Peace in PoliticsSample

Prayer

Can I ask another fairly uncomfortable question? How often do you spend time praying about the political things that make you angry, anxious, or even judgemental? If you were to compare your time commenting and criticizing others against your time petitioning God to intervene, how would they stack up?

Trading criticism for communion

The reality is that criticism and complaints come cheap and easy. Especially now, in a time when everyone has a personal platform via social media. Connecting with the heart of God requires sacrifice and trust. It is done without the gaze of a public audience.

Hearts and minds are rarely changed through a thread of Facebook comments, but God continues to transform lives in response to prayerful people.

There is an invitation for each of us today to step outside of the relatively inconsequential sphere of the digital world. We are invited to dive deeper into the eternally transformative world of the supernatural.

Prayer is a powerful gift we’re given in our relationship with God. He offers us full access to his undivided attention and understanding, even when we’re not at our best. There’s no one else as available, as gracious, and as full of wisdom as him. There’s no one else who knows us as deeply as he does. Yet he loves us more fully.

In the midst of this political season, God is inviting us to bring all of our hopes and fears before him.

Do you truly believe that God is more capable than you? If so, can I encourage you to take every concern to God in prayer? Rather than redirecting your anxiety and fears outward, first take them upward. God desires honesty, and he’s eager to connect with us in prayer.

The power of prayer

When prayer becomes a regular part of our Christian walk, there are two major impacts. The first is that we are transformed.

Timothy Keller described it this way:

“God is the only person from whom you can hide nothing. Before him you will unavoidably come to see yourself in a new, unique light. Prayer, therefore, leads to a self-knowledge that is impossible to achieve any other way.”

Prayer is an essential part of walking in the love and humility that we discussed in our earlier chapters. It refocuses our attention on the greatness and love of God and brings awareness to our desperate need for him. Prayer quiets our hearts, changes our perspective, renews our courage, and gives us a greater sense of peace.

In order to be culture-changing Christians, we must first surrender ourselves to the transforming love of God.

The second major impact of prayer is that God listens and responds.

God is not a distant and indifferent entity who cannot be bothered by our worldly struggles. Instead, he invites our requests and our concerns and moves in response to our petitions.

Is it possible we miss out on the miraculous intervention of God simply because we never come before him in earnest prayer? This is not meant to be a shaming question. Rather, it is an invitation to step into a relationship with God that can bring about real transformation in our lives and the future of our nation. Let’s not miss out on the work of God simply because we don’t ask for him to move.

What if?

As we’ve all seen, election seasons are typically marked by incredible divisiveness and frustration. What if they instead became some of the greatest seasons of prayer? What if we sought out a prayer movement more than we chased a political one? And please hear me: this is not a call to inaction but a call to put the right actions first.

Let’s start with prayer.