Like many other churches, we took a moment on Sunday to pray for our nation, in light of the attempted assassination of Donald Trump. How did your church handle this historic moment? Here are the words I shared…

A Prayer for Our Nation
July 14, 2024
Calvary Church West Hills

Father, we thank you for the love we sung of this morning. We thank you that we dwell in that love, that your steadfast love endures forever, and that nothing can ever separate us from that great love. You are sovereign over us. We thank you for your covenant love, and that your mercies are new every morning.

Lord God, you already know what has happened, and what will happen in our country. We were so saddened by the news of an assassination attempt yesterday. These are dark and difficult days. We pray for healing as a nation. We pray there would be a people from every background, every political party, who would humble themselves before the living God.

Lord, let us be a nation that would delight in righteousness. Let us love mercy, do justice, and walk humbly with the Lord. I pray that there would be a renewal of respect and kindness toward one another. It may seem impossible because the anger, hostility, and violence continue to escalate. But you bring a spirit of peace, and that unity begins in the church. It begins with the God of peace. Lord I pray we would model peace before a watching world. I pray we would treat even our enemies with the kind of love that you treated us.

Lord, I ask that people would not look to any particular party, or candidate, or election cycle for deliverance, but let people cry out to you as the great lover of our souls who can meet our need for eternal life. Whatever people are looking for, they’re not going to find it anywhere else. They’re going to find it in the God who made them. They’re going to find it in having a personal, saving relationship with our Creator, Redeemer, and Savior. People want paradise. What they want is heaven. They want perfection. They want a utopia. They want a place where things can be made right. And you’ve made that possible through your Son. I pray you would help us as a church to be loving and bold in sharing the gospel, knowing that is the true need people have.

We thank you for your protection over former President Trump. We thank you so much for sparing his life. I thank you that all candidates, parties, and the media have denounced this terrible act of violence. And yet the rhetoric continues to be high. I pray people would calm down, and there would be a spirit of peace, a willingness to listen, a kindness and courtesy that would return to public discourse.

Lord, I pray for your churches all across the world, that they would remain faithful to the gospel. That the church would be a refuge and a safe place. Please keep us safe, and allow us to keep our arms wide open to welcome those who are desperately hurting, in need of a peace that only you can provide – a peace that passes understanding. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Last Tuesday, I had the opportunity to lead the opening invocation at our Town Council meeting. Here’s the prayer I wrote. Would you join me in praying for our community leaders?

High King of Heaven, we come humbly before you tonight and give you thanks.

We thank you for the ways you remind us of your presence and your power – a colorful sunrise, a starry night, the song of a quail, the smell of fresh rain. Wonderful are your works O Lord; our soul knows it very well!

We thank you for a town that values freedom – the freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom to freely exercise our religion. We know these freedoms come at great cost, so we pause to pray for our military and first responders who sacrifice so much so we can be here.

Dear God, you see all things. You know the COVID pandemic has occupied our thoughts and prayers for almost a year. It has taken many lives, destroyed many businesses, and disrupted all our routines. We pray for a merciful end to the pandemic. Please comfort those who have lost loved ones, and give us a collective patience, humility, and kindness as we move forward.

As these leaders gather tonight to make heavy and far-reaching decisions, grant them wisdom I pray.

In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Be thankful God doesn’t answer all your prayers.

I was reminded of this lesson while reading 1 Kings 18 this morning. If any prophet was known for prayer, it was Elijah. His name is almost synonymous with prayer. He lived in dark times, and had a close walk with God, remaining in steadfast devotion and almost unceasing prayer. As Abraham is our mascot of faith, so Elijah is our mascot of prayer.

James says, “The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working” (James 5:16). Then he uses Elijah as Exhibit A.

“Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit” (James 5:17-18).

The historical details of this story are found in 1 Kings 18. Ahab was a notoriously wicked king over the Northern Kingdom of Israel. As an act of judgment, God sealed up the heavens for three and a half years so there was not even a drop of rain. But when the people saw fire from heaven and finally gave glory to God, Elijah got down on his knees to the business of prayer.

After praying, Elijah told his servant, “Go up now, look toward the sea,” and on the seventh time, a tiny cloud “like a man’s hand” rose from the sea and swirled into a massive storm. “In a little while the heavens grew black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain.” (v. 45).

What a powerful prayer! All from a man “with a nature like ours” (James 5:17).

But there’s more to the story. Wicked queen Jezebel gets word of Elijah’s slaughter of the prophets of Baal, and immediately puts a death warrant on him.

Elijah flees south into the Negev, and within a matter of days, he is in despair, having almost suicidal thoughts. “It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers” (1 Kings 19:4).

This time, God does not grant Elijah’s request. The man of prayer gets a “no” from the Lord. At first, Elijah may have been disappointed. Death would seem preferable to remaining a spiritual fugitive. But God not only refuses to answer Elijah’s prayer by postponing his death. He does something Elijah could have never dreamed of. He allows Elijah to avoid death altogether. Elijah becomes one of only two men in all the Bible (along with Enoch) to never experience death!

In 2 Kings 2, we find Elijah standing with his prophetic apprentice Elisha on the far side of the Jordan. “And as they still went on and talked, behold, chariots of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. And Elisha saw it and he cried, ‘My father! My father! The chariots of Israel and its horsemen!’ And he saw it no more” (vv. 11-12).

What a sight it must have been. In that moment, we learn that God never will answer Elijah’s prayer to take him in death. He has an even better plan, and I’m sure Elijah is now thankful God said no to his earlier request.

In the excellent book Praying Backwards, Bryan Chappell says, “We grow to trust God more by seeing that often he prepares something better than our initial prayers did (or could) request. In fact God’s greatest gifts may come through prayers that seem to be unanswered. Our persistence can help us discover why God blesses by not answering as we ask.”

Is there some prayer you have been crying out to God, and are baffled by his silence or delay? Don’t give up! And rest assured that his greatest gifts may come through prayers that seem to be unanswered.