Father in Heaven,

We lift our eyes toward Your Throne, where You reign in righteousness.

Your Word assures us that when Your people cry out in sincerity and humility, You will never turn a deaf ear to us.

We call upon You now, seeking Your forgiveness and favor.

Look over this fevered landscape and heal us, Lord.

Drop knees to the floor and raise eyes to the sky, for we know where our help comes from.

Unite these States again in devotion to You, and blur every dividing line.

Do not give us over to our sins. Give us, instead, over to passionate prayer that moves Your heart.

“May Your unfailing love rest upon us, O Lord, even as we put our hope in You.”

In the Name of our Lord and Savior,

Amen

 

- Beth Moore

Rather than rushing into God’s presence and saying many things, it is good to quiet your mind and wait in God’s presence so you can feel God’s heart and pray the things that the Holy Spirit shows you to pray for (Habakkuk 2:1). God promises to renew the strength of those who wait patiently on Him (Isaiah 40:31; Psalm 27:14). Through this you express to God in a practical way “not my will but Yours be done.” If you are always talking in prayer, you will not be able to hear what God is saying.

Jesus said that the Holy Spirit “will guide you into all the truth” (John 16:13), and He will guide you into an understanding of how to pray. Jude instructs us to “pray in the Holy Spirit “ (v. 20), which means the Spirit of God is “guiding” how we pray and what we pray for. We confess that without the help of the Spirit we cannot pray as we should. The apostle Paul tells us to “pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests” (Ephesians 6:18). The Holy Spirit will lead you in the kind of prayer you offer to God. He is the one who motivates and enables and energizes your prayer.

And if you cannot find the right words to pray, know that the Holy Spirit will gladly assist you. “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express” (Romans 8:26). God sees the longing, the groaning, the desiring, the crying of your heart. He understands without the words. We utterly trust God for His help by the Spirit as we pray, and we consciously depend on His divine working.

 

• Lance Wubbels

 

This article is part five in our 8-part series on Prayer.

 

(Taken from “A Time for Prayer” published by Inspired Faith for the National Day of Prayer – used with permission)

Shirley Dobson for National Day of Prayer from Prestonwood Ministries on Vimeo.

Franklin Graham

Lord,

We are thankful for the abundant blessings You have bestowed on America. Our forefathers looked to You as Protector, Provider, and the Promise of hope. But we have wandered far from that firm foundation. May we repent for turning our backs on Your faithfulness.

We pray that this great nation will be restored by Your forgiveness.

From bondage, You grant freedom.

Through Your own sacrifice, You offer salvation.

From the state of despair, You offer peace.

From the bounties of Heaven, You have blessed – not because of our goodness – but by Your grace.

You have given us freedom to worship You in spirit and in truth as Your holy Word instructs. May our lives honor You in word and deed. May our nation acknowledge that all good things come from the Father above.

President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed that our nation should set apart a day for national prayer to confess our sins and transgressions in sorrow, “yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon… announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord.”

“We have vainly imagined in the deceitfulness of our own hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own… we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God who made us! It behooves us then… to confess our national sins and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.”

Help us to pray earnestly for our president and leaders who govern, that they will humble themselves and seek Your guidance so that everything we do will shine the light of Your glory in a darkened world.

May our prayers as a people and a nation be heard and blessed for such a time as this. We make this plea in faith, believing in the mighty name of Jesus our Lord.

Amen

When we come to God, we must know what the Word of God says regarding the thing we are praying for. We must renew our minds with the Word so that we know God’s will on the matter without a doubt. God’s will is to do for us what He promises in the Word. By meditating on the Word and letting it transform our hearts as we renew our minds in it, we prepare ourselves to pray in faith. If we don’t know what the Word says, there is a good chance that doubt will enter, and if we doubt, we cannot expect to receive from God (James 1:6-7).

Since God’s Word commands us to give constant attention to the Word and to meditate on it night and day (Proverbs 4:20-22; Joshua 1:8), it is clear that our praying should not be something separate from the Word, but that God’s Word should direct our praying. In prayer, the Word of God should be in our hearts and in our mouths (Romans 10:8). In our prayers we should use the Word of God and remind God of His promises to us. This builds our faith, and it also pleases God, because it is an expression of our confidence in His Word and His integrity.

This is a powerful form of prayer. For instance, Daniel found God’s promise of the time of deliverance for God’s people, and he prayed according to that (Daniel 9:2). His prayer acknowledged openly the truth of God’s Word (Daniel 9:10-15). Many other examples could be given. Elijah’s prayer for the heavens to be shut was based on the promise of God to do this if the people turned away from Him to worship idols (Deuteronomy 11:16-17). Fill your mind with the solution from God’s Word, and stop focusing on the problem, which only magnifies fear and doubt.

Charles Spurgeon said, “Mind how you pray. Let it never be a dead formality…plead the promise in a truthful, business-like way. Ask for what you want, because the Lord has promised it. Believe that you have the blessing, and go forth to your work in full assurance of it. Go from your knees singing, because the promise is fulfilled: thus will your prayer be answered…the strength (not length) of your prayer…wins…God; and the strength of prayer lies in your faith in the promise which you pleaded before the Lord.”

 

• Lance Wubbels

 

This article is part four in our 8-part series on Prayer.

