What Makes a Nation (Truly) Great? Day 1
Leslie Basham: Do you ever wonder what it will take to turn our nation around? Dan Jarvis says we each need to see change begin close to home.
Pastor Dan Jarvis: National turnaround doesn’t happen unless you turn around. We can post on our blog, or comment on social media, or share the latest meme, or be angry at the next politician, or march in the next march. None of that’s going to add up to national change unless you’re willing to change . . . and I’m willing to change.
Leslie: This is Revive Our Hearts with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth for Monday, November 7, 2016.
Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: So, what makes a nation great? Is it a strong economy? Is it military might? Innovation? Jobs? Education? What is it? Well, that question has come up a lot during this election year, and a lot of people have been expressing …
Leslie Basham: Do you ever wonder what it will take to turn our nation around? Dan Jarvis says we each need to see change begin close to home.
Pastor Dan Jarvis: National turnaround doesn’t happen unless you turn around. We can post on our blog, or comment on social media, or share the latest meme, or be angry at the next politician, or march in the next march. None of that’s going to add up to national change unless you’re willing to change . . . and I’m willing to change.
Leslie: This is Revive Our Hearts with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth for Monday, November 7, 2016.
Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: So, what makes a nation great? Is it a strong economy? Is it military might? Innovation? Jobs? Education? What is it? Well, that question has come up a lot during this election year, and a lot of people have been expressing a lot of opinions. But what does the Bible say?
Not long ago, I heard several friends raving about a message that they had heard from our friend, Dan Jarvis, at a local church in our area. Dan looked into God’s Word to see what it has to say about what makes a nation great. I wanted him to share this message with our Revive Our Hearts audience.
Here in the United States, we’re getting ready to vote tomorrow in what has been a crazy, topsy-turvy election. So I thought this would be a good time to stop and orient our minds on the truth of God’s Word and His plan for the nations, and to get some godly perspective on this question of, “What really makes a nation great?”
Now, before we get to Dan, I want to let you know that later this week I’ll be giving some perspective on the election. I’ll be reminding you of some bedrock truth that you can count on, no matter who ends up in the White House.
So if you’re anxious about the outcome or worried about our future, I hope you’ll be sure to join us on Thursday and Friday.
Dan Jarvis works for Life Action Ministries, the parent organization of Revive Our Hearts. He’s also the teaching pastor at Berrien Center Bible Church, near our headquarters in Michigan. Let’s listen.
Pastor Dan: Today we’re beginning a three-part series on what it means to be a humble nation. The Bible says (and I honestly believe in my heart) that humility is what makes any nation great. Of course that goes for individuals, too.
Greatness isn’t a function of how much money you can accumulate, or how much power you have, or how much you can influence people, or how famous you become. Greatness is a function of what God thinks of you. When God exalts you, when God lifts you up, that’s when you’re truly great.
Proverbs 29:23 says that pride ends in humiliation, while humility brings honor . . . humiliation vs. humility . . . that’s the choice that every one of us has to make and that every nation has to make. I want to take you in the Bible to Daniel chapter 5, to an empire long ago where pride was a problem. Even though they thought they were standing firm, they fell, and they fell very suddenly.
Daniel 5:1–2 says,
Many years later King Belshazzar gave a great feast for 1,000 of his nobles, and he drank wine with them. While Belshazzar was drinking the wine, he gave orders to bring in the gold and silver cups that his predecessor, Nebuchadnezzar, had taken from the Temple in Jerusalem. He wanted to drink from them with his nobles, his wives, and his concubines.
And we understand that those cups represented something. That represented a rebellion against God—that he would bring in these sacred artifacts from the temple in Jerusalem and intentionally thumb his nose at God and intentionally stand in front of God in pride.
Daniel 5:3–7:
While they drank from them they praised their idols made of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone. Suddenly, they saw the fingers of a human hand writing on the plaster wall of the king’s palace, near the lampstand. The king himself saw the hand as it wrote, and his face turned pale with fright. His knees knocked together in fear and his legs gave way beneath him.
The king shouted for the enchanters, astrologers, and fortune-tellers to be brought before him. He said to these wise men of Babylon, "Whoever can read this writing and tell me what it means will be dressed in purple robes of royal honor and will have a gold chain placed around his neck. He will become the third highest ruler in the kingdom!” But none of the king’s advisors could tell him what that handwriting meant (vv. 1–7).
