If My People Pray: Verses to Pray for Our Nation

It seems as if every 4 years there is an epidemic of hand-wringing leading up to the presidential election.  Supporters of each side fears that their opponent will bring certain destruction and annihilation by their dangerous policies.  With my political observations stretching back as far as childhood, having been raised on AM news radio, I feel that I can say with some degree of certainty that NEVER in my lifetime has there been an election cycle where so many were afraid of both candidates.  I know of many splitting from the party they’ve supported their entire lives to support a third party or write in candidate, while some are even casting their ballots across the aisle. 

Despite being immensely fortunate to live in a democracy, political predicaments like this can leave us feeling completely powerless.  We do our duty and cast our vote but are tempted to think, “I know which way my state will go, this is an exercise in futility.”  While I’m sure that there are many political science majors who could argue either side of this fatalistic thought until the next election, the rest of us are thinking, “Ok, I voted, what else can I do?”  The answer is one that may sound cliché at first but is, in fact, the most powerful… you can pray.

Please don’t misunderstand this as a call to toss up the ol’ last resort, hail mary pass prayer.  No, I’m talking about taking advantage of your access, as a follower of Christ, to have direct communication with the sovereign master of the universe.  As I’ve heard Chip Ingram say, “This is not a ‘now I lay me down to sleep’ prayer”.  We’re talking about earth-shaking, history-making, hell-shattering prayer.  So how do we do that?

Well, the Bible is pretty clear that our prayers are most effective when they are prayed with faith and when they are aligned with God’s will rather than our own.  As 1 John 5:14 says “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.” This is modeled for us in the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”  And the fastest way I’ve found to identify God’s will is by looking at what He’s already revealed in scripture.

This helps us avoid the trap of praying for things that align with our politics or our reasoning but don’t align with what The Lord wants.  After all, he’s the one who has all the information, the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.  He’s not relying on what a political candidate said on the campaign trail for his decisions.  He knows what crises will come and how each candidate would react.  He knows about private character and hidden loyalties.  He knows it all.  So let’s get with His program and pray that His will be done, on our little patch of earth, as it is in heaven.

Below are a few prayers that have been derived from the scripture listed beside it.  I hope you will join me in lifting up our nation and our leaders:

Lord, we come to you, praying for our nation and its leaders because your word says that you are both willing and able to answer our prayers, Your Word says that if your people, not everyone else, but your people, who are called by your name will humble ourselves, pray and seek your face and turn from our evil ways, you will hear from heaven, forgive our sin, and heal our land. (2 Chron 7:14) Lord, we humble ourselves now and lay our sins, not the sins of our neighbors, before you and ask for your power to help us turn from them so that you may heal our land.   

We know that it is you, Lord, who changes the times and seasons; You set up kings and depose them. You give wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning.  Please cause our leaders to ask for your wisdom and discernment that you may give it to them.  (Dan. 2:21) Your Word also says that kingship belongs to the Lord, and You rule over the nations." (Ps. 22:28)

We come to you with petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving for all people— for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.  We know that it pleases you when we pray for everyone from the least to the greatest because you want everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

 (1 Tim. 2:1-4)

 Finally, Lord your Word tells us "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." (Phil. 4:6-7) We have come to you now with our requests and give thanks that you are in control, please enable us to continually walk in your peace, which boggles our minds.

Your Word says that the one who trusts in You, whose confidence indeed is the Lord, is blessed.  He will be like a tree planted by water: it sends its roots out toward a stream, it doesn’t fear when heat comes, and its foliage remains green. It will not worry in a year of drought or cease producing fruit. (Jer. 17:7-8) We know that regardless of what events happen around us, IF we put our trust and confidence in You alone, we will flourish and will not be concerned or in a panic when tough times come.  Instead, we will continue to be fruitful and thrive.

We love you and are thankful that you care for us and involve yourself in the affairs of humans.  We thank you for the sacrifice of Christ, because it is only through his blood that we are even able to come to you at all.  It is in His name and for His sake we pray.  Amen.

Reflection Lake, Mt. Rainier National Park

I Believe, Help My Unbelief

Unbelief is one of those topics that we Christians tend to steer clear of like a sewer manhole without a cover. Wouldn’t admitting to bouts and struggles with unbelief be tantamount to divorcing ourselves from our very identity?  We call ourselves “believers” for crying out loud!  Not at all.  In fact, we even see in scripture (Mark 9:24) the story of a man who said “I believe, help my unbelief”.  We sometimes chuckle at his mid-sentence realization that what he was saying didn’t match up with what he was actually experiencing.  But I think if we look closer we find almost a formula for how to deal with doubts.  He stated that he did believe, but recognized there were still pockets of doubt lurking in his heart and mind and instead of only saying “I believe” to look good in front of Jesus, he was honest with where he was and immediately blurted out the confession, “help my unbelief”. 

And this, my friends, is what I think Jesus was after all along (and still is).  He’s after a relationship with us and he has already paid dearly to make that possible.  But as anyone with even cursory social skills knows, every true healthy relationship is built on honesty.  We fall into our enemy’s trap when we think that something we have thought or done needs to be hidden from God. Newsflash: He already knows.  Hiding from God when we’ve screwed up is literally one of the oldest tricks in The Book and the Enemy’s purpose of it is to create relational distance between us and the one who created us. 

