January 22, 2021
**This prayer was originally posted on FOXNEWS 1.20.2021 – http://ow.ly/JPMw50DdGI8
There are times in prayer when I seem at a loss for words. This is one of those times. With all of the turmoil, confusion, anger, fear, division and upheaval as we transition to a new administration; with COVID keeping us confined and separated from each other, I know I need to pray, but how? And so I have turned to the familiar prayer that Jesus taught us to pray, putting it into my own words:
Our Father.
You are seated on Heaven’s throne in glory, majesty, and supreme authority. You are in charge. You don’t make mistakes. You have promised that You will be with us, even when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death.[1] You use hard times to get us to look up. So we look up! Now! We turn to You! Thank You for Your promise that when we come to You through faith in Your Son, Jesus Christ, You will hear our prayer because we are Your children. [2]
We reverence Your name. Yahweh. Yeshua. Jesus. You have declared that at the sound of Your name one day, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that You are Lord.[3] You have revealed that Your name is far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age, but also in the one to come.[4] You have been our Help in ages past, and You are our Hope for years to come. You are the God of our founding fathers. You are our God in whom we as a nation have put our trust.
We pray that You would exercise Your authority, fulfilling Your purpose on this earth…in this nation…so that Your will is carried out here as it is in Heaven. Because we know Your will is good, perfect, and pleasing to those who live according to it.[5] Your will works. All that is said and done outside of Your will is like chaff that the wind blows away.[6]
Now…with so many of us in dire financial need…with businesses shuttered and incomes shrinking…please. Provide for us. Give us what we need each day: food, clothing, rent, house payments, and other necessities. Protect us from this deadly pestilence. Restore health to those who are sick.
Many of us feel deeply hurt by others. In response, we choose to forgive those who have attacked us, slandered us, divided us, betrayed us, belittled us, wounded us and deceived us. We know that if we don’t forgive those who have sinned against us, You will not forgive us our sin against You. So we forgive one another. Now. As we do, heal our hearts.
We pray You would deliver us from any evil agendas and powers, either foreign or domestic, visible or invisible, that would seek to take advantage of us at this vulnerable moment. Protect us. Guard us. Defend us. Keep us from giving in to temptation to believe the end justifies the means; to plot a course for this nation that is in opposition to You; to wound those who have wounded us; to seek revenge and retribution. We need You now, more than ever.
Today we acknowledge that Yours is the glory and the power. You have the final word. You keep the books. You are the Judge of both the living and the dead.[7] One day each of us will stand before You and be held accountable for the way we have lived…what we have said and what we have done. Help us to live every day in the light of who You are with That Day on our minds.
In the name of the One who taught us to pray…Jesus.[8]
Amen
[1] Psalm 23:4
[2] John 1:12; 16:24
[3] Philippians 2:10-11
[4] Ephesians 1:21
[5] Romans 12:2
[6] Matthew 3:12
[7] 1 Peter 4:5
[8] Matthew 6:9-13
January 1, 2021
**THIS PRAYER WAS FIRST SHARED ON FOXNEWS 1/2/2021 https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/anne-graham-lotz-new-year-prayer
As I look ahead into 2021, I feel compelled to pray! Until God answers. On this first day of the New Year, join me as we wrap our prayers around God’s promise in the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy 11:12-13…
Our land …is a land of mountains and valleys that drinks rain from heaven. It is a land that the Lord your God cares for; the eyes of the Lord your God are continually on it from the beginning of the year to its end. If you faithfully obey the commandments …to love the Lord your God and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul—then I will send rain on your land in its season…
O God of ages past.
You alone are our Hope for years to come. We bow before You acknowledging Your greatness and Your glory. No one compares to You. No one is Your equal. We look at Your creation and marvel at the infinite power and wisdom that are Yours. Nothing is beyond Your reach. “You bring out all the starry host one by one, and call them each by name. Because of Your great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing…You pitch a tent for the sun…It rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other; nothing is hidden from its heat…Where can I go from Your Spirit? Where can I flee from Your presence? If I go up to the heavens, You are there; if I make my bed in the depths, You are there.” [1] There is nowhere in all the Universe where You are not. Surely Your arm “…is not too short to save, nor [Your] ear too dull to hear.”[2]
We saw Your signal, the “Christmas Star,” on December 21st that compelled us to look up. So as we enter into the New Year, help us to keep looking up. To regain our focus. On You.
God of our fathers. Lord of the nations. You are the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. No one can understand Your ways. But we turn to You. Now. “Are You not the God who is in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. Power and might are in Your hand, and no one can withstand You.”[3]
Did we not establish our nation as one nation under God? Have we not pledged, “In God We Trust”?
