Every Wednesday we invite you to Pause & Pray with us. Today’s Pause & Pray comes from Drew Theo Alum Martin Bowman, T ’22, and is adapted from a devotion shared with his congregation.

Pray

Dear God, this election year, we choose love for our neighbors as the foundation of our prayers and petitions. We choose love when the environment challenges us to pick one side and shun the other. We ask that you see our frustration, annoyance, and anger at unrighteousness and our pain. We ask that you see our disappointment in the world we live in. Please help us to have more grace and be better examples of that grace. Thus, we lift our voices in prayer for our country –

• We pray for protection for all candidates.
• We pray the candidates will humble themselves and seek Your guidance.
• For those who don’t follow Christ, we pray they seek wise counsel and be encouraged by the character, integrity, and actions of the Christians they observe.
• Thank you, Lord, for elected officials who believe Your truth. Send them godly wisdom and good counselors. Please give them the strength to choose integrity.
• We ask that all candidates have listening ears and soft hearts.
• Teach us as a nation to focus less on getting our way and more on loving our neighbors, especially the most oppressed and vulnerable. Let our leaders hear the cries of every voice.
• We pray that our candidates address poverty and justice issues and show the strength, integrity, and courage to do what is right.
  In closing, You have asked us to reconcile with our brothers as You have reconciled with us. Forgive us for the times we failed to treat others as Your creation. Forgive us for celebrating unloving behavior in our candidates and our leaders. We pray for respect and civility in candidates and the electorate as well. We acknowledge You as Sovereign. Give Your people the strength to lead by example with radical, world-changing love. Amen.

Meditate

This coming election occurs amid a dangerous spirit of discord and partisan nastiness. People have a right to their opinions, beliefs, and agendas. As a free and pluralistic nation, we cherish the right to express grievances and argue points of view to reach consensus and mutually beneficial policies. We elect leaders who legislate policies that, despite individual sacrifices, will achieve a better world for all, benefitting everyone from the penthouse to the projects.
Sadly, this airing of grievance and cries of complaint, amplified by social media, have pushed us into a dangerous diet of divisiveness. Thus, we’ve abandoned the true spirit of evangelism, no longer trying to convince or convert those with whom we differ. We’ve drunk the poison of resentment, engaging in blatant demonization of anyone who doesn’t believe as we do, worship as we do, love as we do, or live as we do. Everybody isn’t going to look like us, think like us, love like us…… But we are called to love them anyway.

Jesus said (John 15:12,) “Love each other as I have loved you.” Apostle Paul says (Ephesians 4:3) – “ Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” Paul told Pastor Timothy, “I urge, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession, and thanksgiving be made for all people— for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.” God promised that if God’s people would humble themselves, confess their sins, fall on their knees, and pray, God would heal their land. Let us do as God commands.

Image: Adobe stock photo licensed to Martin Bowman.