All of them were, likewise, afraid. They were all standing there in fear . . . not just of what the hand had written, but of the fact that they were disappointing their king, and that they couldn’t interpret the message.
And that’s when the Scriptures tell us that the queen mother remembered that long ago in the kingdom there was a man named Daniel who had advised Nebuchadnezzar on such matters and had had a special connection to God. So they called for Daniel, and they brought him in. Verse 13 tells us that,
Daniel was brought in before the king. The king asked him, "Are you Daniel, one of the exiles brought from Judah by my predecessor, King Nebuchadnezzar? I have heard that you have the spirit of the gods within you and that you are filled with insight, understanding, and wisdom. My wise men and enchanters have tried to read the words on the wall and tell me their meaning, but they cannot do it. . . ."
Daniel answered the king, "Keep your gifts or give them to someone else, but I will tell you what the writing means. Your Majesty, the Most High God gave sovereignty, majesty, glory, and honor to your predecessor, Nebuchadnezzar. He made him so great that [all the] people of all races and nations and languages trembled before him in fear. He killed those he wanted to kill and spared those he wanted to spare. He honored those he wanted to honor and disgraced those he wanted to disgrace."But when his heart and mind were puffed up with arrogance, he was brought down from his royal throne and stripped of his glory. He was driven from human society. He was given the mind of a wild animal, and he lived among the wild donkeys . . . until he learned that the Most High God rules over the kingdoms of the world and appoints anyone he desires to rule over them.
"You are his successor, O Belshazzar, and you knew all this, yet you have not humbled yourself. For you have proudly defied the Lord of heaven and have had these cups from his Temple brought before you. You and your nobles and your wives and concubines have been drinking wine from them while praising gods of silver, gold, bronze, iron, wood, and stone—gods that neither see nor hear nor know anything at all. But you have not honored the God who gives you the breath of life and controls your destiny! So God has sent this hand to write this message.
"This is the message that was written: Mene, mene, tekel, and Parsin. This is what these words mean:
"Mene means 'numbered'—God has numbered the days of your reign and has brought it to an end.
Tekel means 'weighed'—you have been weighed on the balances and have not measured up.
Parsin means 'divided'—your kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes and Persians” (vv. 13–15, 17–28).
Now, none of what was said there was a future prophecy. This was very immediate! Right now, in this moment, the kingdom was being pulled from his hands. Belshazzar, of course, had no idea how that would happen.
But this wasn’t a prophecy to say, “If you don’t fix what’s wrong, if you don’t repent, something bad’s going to happen.” No. The handwriting on the wall said, “The moment is over. This is it. Your kingdom is being taken from you . . . now!”
The Scriptures continue to tell us in verse 29 that,
At Belshazzar’s command, Daniel was dressed in purple robes, and a gold chain was hung around his neck, and he was proclaimed the third highest ruler in the kingdom" (v. 29).
But I don’t think that position meant very much because of what the next verse says:
That that very night Belshazzar, the Babylonian king, was killed. And Darius the Mede took over the kingdom at the age of sixty-two (vv. 30–31).
You see, while Belshazzar was hosting this grand party to thumb his nose at God, this feast based on pride and the sense of invincibility—that he can do anything he wants, and he doesn’t need to listen to God . . . Meanwhile, outside the gates of his city, the Medo-Persian army was massing.
This had been a long-term siege, and there had been a long war that had gone on, and the kingdom of Babylon had slowly been losing territory. Now, the armies of their enemies were encircling their city, but their walls were so high (their defenses were deemed impenetrable) they still had the confidence that nothing could hurt them, that no one could ever get through that they could host a party. They didn’t have to worry what was going on outside the walls.
Well, the Persian army came up with a strategy to dry up the Euphrates River. As they diverted the river’s flow and the water level went down, it allowed that army to march right into the city unopposed and destroy the city and kill the king.
It was Belshazzar’s pride that led to his fall. Certainly that city could have defended itself, but they weren’t paying attention. They were so confident in what they had built. They were so confident that they could stand up before God and before any army in the world and do what they pleased—without any reference to humility. But in that moment they fell: Mene, Mene, Tekel, Parsin. The handwriting on the wall appeared and their kingdom came to an end. Why? It wasn’t for lack of financial resources. It wasn’t a political problem. It wasn’t even a military problem. The problem was pride!
Pride brought down one of the most powerful empires in world history. You see, every time that we stand up in pride, we set ourselves against God. James 4:6 says: “God [resists] opposes the proud but [He] gives grace to the humble” [ESV].