As we look ahead into the New Year, we choose to place our trust in You. If “…the kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord,”[4] we trust in You. If “…the earth gives way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging,”[5] we trust in You. Though …”nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall…,”[6] we trust in You. When …”the wicked draw the sword and bend the bow to bring down the poor and needy, to slay those whose ways are upright…,[7]” we trust in You. When “deadly pestilence” stalks our land[8]…we will trust in You. We trust You. We trust You! We invite You to have Your way in our lives. In our nation.
As we look into 2021, we come face to face with a mess. What can be done to save us from ourselves? Even as the question reverberates in our minds, the answer is given: the solution to our spiritual and moral meltdown—to the restoration of the crumbling foundation of our nation—to reconciliation with each other and healing of the political polarization–is not a new administration, nor the economy, nor health care or welfare or immigration reforms, nor free higher education, nor the court system, nor a vaccine. You are the Answer. You are the Solution. Yet instead of turning to You, we seem to be turning farther and farther away from You. But not now. Now we turn back. We turn around. We run to You. We cling to You. We plead with You…
Turn to us! Draw near to us![9] If You do not help us, we will be defenseless. If You do not protect us, we will be exposed to danger. If You do not deliver us from evil, we will be overcome by it. If You do not have plans to give us hope and a future, we will slide into the past tense as a nation.[10] Into oblivion.
Father of all mercies. You have said that our land is a land that You, the Lord our God, care for; that Your eyes are continually on it from the beginning of the year to its end.[11] As You look on our nation from this day forward, from January 1st to December 31st, 2021, we ask for what we know we don’t deserve. We ask for Your blessing.
O God our Father, bless us. Give us ears to hear the Good News of redemption for the past…hope for the future… joy for the present regardless of circumstances… love that is unconditional, boundless, and eternal[12]… peace that passes all understanding[13]…all found through faith in Your Son, Jesus Christ.
And now, God of grace, as we pre-prayer for the New Year, we ask that You send down the “rain” of Your blessing in fullness. Protect us. Defend us. Comfort us. Hear our prayer. Forgive our sin. Heal our land.
For the glory of Your great name…JESUS,
Amen
[1] Isaiah 40:25-26, Psalm 19:4, 6; 139:7-8
[2] Isaiah 59:1
[3] 2 Chronicles 20:6
[4] Psalm 2:2
[5] Psalm 46:2-3
[6] Psalm 46:6
[7] Psalm 37:14
[8] Psalm 913-7
[9] James 4:8
[10] Jeremiah 29:11-13
[11] Deuteronomy 11:11
[12] Ephesians 3:14-19
[13] Philippians 4:7
His word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot. JEREMIAH 20:9
Our Father, who is in Heaven, we worship You as the living God of Daniel. You set the heavens in place and laid the foundations of the earth.1 In a world that changes and undulates like the surface of the sea, You and Your Word are unshaken. You are the Creator who spoke everything into existence through the power of Your Word.2 Your thoughts are as high above our thoughts as the heavens are higher than the earth.3 Who could know what’s on Your mind and in Your heart except as You choose to reveal Yourself to us? And You have! You are Light.4 You have made Yourself visible and knowable through the pages of our Bibles. And Your Word is our life.5 It is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens.6 There is no shadow of turning with You.7 From age to age, from generation to generation, You and Your Word do not change.
Thank You for being utterly trustworthy. We find security and hope in knowing we can take You at Your Word. You are a Gentleman. You do not mock Your children. We can stand firmly on Your promises, which are like prophecy. They will come to pass because what You say is so. They resonate deep within our hearts; like sparks of life falling on our dry spirits, they ignite a holy passion for You and what You want.
When we lack fire and zeal for You, Your Word, Your will and Your wants, we have only to look at the priority we have given to our Bible reading and study. We confess we have been neglectful of Your Word. There are days when we go without reading it. And there are many days when we read it but we don’t take the time to process what we are reading. When we close our Bibles we don’t even remember what we read. No wonder we don’t know how to pray! So when we do pray we have cared more about our wants than Your wants. We often tell You what’s on our minds without ever asking what’s on Yours. We pour out our hearts to You, but quickly leave our prayer time without waiting to listen to Your heart.
We have been . . .
deaf to Your voice,
willful in our ways,
self-centered
in our wants,
shallow in our thoughts,
and miserly in our love.
We are deeply ashamed.
Let us know that the work of prayer is to bring our
wills to Yours,
And that without this it is folly to pray; When we try to bring Your will to ours it is to command You, to be above You, and wiser than You; this is our sin and pride.
We can only succeed when we pray
According to Your precept and promise,
According to Your sovereign will.
