A prayer on this Election Day

Here’s the prayer that’s been on repeat in my heart about this day.

Lord, today is the day.  Today is the day that “we the people of this great nation” get to decide who will lead us. Today is the day.

And Lord, it has been a season. A season that has caused us to hang our heads in despair at all of the unfolding drama. A season that has given Saturday Night Live an unprecedented windfall of skit fodder. And a season that had brought us to our knees in prayer.

Lord, today, remind us of our place as “one nation under God”. Come and speak your quiet peace to our hearts.

“The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it, the world and all who live in it; for he founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters” (Psalm 24:1-2).

You are in control.

“The Lord is in his holy temple; the Lord is on his heavenly throne. He observes everyone on earth. His eyes examine them” (Psalm 11:4).

Help us hear it in your words and know it in our hearts.

You are in control.

As we head to the polls today to stand in lines, click buttons and get stickers, go before us. Stand next to us, and trail along behind us that we might be assured of your presence. “And surely I am with you always even to the ends of the earth” (Matthew 28:20).

And then as we wait, Lord, wait with us.

As the pundits and the talking heads spin this thing out all day and long into the night,  remind us of your kingdom in heaven. As we wring our hands, hold our breath and talk worriedly with our neighbors about who will be the next leader of this great nation, speak words of truth over us.

Help us, Lord to remember as we listen and watch that you are seated on your throne, and you are not anxious about our decisions.

Our pastor proclaimed it clearly from the pulpit on Sunday, and Lord we know it to be true, you are not anxious about our decisions. Speak that over us today, Lord.

Thousands of years ago, a man named Daniel prayed this prayer, Lord, help us pray it too.

“Praise be to the name of God forever and ever, wisdom and power are his. He changes times and seasons, he sets up kings and deposes them. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning…” (Daniel 2: 20-21, emphasis mine).

Daniel prayed these words as he stood far from his home of Israel. He was a captive in a foreign land, forced to serve a king who was legit crazy. A king who  set up golden statues of himself and insisted that the people worship them.

But, Daniel knew the truth. He knew that it didn’t matter who held the earthly power. God was still the one with the last word.

“He sets up kings and deposes them” (Daniel 2: 21).  May we hold fast to this promise that politics is no match for you, our God.

And Lord, may we remember the rules. The real ones. The ones that you sent your Son to speak right into your creation. The rules that we so often forget. May we remember them today, Lord.

“Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, and with all of your soul and with all of your mind…and love your neighbor as yourself.” 

Those are the rules we will choose to live by because you are a God who chose us even when we didn’t deserve it. You are a God who loves us, anyway.

You said it long ago to the stiff-necked, wandering fickle people of your beloved nation of Israel, “If my people who are called by  my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear them from heaven and forgive their sin and will  heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14).

May we turn and humble ourselves today, Lord.

May we seek your face that we might live in your love and walk in your ways all the days of our lives. May we know that you reign in our hearts and sit on the throne of our days no matter who sits in that Oval Office.

Bless our land and be among it’s people today, Lord.

Amen.