By Chaplain, Major General, Charles C. Baldwin (USAF, Retired)
Chaplain, Colonel, Alexander F. C. Webster (USA, Retired)
STARRS Board of Advisors
With only a few weeks to go until election day, we are bombarded by political messages.
Most of us have made up our minds and will cast our vote for the candidates for U.S. President and Vice President we believe will lead our nation in the right direction.
Is there anything else that WE can do that will make a difference at this time in the race?
President Abraham Lincoln said, “I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go.”
What each of us CAN DO is follow Lincoln’s example by praying.
It is time for people of faith to “knock down the doors of heaven” with our earnest prayers for Almighty God to intervene in this time when people may wish to do the right thing but are still struggling over what IS the right thing.
We need God to guide us and to work through our election system to raise up the worthy leaders from President to every national, state, and local position that needs to be filled.
The great soldier who became King David wrote, “Give ear to my words, O Lord, consider my meditation. Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my King, and my God.” (Psalm 5: 1-2a).”
We too should ask Almighty God continually for His help and His guidance.
We know God loves us and continually blesses His children. We know God is “in charge.” He is the Creator and Ruler of the Universe. He knows “when a sparrow falls.”
And we know God desires that we seek His will and His plan for our lives.
In America, we are guaranteed by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that we can, without fear of retribution, pray according to our own consciences.
The STARRS community knows well the powerful Constitutional promise of the phrase “….nor prohibit the free exercise thereof.”
We know that we can pray freely according to our own faith traditions for God’s intervention in our lives individually and as a nation.
So . . . let’s do it!
Below is a form for each of us to “say a prayer” for Almighty God to guide our nation during this critical time in our history. Post a prayer from your own faith tradition for our nation.
Some prayers will begin with “Dear Jesus . . . “ or “ All Holy Trinity . . . ” Some will use a beloved passage from the Hebrew Scriptures. Some will pray as if they are talking to their best friend.
Be true to your faith and to your own conscience and share a prayer with all of us.
This is a sincere request for all of us Americans to “put our faiths together” for the common good and trust God to intervene.
As President Lincoln said, “. . . by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go.”
Add your prayer for our nation and military and we’ll post some of them below.
Prayers
Dear Lord Jesus, please inspire us to listen to Your voice and then go and vote! Let Your will be done. In Jesus Name, I pray. —Chaplain Baldwin
Father, the “So, help me God” request at the end of my oath to “support and defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic” gave me the strength and persistence to fulfill my oath. Understanding what it means to “bear true faith and allegiance” to what the Constitution means in preserving our Republic and protecting our God-given rights is a duty I greatly cherish. Please fill me with your grace to have the courage to carry out that duty, which includes one of the most important rights I have as an American citizen–to vote. “So, help me God.” Amen. —Colonel (USAF, Retired) Ron Scott
I offer this prayer for our country which belongs to the First President of our Great Nation, George Washington: “Almighty God; We make our earnest prayer that Thou wilt keep the United States in Thy holy protection; that Thou wilt incline the hearts of the citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to government; and entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another and for their fellow citizens of the United States at large. And finally that Thou wilt most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility, and pacific temper of mind which were the characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed religion, and without a humble imitation of whose example in these things we can never hope to be a happy nation. Grant our supplication, we beseech Thee, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.” —Sent by Rev. Dr. Josiah Trenham, St. Andrew Orthodox Church, Riverside, Ca.
Almighty God, we humbly bow before you and ask you to forgive this Nation that you brought forth in 1776. We seem to be in a downward spiral Heavenly Father, and we humbly ask You to heal our land before it’s too late. As Abraham prayed for Sodom and Gommorah, if there are only a small number, will you please preserve us? Preserve us dear Lord, lay collectively on the hearts of voters this election to vote for leaders at every level who represent righteousness, who will get rid of wicked laws and emplace standards that reflect righteousness in our land, that Your word may encourage our collective repentance as a Nation, and heal our land. We ask this in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. —Chaplain (LTC) Ruston L. Hill, USA (retired)
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