for whom we intercede even as we experience his or her joy.
Consider the love prayers of Jesus as he interceded with his own blood. Allow his love to fill you and spill out from you into the dry and dusty world of the thirsty and loveless.
We are not capable in our flesh to love this way. We have neither the resources nor the inclination. We are at the mercy of God, and God is the one who can supply beyond our imagination. But we must find that supply in prayer and, in prayer, exercise the love that God supplies.
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There is something powerful that happens in our lives when we seek God.
Jesus promised that all those who truly seek will find Him.
This requires an open heart.
Purity of heart and cleanliness of hands means that we bring no other motive or agenda, nothing in our hands or hearts, save the yearning to know God and worship Him in His fullness. S
eek His face today as you begin and as you continue.
In every face you encounter, seek His, in every circumstance, in every thought, word, and deed.