Please Pray for our Country

Written by Ralph C. Drye


"As the end of all things is at hand, we are serious and watchful in our prayers over this nation." (1 Peter 4:7)


We Pray:

First of all for all people, asking God to help them; interceding on their behalf, and giving thanks for them.  We pray for kings (the president) and all who are in authority so that we may live peaceful and quiet lives marked by godliness and dignity.  This is good and pleases God our Savior, who wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth. (1Timothy 2:1-4)


According to Psalm 2:1-5, we pray that though the nations rage, and the people plot a vain thing; though the kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the LORD and against His Anointed (the righteous), saying, "Let us break their bonds in pieces and cast away their cords from us" (casting off righteousness).  We say - He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall hold them in derision (derision = ridicule or laugh at their plans, preventing them from coming to pass.)


We thank God that the king's (the president's) heart is in the hand of the Lord, as are the watercourses; He turns it whichever way He wills.  We pray that hearts are turned toward the Lord every time men and women come together to pass laws. (Proverbs 21:1)


We thank our Father God Who fills everything everywhere with Himself, that He fills Himself in the Branches of the US Government (Ephesians 1:23).


We declare in the Name Of Jesus - the United States of America is a Nation that will obey God, in Jesus name.

The Sin of Speculation

Give entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow.  God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.  (Matt 6:34 'The Message')


I play a silly and senseless mind game in February and into March.  It seems I would rather SPECULATE about my federal tax bill than actually take a few hours to calculate it and KNOW what it is.  This behavior begs the question, “How can God help me when I don’t even know I need help?”  This obsessing seems worse to me than common worry – it is worrying about something even before you have something ‘real’ to worry over.

For a Christ-follower, worry is dumb, but speculation is dumber.  A friend told me several years ago that God only gives us power for the present, none for the past (we can only learn from it) and none for the future.  Do you think the solution for speculation falls under the KISS (Keep It Simple, Servant) strategy?  In my tax bill case it certainly does.  I can either have daily, random, speculative thoughts of dread about my taxes (allowing those worries to create an opportunity for my enemy to take advantage of me), or I can simply use that same energy to actually find out what my situation is and then seek God’s wisdom and solution.

Prayer points: 

• What speculative thought in your life are you obsessing over right now? 

• Pray: 2 Corinthians 10:5b over it. “we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ”.

• Worry has been defined as negative mediation; flip your mediation toward God’s faithfulness.

• Consider what steps you need to take to consecrate your imagination.