Every time that we stand up in pride, we set ourselves against God.
Every nation has a choice, and every one of us has a choice as well. We can either be on that receiving end of God’s grace as we humble ourselves before Him and recognize our need and stand before Him, not demanding our own way, not pushing for our own glory, not trying to accumulate for our own gain; but instead, stand before Him as a humble servant, stand before Him with a broken heart and a willing spirit. As we do that, God will give us grace; He’ll shower His favor upon us. And any nation that chooses to humble itself before God can experience that blessing and favor.
But as soon as our hearts are lifted up in pride, we go down the same road that the Babylonian empire went down so long ago.
- No nation is immune to this.
- No church is immune to this.
- No person is immune to this.
Pride always results in a fall. Humility is what it takes to be exalted in God’s sight and to have honor.
I was thinking about what that means for me. I live in America, and very obviously, when I look at the nation I live in, I see a drift away from humility and toward pride. People talk about making America great, or making America greater, or great again, but they’re going about it the wrong way.
Greatness is a function of humility. If we really want to be great, we have to humble ourselves before God. We have to kneel in His presence and pray and seek His face and turn from our evil and surrender to Him.
Now, personally, I don’t have control over what happens to my whole nation. And really, my circle of influence with my family and my kids and home and the church I go to and the people I work with, it’s a pretty small circle compared to a whole nation, a whole people group.
But I know that national change has to start with personal change. If I don’t want my nation to go down the road that Babylon went down, I can’t necessarily fix what happens in the government or what happens in the media, but I can look into my own heart. I can ask God to search me, to root out any of the vestiges of pride that might remain, to keep me in a place of humility and dependency upon Him.
I think there are a few steps any one of us could take if we want to walk that humble road, rather than go down the path of humiliation in the end. (It may be temporary glory, but ultimate humiliation.) If we want to walk down the road of humility and go ahead and admit what will be very obviously proven true in eternity—that no one can stand against God—well, there are a few things that we can do.
First, we can center our lives on Christ instead of on this world. When we think of what our lives mean, and what all the things we’re doing every day add up to, it’s not about how much we can get, or how good we feel about life, or how much we prosper, or even how much freedom we have.
In the end, our citizenship isn’t really of this world, and the purpose of our lives isn’t defined by what happens under the sun. Instead, we look toward heaven. We look toward Christ, and we keep our eyes focused on Him.
And I think that no matter what happens—as the governments of this world rise and fall, as we hear of wars and rumors of wars—if we keep our eyes focused on Christ, then in the end we’ll be on the right side.
Another thing I believe we have to do in a world that seems to get greatness all wrong is: we have to be willing to love people deeply, even if they hate us viciously. Jesus said not to be surprised if the world hates us.
If you’re a voice for humility, if you’re a voice for the gospel, if you’re a voice for light and truth, the people who are standing in pride are going to violently oppose you. They’re going to hate what you’re saying and what you stand for.
We can expect that. But as that happens, we can’t let our hearts get hard. Instead, we have to stand up in love, recognizing that all those people who oppose us—their trouble isn’t really in this world, either—their trouble is with God.
They were created to have a relationship with God, but because of their pride and their hard heart, they’re missing it. And so, we look at them with compassion and with love, and we extend to them the same kind of grace and compassion that Jesus extended to us.
Another thing that I think is important, whether you think the culture you live in is going the way of Babylon or not, is to note that national turnaround doesn’t happen unless you turn around.
National turnaround doesn’t happen unless you turn around.
We can post on our blog or comment on social media or share the latest meme or be angry at the next politician or march in the next march, but none of that is going to add up to national change unless you’re willing to change and I’m willing to change.
And that’s why, I think, that the call to repentance in the Bible is so personal. Even as a prophet might boldly stand before, say, the people of Israel, or the nation of Edom or something, and declare that they need to repent. The application of that wasn’t that they needed to pass a government decree or necessarily that they needed to change their leaders (although that’s probably not a bad idea sometimes.) The real issue was that they needed to bow their knees before God in humility and turn from their sin.
And if you and I are willing to do that, if we’re willing to say, “Lord, I don’t know what will happen to the world I live in or the nation I live in, but rather than pointing fingers at everyone else, Lord, I want You to put Your finger on me. I want You to begin Your reviving, transforming, renewing work in my heart.” It’s not just that I look out at the politicians who supposedly represent me and say, “Wow, they should do it differently.”
