A Transcendent Prayer For The Present Age

by Darryl L. Fortson

Heavenly Father,

  All praise be to the Living God and to Your Son Jesus Christ through whom alone the promise of salvation to those who confess their sins and acknowledge You as their Lord and Savior can be fulfilled!

  Lord God, we come before You in this present age as participants and observers in the life and times of the United States of America, in the year 2025. Many of us move about with heavy hearts as we bear witness to changes in the laws and actions of our nation which unction our spirits that all is not well here, and that if our nation maintains its current course, all will not only not be well in the not-too-distant future, but that in fact, things will be much, much worse.

  Our hearts are heavy not just because our government is doing things that our minds and spirits do not perceive as being wise or just. After all, no government ever does everything that we agree with, and we find over time that some of the laws and policies that we think are wrong actually sometimes produce good results, and vice-versa. Therefore, our concern rests not only in our unreadiness with these changes, but also with the haste, recklessness, self-service, mercilessness, and the delight in brutality with which we see these changes being made. Lord, in your Holy Word, you caution Your people to “remove not the old landmarks” and to ”stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein.”

  But we are not doing that. Our nation and its leaders are quickly breaking covenant with our longstanding allies throughout the world, even as we sow alliances with the brutal, the corrupt, and those that pledge allegiance to you even as their hearts are far from you – men who, instead of meeting hate with just and righteous force, choose to meet hate with hate. Men who bomb children, men who cut taxes to the insanely wealthy even as they deny bread to the hungry, shelter to the homeless, and life-saving medicines to the afflicted. These same men - and their female co-conspirators - tirelessly craft schemes to pervert or gut current laws in order to empower racism and sexism. Meanwhile, even leaders those who stand in opposition often carry their own burdens of hypocrisy and scandal.

At first, those of us who oppose these actions have responded by shaking our fists at those who wield this power for our ill. We have blamed them, lashed out at them, and called them vile names because we see them alone as the problem. But again, your priceless and wonderful Word teaches us to pursue wisdom and understanding as a thing of great value. And when we climb higher to a transcendent height to view it, beyond our predominant emotions and our current circumstances - we can see ourselves better, and as we truly are -in the midst of all of this mess.

  What we see, Lord, is that our leaders and their compatriots and minions are not just “people,” but “mirrors,” so that when we are looking at the foulness of their hearts and the evil of their deeds, we are in fact also looking at our own selves. Some of us say, “but we are not like them!” or “we didn’t vote for them!” or “we did not believe they would do the things they said they would do, or certainly not in the cruel ways they are doing them!” But wisdom reveals to us that those things are not really the point. It shows us that in a nation that is blessed with the power to choose its leaders, we then choose the leaders of our collective heart's desire. We choose leaders like us because “like chooses like.” And when we choose sinister leadership, it is not only because of those who go out and vote for it, but also because of those who don’t vote at all, or because prior leaders failed to address these problems forthrightly or with integrity, or because we all – including myself – contribute to weakness of our nation through our own personal sinful conduct. When we worship other gods – gods of wealth and greed, gods of tribe and race and hate, gods of oaths of fraternity and sorority and club not explicitly and solely of You, gods of lust and the “freak off,” gods of self-satisfaction and self-stimulation, gods of willful ignorance and mockery of the less fortunate, the marginalized, and the foreigner in our midst - we contribute, regardless of our political views or affiliations, whether knowingly or unknowingly - to the power of darkness. And for that, we can and should blame no one, save ourselves.

  Knowing now that these “lovers of themselves” are simply reflecting the character within us that Your Word informs us shall overtake men in these latter days, we understand that no one can change what is seen in the mirror by getting “a new mirror.” Instead, the man or woman in the mirror must begin to be non-conforming to the spirit of the age so that his or her mind can be transformed through renewal, so that Your good and acceptable and perfect will may be known and done.

  Therefore, Your Word has enlightened to understand that perhaps Your purpose for allowing people so malevolent and self-serving to lead us was to take us through a season of anxiety, loss, and suffering so that we would see ourselves as the individual and collective sinners that we truly, truly are, so that we would repent and turn away from our own individual transgressions in order for the mirror of leadership in America would then show us “a new creature” in Christ.

  Finally Lord, You said in 2 Chronicles 7:14, “if my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” And so, we pray that Your Holy Spirit will, at Your appointed time, assemble the people of this nation in one physical place for a March of American Repentance to atone for the sins and transgressions that we have collectively committed against You that have brought on the financial, social, health, academic, diplomatic and military chaos, and the suffering, loss, and even deaths that are sure to visit us and our world in the coming months and years as we rush headlong into grossly unwise policies and actions of tremendous long-term, harmful consequence. We pray that, for those who truly believe in the power of the Blood of Jesus and who are not working to make people’s lives more difficult than they already are, that You would see that Blood over the doorposts of their homes, their spirits, and their hearts, and protect them from harm and the devil.

  But for those who delight with orgasmic pleasure in inflicting pain, terror, and despair on the weak and the powerless, Lord we pray that they would drink from the cup that the Psalmist says is reserved for the wicked as they approach eternal judgment. For we know you are a just God, that you are not mocked, and that no one gets away with anything, but through the mercy of Christ Jesus – a Savior they misrepresent, or decline to acknowledge, obey, or both.

Lord God, we pray this prayer that our nation may be saved. And if not our nation, then our eternal souls. In Jesus' name. Amen.