And now, O God who has ears to hear and listens to Your children as we pray, we ask that You would teach us to pray according to Your Word. We want our wills to conform to Yours. Mold our lives according to Your Word. We want to ask You for what You have already purposed to give us, to do for us, and to do through us, yet will not do so until we ask. We don’t want to get to Heaven and discover all the answers to prayer for which we never bothered to ask You, because we were ignorant of Your Word.8 We don’t want to get to Heaven and hear of all the blessings You wanted to pour out on others through us, only to find that our self-focus and self-centeredness had blocked the flow.
So come down, most Holy Lord. Look on our
world . . .
On the battlefields and the mine fields,
On the corruption and the destruction,
On the greed and the need,
On the strategy sessions and the spinning deception,
On the sin that’s flaunted and the sin that’s hidden,
On the murders and the misery,
On the abuse and the arrogance,
On the victim and the vice . . .
On our foundation that is cracking,
On our nation that is crumbling,
On Your church that is sleeping,
On Your people who are crying out to You.
Teach us to pray according to Your Word with such power that Heaven is moved and our nation, and our world, are changed.
We ask all of these things in the name of the One who said, “Here I am . . . I have come to do your will, O God . . .”9 then got up from Heaven’s throne, made Himself nothing, took on the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled Himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross!10
We pray in the name of the One whom You have exalted to the highest place . . . the One to whom You have given the name that is above every name . . .11
We pray in the name of JESUS.
For the glory of Your Name.
Amen.
1. Isaiah 51:16.
2. Genesis 1:3, John 1:1–3.
3. Isaiah 55:9.
4. 1 John 1:5.
5. Deuteronomy 32:47.
6. Psalm 119:89.
7. James 1:17.
8. Ezekiel 36:37.
9. Hebrews 10:7.
10. Philippians 2:6–8.
11. Philippians 2:9–10.
**This Prayer is adapted from The Daniel Prayer, Anne Graham Lotz, Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, MI, 2016
The unmistakable sound of the Shofar could be heard coming from the wall surrounding Jerusalem, echoing across the sun-scorched valley. The blowing of the trumpet heralded great public distress and was used to summon the people. It was the first century B.C. and a severe drought was threatening the very existence of the city. So the city elders called for the people to gather outside the city walls. Then they sent for Honi.
Honi was an old man who, after this day, became known as the Circle-Drawer. Because when he was summoned, the elders asked him, “Pray that rain may fall.” Honi prayed, but nothing happened. So he drew a circle around himself in the dust of the ground, and prayed again, “O Lord of the world, Your children have turned their faces to me… I swear by Your great name that I will not stir from here until You have pity on Your children.” The rain began to fall, one large drop at a time. But Honi protested, “Not for such rain have I prayed, but for rain that will fill the cisterns, pits, and caverns.”
In answer to his prayer, the heavens opened and the waters descended in a violent gully-washer that threatened to flood the city. So once again, Honi pleaded, “Not for such rain have I prayed, but for rain of goodwill, blessing and graciousness.” It is said, and recorded by the Jewish historian, Josephus, that in response to Honi’s third prayer, a long, soaking rain began to fall that ended the three-year drought. [1] Honi had prevailed in prayer.[2]
As we look ahead into 2019, draw a circle around your city, your state, your nation… and pray! Then keep praying until we prevail in prayer and God answers. Please. Draw your own circle. Then pray for everything that’s inside of it.
…Return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and compassionate… Who knows? He may turn and have pity and leave behind a blessing. Joel 2:13-14
WE BOW BEFORE YOU
O God of creation. We bow before You acknowledging Your greatness and Your glory. No one compares to You. No one is Your equal. We look at Your creation and marvel at the infinite power and wisdom that are Yours. Nothing is beyond Your reach. “You bring out all the starry host one by one, and call them each by name. Because of Your great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing…You pitch a tent for the sun…It rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other; nothing is hidden from its heat…Where can I go from Your Spirit? Where can I flee from Your presence? If I go up to the heavens, You are there; if I make my bed in the depths, You are there.” [3] There is nowhere in all the Universe where You are not. Surely Your arm “…is not too short to save, nor [Your] ear too dull to hear.”[4]
I acknowledge You as ___________________
WE SEE THE TROUBLE BEFORE US
Yet we honestly confess: when terrorists randomly kill; when women and children detonate themselves as suicide bombers; when innocent people are grabbed from behind and stabbed in the back; when floods, fires, tornadoes, and storms ravage our land; when our national leaders don’t lead; when our business leaders lie; when our political leaders put their own interests before the people’s; when our spiritual leaders contradict Your Word; when our social leaders divide; when our allies become our enemies and our enemies become our allies…what’s going on? Where are You?
We are tempted to think You are…
Distracted…disengaged…disinterested,
Inattentive…inactive…impotent,
Out-maneuvered…out-moded…out-classed,
Unable…unaffected…and even unaware…
of our fear… our helplessness…our confusion…our outrage. Why do You seem so small while our problems, disasters, and enemies seem so large?