And it’s not even that I look over at my husband or my wife or my kids or my pastor and say, “If only they could get their act together, then we could get back on the right track!” No. “Lord, it’s not my brother or my sister that’s in need—it’s me who needs prayer!”
Now, in the days to come, we’re going to walk through more of what the Bible specifically says to nations—both in Bible times and nations today. But for today, I wonder if you would pause from what you’re doing and consider what it would look like for you to humble yourself. What would it look like for you to take a step of faith in recognizing that your life isn’t just about leaning on your own understanding and doing your own thing and forging your own way—and then bringing God in along with you when you choose?
What would it look like to have the kind of life we were created to live when we bow before Christ and say, “You can have my will! You can have me”? And it might be that before we get into the details of what humble nations look like and how we might be an advocate for change in the nation that we live in, it might be that God wants to begin a work in you—in your heart—right now.
Would say to Him, “Lord, I give you my pride—I give it up. Rather than standing against You, in opposition to You, trying to live out my own dreams and go my own direction, I just want to submit to Your leadership”?
I don’t know if that choice you would make would change your whole nation, but it would change you. It might change your family. And perhaps that change would make a ripple effect of change for the good all around you, whether or not anyone else repents.
I know I want to be on God’s side. Why don’t we take some time to pray and ask God specifically to search us. Ask God to humble us and take that first step toward Him . . . which might not be a bold step forward; it might be a step down to our knees.
Lord, all through history, nations have thought themselves to be great. Some have exalted themselves against you and then fallen. In fact, many have. We’re no different than them. We have the same tendency to see success around us and think that it’s because of how great we were—or how great we are.
We have the same tendency to live life without reference to Your Word, to not give You the honor and respect that You’re due. For that, Lord, we want to repent. Of course, we want to bow before You and pray that a great work of humility would begin in our nation, but, Lord, that You would do a great work of humility in us first.
Search us, God. Know us. Know our innermost being. Help us to confess our pride and those parts of our lives that have been defined by pride—maybe for so long that we don’t even realize it. Help us to step into new life with you—trusting in You, leaning on Your understanding instead of our own.
Lord, we trust in that promise in James 4:6, that You give grace to the humble. We reach out to You today and ask for that grace. Thank You, Lord, for the mercy that You’ve extended to each one of us, personally.
We pray that You would extend that same kind of mercy to the nations of the world who so desperately need it. We pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.
Nancy: That’s Pastor Dan Jarvis asking an important question: Will we as a nation approach the Lord with humility, or will we resist Him and face humiliation? Here in the United States, as we all know, we’re heading into a huge election tomorrow.
Throughout this process, we’ve been reminded that no human leader, no political party, can provide what we as a nation truly need. Only God can meet our greatest needs!
So, on this election day eve, would you take some time—wherever you live—to cry out to the Lord in humility on behalf of the United States of America? And then, pray for other nations that may be on your heart as well.
Dan Jarvis will be back with us tomorrow, continuing to show us what it means to be a humble nation. And later in the week, I’ll give you some post-election perspective from God’s Word. So, if you’re feeling nervous for our future, or disappointed in the political process—as so many are—be sure to tune in Thursday and Friday.
I’m going to be reminding us all of biblical truth that we can count on, no matter who is in the White House.
To close our time together on this election eve, we’re going to pray with Stephen Kendrick. Stephen is a movie producer who helped bring us the film War Room. The Lord has placed a special burden on his heart for prayer.
So, let’s aside the next few minutes and cry out together—as a Revive Our Hearts audience—at this critical time! Here’s Stephen Kendrick.
Stephen Kendrick: Would you join me in praying for America? Father, in Jesus’ name we just acknowledge that our country was founded because of You. We acknowledge that You founded America, that You established this great country.
Lord, we thank You for America! We thank You for the freedoms that we’ve enjoyed. But, Lord, we have turned away from You, as a nation. You see the sin that’s in the Church. You see our lukewarmness in the body of Christ.
You see the men who are addicted to pornography at home. You see the pastors who are not preaching Your Word. You see the division in our marriages and our families. You see our prayerlessness. You see our lack of evangelism.
We pray—God—that You would forgive us as a country and that You would forgive us as a Church for our sins against You! Lord, we have turned away from You as a nation. We have sought the answers of men rather than the answers of God. We have trusted in ourselves. We have been prideful, but we pray, God, that You would forgive us for our great sins. Would You revive Your Church again? Would You cleanse Your Church again?