Interestingly, I don’t think that the answer to unbelief is to avoid every topic we run into that causes confusion or doubt, tossing them back into the corner of our minds until they become an overwhelming avalanche of questions we’ve convinced ourselves that God can’t answer before we’ve ever even asked Him directly.  While the word is clear that we should not waste our time on a lot of pointless debates (2 Tim 2:23) with other people, I do believe that we are supposed to bring those doubts to God; Immediately, if not sooner. (as my 5^th grade teacher used to say).

There was a time in my college years that I secretly began to doubt if God was real or not.   Given that my entire identity, family, and friends were all rooted in the belief in Christ, this was a very real crisis for me.  In some of those really hard moments, I would pray like this, “God if you are real,…”.  I now look back on this time as me banging my fists against God’s chest while He held me in his arms.  While I hope that you are not that far down into the pit of despair, one thing I can tell you from experience.  He can handle it.  He is still God.  His feelings won’t be hurt when you tell him where you’re really at, He, in fact already knows and is waiting for you to bring it to him rather than trying to fix it yourself by drumming up religious feelings and listening to more Christian music.

So I guess my point is, whether you are doubting that He promised you what you think he did, that He really meant what he said in the Bible about (insert countercultural verse here), whether or not Christ is really God, or if you even finding yourself questioning if there is a God at all, TAKE IT TO GOD, regardless of what you believe at this second, He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.  He’s not insecure.  He can take it.

-Renee Moreland

Sea of Galilee, Israel Trip 2016

Maze Rat Calls a Time Out

Caution: Read this with a heaping helping of extra grace.  I'm just starting to practice the whole writing for public consumption thing and I'm sure my writing still leaves much to be desired.  Carry on.

So… what would possess a career driven, able-bodied, 33 year old single woman to take a 4 month unpaid sabbatical?*  This had to be rolling around in the heads of my friends and family when I announced my decision to press pause on my career for a few months. 

Its no secret that I was extremely burned out.  For those of you who travel for work, I’ll say it in our language, I was Premier 1K with United by September 1^st this year.  And have been 1K and Platinum the two years before that.  And that is all with strictly domestic travel. 

The problem has never been that I hated my job, in fact, I was so passionate about the product I represent and how great it is for patients that I would do anything, anytime, anywhere to support its proper use and advancement.  And not to mention, it made me feel important.  (Its not like its brain surgery or anything, oh wait, yeah it is.)  And with a dwindling handful of experts from the original startup, my ego was stroked regularly as I was identified as being indispensable.  That’s the goal right? Being indespensible.  Or is it? 

Earlier this year, while I was starting to develop chaffing from all the pats on the back I was getting, I had a moment where I was so spent that as I was driving down the road, I had this thought that “I just need this to stop, I just need to make this stop”.  If that’s not a sign of burnout, I don’t know what is.  I felt like I was on a cross between a hamster wheel and a rat maze.  Regardless, this particular rodent felt nothing like Mighty Mouse and I was completely out of control of my situation.  This was very much a “Jesus Take The Wheel” type moment. 

As much as I love and get an incredible amount of fulfillment from my job, it doesn’t take an expert to figure out that virtually every other area of my life had taken a hit for my work.  I was only able to shoehorn in enough time to maintain relationship with about two of my non-work friends and lets not even talk about the heights from which my physical fitness and nutrition had fallen.  (Timehop, you are an accuser of the bretheren and I rebuke you and your pictures of me at Crossfit competitions in 2012). 

As far as service goes, the most I could manage during this time is about 8 hours a month split between two of my favorite ministries and even those I forgot about several times or begged off because I was exhausted from a flight that morning. 

But that’s probably enough in the “Rationale/Complaining/#DearLordDoesSheEverShutUp section.

On the flip side of all this exhaustion, I have so many other things I want to do with my life, so many other passions.  I LOVE writing (oh, you guessed that one did you? Gold Star.), being in community with other people (Christianese for “I like to have people all up in my life and business), the challenge that comes from pushing yourself to high levels of physical fitness, leisurely drinking my coffee in the morning, oh and Paleo cooking.  I LOVE to eat, I mean cook! (stay tuned for paleo recipes and food pics) :)

So that’s it.  After much prayer and some pretty clear confirmation, I decided to use some of the money I’d saved to take 4 months off instead of putting it towards buying more things that I would not have time to enjoy anyway.  I decided to reverse the normal transaction and exchange some money to get my time back.  I’ll report back periodically to discuss the challenges, successes and tips I stumble upon, but one week in, I think it’s the best purchase I’ve ever made in my life.

-Renee

“Look I am about to do something new; even now it is coming.  Do you not see it?  Indeed, I will make a way in the wilderness, rivers in the desert.” Isaiah 43: 19

*my employer has requested I refer to it as “personal leave”

Post-workout breakfast this AM, delicious Central Market peppered uncured nitrite free bacon, eggs fried in fat of aforementioned bacon, and sweet potato mash w/salt, pepper, garlic powder, and green onions.  Oh, and that delectable Taste of San Antonio coffee from the HEB with almond milk and honey.