Today, I want to invite you to join me in a 30 day prayer for the nation. We need a revival.
I have been in conversation with my family and friends for some time about the need for our country to be lifted in prayer and for us to cry out to God. Although I identify and worship in the Christian tradition, I know prayer is universal- and it works! Each day, for the next thirty days, I will be sharing written prayers to God that I hope will encourage and inspire each of you.
On November 3rd, 30 days from now, many of us will have the opportunity to vote for the next President of the United States of America. I believe this will be an extremely critical decision for our country. My prayer is that each of you will be contemplative and thoughtful about selecting the individual who will do what is best for the American people.
We are in dire need of healing, wholeness, and restoration. All of us. COVID-19 has taken over 200,000 American lives and over two million people have contracted this deadly virus. Life for all of us has been a challenge. We have lost trailblazers such as the late Representative John Lewis, Award-winning actor Chadwick Boseman and Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. And we are hurting.
We have witnessed racial violence and police brutality with the murders of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and so many others. The pain and despair many of us are feeling is real and deep. What we are experiencing is also spiritual. Indeed, America is facing a moral reckoning. It may seem naive, but I believe in the power of prayer and I believe righteousness will prevail. My prayer is that God’s power and God’s truth will be unleashed across the land.
I am ever mindful of the scripture in the Old Testament book of Habakkuk, where he poses the question to God:
2 How long, Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, “Violence!” but you do not save?
3 Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds.
4 Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted. (NRSV)
Then the Lord responds and says:
2 Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so that a runner may read it.
3 For there is still a vision for the appointed time; it speaks of the end, and does not lie. If it seems to tarry, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay.
4 Look at the proud! Their spirit is not right in them, but the righteous live by their faith. (NRSV)
God is faithful. God is a just God. God is a righteous God.
My prayer is that people of faith, people who believe in the power of prayer, will seek God and God’s will for America.
So, God we call on you today–and we cry out for justice. We cry out for truth. We cry out for righteousness across the land. Give us courage and wisdom God to do what is right for the uplift of your people. Compel and convict our leaders to create policies and legislation that will bring sustenance, support, and needed resources to families in the East, the West, the South, the North- in every single state of the Nation. We lift this prayer up to you God and ask you to forgive us for our sins.
This is our prayer, and we pray it today in the mighty, wonderful and majestic name of Jesus Christ. Amen!
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Dr. Karen Jackson-Weaver is a minister, historian, and religious scholar with a focus on religion, ethics and political affairs. Dr. Jackson-Weaver recently transitioned from the UK, where she was a Visiting Scholar and Dean-in-Residence at Oxford University. She is a member of the Board of Trustees at Princeton Theological Seminary where she serves as Secretary of the Board and Chair of the Student Life Committee. She is an Associate Minister at Shiloh Baptist Church in Trenton, NJ and the former National Series Editor for the Teaching Religious Studies series published by Oxford University Press & the American Academy of Religion.