Your Word says that You are washing Your Bride; You are sanctifying Your Bride. So, Lord, would You do that in America? Would You sanctify Your Bride? We know that we deserve Your judgment, O God, and we see evidences of that around us. But we pray that You would grant us repentance!
Your Word says in 2 Timothy 2 that You can grant repentance. We pray that You would grant us repentance, O God—that we wouldn’t just cry or we wouldn’t just confess, but we would turn away from our sins and we would turn back to You!
Lord, You are the pearl of great price. You are the great treasure in the field. Only You can give us love and joy and peace in our hearts, by Your Holy Spirit. I pray that we would turn away from the foolish things of this world, the things that don’t satisfy, and that we would turn back to You, that our hope would be in You, that our eyes would be upon You.
Lord, Your Word says that at Your right hand there are pleasures forevermore. Your Word says that if we would delight ourselves in You, that You will give us the desires of our hearts. You are the source of love and joy and peace—not anything in this world.
I pray that we would turn away from our sins, and we would turn back to You and that we would let go of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, and that we would seek the love of our Father.
We pray that You would wash us clean and You would change us. Lord, would You revive Your Church? Would You raise up pastors who will proclaim Your Word, Your truth—every Sunday—unapologetically, boldly from the pulpit. We pray that their fear of God would be greater than the fear of man. We pray that You would fill pastors with Your Holy Spirit when they step into the pulpit, and that they would proclaim the Word of God unapologetically and that they would proclaim the simplicity of the gospel of repentance without apology.
Lord, give them unction and boldness. Would You burden their hearts? Would You lead them every Sunday to the specific passage You want them to proclaim? I pray pastors would have Your fresh Word for their church every Sunday.
We ask that You would raise up godly men in the churches. Your Word says that men need to be meeting together, and without wrath and doubting they need to be praying—lifting up holy hands, interceding on behalf of their churches and on behalf of the nations. We pray that You would call men to prayer; that they would repent and cry out to You, and that You would hear their prayers.
Would You heal our homes? Would you restore our marriages? You want marriages to be a picture of Christ and His Bride, the Church. Lord, would You turn the hearts of husbands and wives back to one another?
Father, we pray for forgiveness to take place. Your Word says that if we don’t forgive others, You won’t forgive us. You’ve commanded us to forgive anyone who sins against us. Your Word says that when we’re praying, we should forgive if we have anything against anyone.
So, Lord, I pray right now that You would convict believers of unforgiveness in their hearts. If there’s anyone who we’re angry with, who we’re bitter with, that we would let You be the judge of that person and we would release them from the prison inside of our hearts. Help us show them the grace that they don’t deserve, that You have showed us through Christ. Lord, Your Word says we should be kind and tenderhearted, and we should forgive one another even as Christ has forgiven us. I pray we would fully forgive, from our hearts, anyone who is sinning against us.
Father, I know that unforgiveness in our hearts gives ground to the enemy. I know it dries us up spiritually. I know it hinders our prayer life. Wo I pray that You would show us if there’s anyone in our lives that we need to forgive, and that we, as believers in Jesus Christ, bought by Your blood—those who have been forgiven by Your grace—we would offer that same grace to those who have hurt us.
So, Lord, right now, we forgive those who have sinned against us, even as Jesus has forgiven us. Set us free from any bitterness. I pray You would refresh our lives spiritually by Your Holy Spirit as we forgive, so we do that now, in Jesus’ name.
Father, we pray in Jesus’ name that You would unify Your Church. We are joining Jesus in His prayer in John 17, that You would make the Church one, even as You are One. We pray that across racial and denominational lines You would unify the body of Christ—those who know Jesus as Lord, those who believe the Bible is the Word of God.
We have one Lord, one faith, and one baptism, one God and Father of all—Your Word says. So, Lord, we pray that around these things—these fundamentals—You would unify Your Church, and that together in unity, we would seek Your face with one heart and one voice and mind, that we would glorify You—our One God.
Father, we pray that You would send the gospel to the nations. Lord Jesus, You said that the gospel would be preached to the ends of the earth. We pray that we would be part of the fulfillment of this prayer. Would you fill us with Your Holy Spirit and make us witnesses to the nations?
Wherever we are, Lord, we pray—in our homes, at our churches, in our communities—that we would be proclaiming and modeling and living out the beautiful gospel of grace! Would You use us to take the gospel to the ends of the earth?