 

(Taken from “A Time for Prayer” published by Inspired Faith for the National Day of Prayer – used with permission)

The road of the intercessor is a long one. Daniel is an example. In the year 551 BC Daniel received a vision of the rise and fall of empires. A six-year span of time was described in the vision where deceit would prosper as a “ram” (Medo-Persian Empire) and a “goat” (Greece) would battle both Media and Persia. Daniel was astonished and appalled, grew faint, and lay ill for several days after the vision. (Daniel 8) Nothing transpired until the year 539 BC when God gave Daniel another vision which foretold the restoration of Jerusalem and the coming of the Anointed One.

Two years later in 537 BC, Daniel received revelation of a great war which caused him to seek God and mourn for 21 days. A “Heavenly Warrior” appeared to him who described what had been going on. Evidently, for three full weeks a tremendous spiritual battle had ensued between this Heavenly Warrior and the “prince of Persia.” Even the Archangel Michael had been brought in on the action. Finally, after 21 days, there was a breakthrough in the battle against the “prince of Persia” and Daniel was given an up-to-date battle report.

Then the angel spoke words that every intercessor needs to hear: “Do not be afraid, O man highly esteemed… peace! Be strong now, be strong.” (Daniel 9:19) These words were spoken to Daniel to impart strength and give him courage. Even the mighty Daniel, a valiant man who had endured much and suffered the inside of the lion’s den, grew weary.

It is natural and easy for intercessors to become weary and tired. But we need to understand that there are battles being fought in the heavenlies at this very time that we don’t know much or often anything about. We are unaware, but God and His hosts are engaged! Be strong, Intercessor! Realize that God has dispatched His mighty warriors. He is ever working behind the scenes in the heavenlies.

The Liberty Bell carries this quote from Leviticus 25:10: “… proclaim liberty and freedom throughout all the land….” This Bell was ordered in 1751 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Pennsylvania’s Charter of Privileges, its first Constitution, signed in 1701. Fifty years of hoping—and certainly praying—saw many still waiting for God to bring this passage to reality. Another 25 years unfolded before the colonies would experience liberty as a country—as the Declaration of Independence was signed and the Revolutionary War was begun. After another 80 years passed, the abolitionists adopted the Liberty Bell and the Leviticus passage as their symbol of freedom. Finally, the Emancipation Proclamation was signed in 1863. Surely there was someone who was praying for liberty in 1701 who never lived to see 1776, and it is a certainty that those praying in 1701 did not live to see 1863.

Sometimes we, as intercessors, are called to pray for things that we may never see manifested or brought to resolution. Intercession is often tough enough without this truth, but this is also the raw reality before every praying believer. It is not whether we see victories; it is whether we are obedient and persist in our prayers. Let us continue in expectant faith and anticipate victories, but let us not give up if all is not “answered” in short order—or even in our lifetimes.

Listen now to the words spoken to Daniel, and hear them for yourself: “Do not be afraid, O man (or woman) highly esteemed … peace! Be strong now, be strong.”

It would seem that many who pray for this nation have seen some breakthroughs and political shifts in recent days; but keep yourself braced—we are engaged in battles whose total victory will not be seen until the Lord returns. We are standing on the shoulders of faithful Christian intercessors who founded this country. They demonstrated patience and stamina; so must we. Our task is not done until the Groom has come for the Bride. “Be strong now!” Even so, come Lord Jesus!

—Dave Kubal serves as President / CEO of Intercessors for America

When you come to God, know what you are going to pray about. It is difficult to pray fervently without knowing what you want or desire from God. We should have a clear-cut, well-defined idea about what we are asking God for (being flexible to His leading). “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4).

You should pray in such a way that you will know afterward what you prayed for, and you will recognize when the answer to your prayer is manifested. Jesus commanded us to specifically ask, seek, and knock (Matthew 7:7). In asking, we must be definite. If it is a good and right request, it is promised to the sincere seeker. In seeking, our goal is to know God and commune with Him. In knocking (intercession), we must understand what the Lord wants to do and pray according to His Word for that thing. The Lord is glad to open the door to every knocking soul. Have faith and enter through holy courage.

Sometimes we do not know what to pray for, and so we can pray in the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:26). Paul stated that he prayed both with the spirit and with the understanding (I Corinthians 14:15). Our whole being, including our minds, should be involved in praying. Our minds should understand what we are asking God for.

The fact remains that when we set ourselves to pray, especially in a group, we must be agreed about what we will pray for (Matthew 18:19). Then watch God work!

• Lance Wubbels

 

This article is part three in our 8-part series on Prayer.

 

(Taken from “A Time for Prayer” published by Inspired Faith for the National Day of Prayer – used with permission)

Dr. Henry Blackaby

Oh Heavenly Father, You have made Yourself known to us as a nation by Your mighty works throughout our history.

From the beginning, You have been with us and through many wars and conflicts Your Right Arm has saved us.  We have been amazingly and graciously blessed.

Today, we confess our sin of not responding to Your right to rule in our lives and our nation.  We have despised and rejected Your will while imposing our own, and are now fully under Your judgments.  Draw us back to Yourself, that you may return to us once again. Without You we can do nothing.  You have promised that if we honor You, You will once again honor us!

For Your honor and glory we pray,

Amen

Dr. Ravi Zacharias

Holy Father,

In a world where so many are hungry, You have given us food in abundance; In a world where so many are hurting, You offer to bind up our wounds; In a world where so many are lonely, You offer friendship to every heart; In a world longing for peace, You offer hope.

Yet, we are so stubborn and resistant. Have mercy upon us, Lord. Our nation is at a crossroads; we look to you to be our strength and shield.

Please give us guidance and may we honor you and respond to the wisdom from above so that our hope may be renewed and our blessings be treasured.

In Jesus’ holy name.

Amen