Would You use all the means that You have laid before us? Would You help us to preach the gospel? Would You help us to pray the gospel? Would You help us to write the gospel? Lord, we pray that You would use the Internet to proclaim and take the gospel to the ends of the earth.
We pray that You would use television, movies, books, music—any means we have before us. We pray that You would take the gospel to the ends of the earth, and that we would be a part of helping every nation and every tribe and every tongue come to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
Lord, we love You. Father, we pray that You would convict the Church of her sins. Would You search us, O God, and know our hearts? Would you try us and know our anxious thoughts? Would You see if there’s any wicked way in us and lead us in the way everlasting?
We pray that by the power of Your Holy Spirit You would reveal to the hearts of believers any unconfessed sin in their lives. You see it already. You know that when we try to hide it; You already know about it.
But You say that if we confess our sins, You are faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Your Word says if we say that we have no sin, if we say we have not been in sin, we’re lying—we’re calling You a liar.
But You said if we confess our sin, You are faithful and just to forgive us. Because of the cross of Christ, it is just that You forgive us, because He paid it all on the cross. We pray that You would forgive us of our sin, and that You would cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Lord, we love You today. I pray that You would encourage Your Church.
When we look around, we see all that’s going on in our nation. We see the economic problems in our nation; we see the racial division in our nation. You see the writhing in the streets. You see the fighting that’s going on in our nation.
Father, You see the division that politics is causing. You see the problems that are going on in our nation. I pray You would encourage Your Church. Lord, would You take everything evil that the enemy is trying to do and turn it around for a greater good?
Your Word says that we should not be overcome by evil, but we should overcome evil with good. So I pray that as the body of Christ, we would stand in who we are in Jesus and our identity in Christ and that You would help us to fully put on the armor of God and to be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Help us to stand against the lies of the enemy and to pray at all times with all prayer and supplication.
I pray that we—the body of Christ—would unite together and would rise up in power and would pray according to Your will and to Your Word and that we would proclaim the gospel and the Word of God unapologetically. And we pray You would use us to advance Your kingdom in our generation. I pray this in Jesus’ name.
Father, in Jesus' name, we lift up this election to You. Our eyes are not on men or a political party. Our eyes on You, Lord Jesus! Your Word says that every man and woman will stand before You and be judged one day. We are accountable for how we vote in this election. I pray that You would prompt believers by Your Holy Spirit to pray according to Your Word and then to vote according to Your Word. Help us to take our eyes off men and political parties, and help us to fix our eyes on You in this situation.
I pray that You would unite believers around Your Word. Your Word says that You want leaders to fear Your Name, so I pray that You would give us godly leaders in our country—at the local level, at the national level, in the Senate, in the Supreme Court, in the White House. We pray that You would give us people that fear Your name, and You would establish them in office.
Even as You took down Haman and You raised up Mordecai, we pray that You would take down the “Hamans” in our generation. Even as you removed Haman from office and You raised up Mordecai in the Scriptures, we pray that You would remove the Hamans in our generation—those that want to shed innocent blood.
We pray that You would raise up Mordecais—you would raise up men and women who fear Your name and love Your Word and who will make decisions in leadership that will please you—men and women who will pray and fear Your Name and will obey Your Word and will honor You in office.
Would You cause believers to run for office? Would You prompt believers who have been faithful in business, faithful in family, faithful in church to rise up and become faithful leaders in our country—at the local level and at the national level?
Lord, would You help us to pray—as believers—for our leaders who are over us? Your Word says that first of all, there should be prayers and petitions and thanksgiving and supplication made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority over us because it is Your desire that all men be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.
So we lift up our leaders before You. We pray You would give us godly leaders, but whoever is in office, I pray that believers would pray for them, that we would pray that the fear of God would be on their decisions, that we would pray that You would be empowering and guiding their decisions by Your Holy Spirit.
Lord, we know that we deserve Your judgment in this election, but we’re asking for mercy. We’re praying that we as believers will unite together and vote according to Your will and Your ways.
We want to stand before You and hear, “Well done!” for how we vote and how we pray and how we live. Lord, help us to act according to Your Word and Your will. When we vote, help us not to fear men or care about anybody else. Help us to fear You in our decision making. We ask that You would be glorified through this election. Regardless of what happens, our eyes are on You! We pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.
Revive Our Hearts with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth is an outreach of Life Action Ministries.
All Scripture is taken from the NLT unless otherwise noted.
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