Why ___________________?
WE SHOUT YOUR NAME
Help us to regain our focus.
God of our fathers. Lord of the nations. You are the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. No one can understand Your ways. But we turn to You. We return to You. Now. “Are You not the God who is in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. Power and might are in Your hand, and no one can withstand You.”[5]
Did we not establish our nation as one under God? Have we not pledged, “In God We Trust”? But now we find ourselves constantly bombarded with the shrill voices of those who demand we distance ourselves from You; that You are just one of many gods, if You are a god at all; that we cannot risk offending each other by calling on Your name. We hear the enemy insinuating that You are “not fixing this” because You can’t fix this. Our faith is being assaulted.
And so our spirits rise up within us and throw off the smothering cloak of spiritual oppression and political correctness. We shout Your Name. You are Yahweh. Jehovah–the personal God. The great I AM–the eternal God. The All-mighty–the Powerful God. You are Jesus. Savior. Immanuel. God with us, never to leave or forsake us. Your power has not been diluted or depleted over the ages. You are just as powerful…just as much in authority…as You were in Creation; in the deliverance of Your people from Egypt and in the parting of the Red Sea. You are the One who sends down the fire.[6] Who fells the giants.[7] Who makes wars to cease.[8] Who raises the dead![9]
I shout Your name: ___________________
WE PLACE OUR TRUST IN YOU
As we look ahead into the New Year, we choose to place our trust in You. If “…the kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord,”[10] we trust in You. If “…the earth gives way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging,”[11] we trust in You.
Though …”nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall…,”[12] we trust in You. When …”the wicked draw the sword and bend the bow to bring down the poor and needy, to slay those whose ways are upright…,[13]” we trust in You. We trust You. We trust You!
I trust You when___________________
I trust You for ___________________
WE INVITE YOU
We are told that we can worship You in our own churches, but we cannot bring You into the marketplace or the workplace; into the State House or the school house; onto the battlefield or the football field; into the courtroom or the back room or the bedroom. As though the God of gods can be contained, boxed in, restricted, bound, hidden. We laugh at such foolishness and exalt You as the Most High God who strides the winds of the earth. The clouds are the dust of Your feet.[14] The heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain You.[15] How much less any local church building. We invite You to have Your way in our lives. In our state. In our nation. Within our circle.
I invite You into my ___________________
WE CRY OUT TO YOU
Now arise, O Lord God. Look on us, Your people who are called by Your name. Listen to us, as we cry out to You on behalf of our nation. Do not reject us. Have pity on us.
We feel the encroaching evil. Darkness and gloom are descending. Those who hate us are infiltrating us. Those who are dedicated to destroying us are all around us. Are You at the head of this army? Is this the beginning of the Day of the Lord? Have we tried Your patience and crossed the line into Your judgment? Are You holding us accountable for our sin and rebellion and defiance, for our profanity and blasphemy and idolatry? “You alone are to be feared. Who can stand before You when You are angry?”[16] Are You?
WE CONFESS OUR SIN TO YOU
Most Holy God. As we draw a circle around ourselves, we want to make everything right with You within that circle. So we confess our sin. You are righteous. We are not. You always do the right thing. We have done wrong. We are covered with shame because we know better. We have had generations of blessing and prosperity, yet we have refused to thank You, and instead give ourselves credit for what has come from Your hand. We have agreed with those who contradict Your Word. We have turned away from Your truth, and believed lies. We have treated life casually. We have destroyed our environment selfishly. We have passed by the needy uncaringly. We have demanded entitlements defiantly. We have not listened to those who have warned us of the consequences of drifting from You.
I confess my sin of ___________________
I will stop ___________________
I will turn away from___________________
Thank You for forgiving and cleansing me of ___________________
WE TURN TO YOU
And now, as we look into 2019, we come face to face with a mess. What can be done to save us from ourselves? Even as the question reverberates in our minds, the answer is given: the solution to our spiritual and moral meltdown—to the restoration of the crumbling foundation of our nation—is not politics, nor the economy, nor health care, nor welfare or immigration reforms, nor free higher education, nor the court system, nor corporate or Wall Street regulation. You are the Answer. You are the Solution. Yet instead of turning to You, we seem to be turning farther and farther away from You. But not now. Now we turn back. We turn around. We re-turn to You. We run to You. We cling to You. We plead with You…
WE ASK FOR YOUR BLESSING
Turn to us! Draw near to us![17] If You do not help us, we will be defenseless. If You do not protect us, we will be exposed to danger. If You do not deliver us from evil, we will be overcome by it. If You do not have plans to give us hope and a future, we will slide into the past tense as a nation.[18] Into oblivion.
Father of all mercies. You have said that our land is a land that You, the Lord our God, care for; that Your eyes are continually on it from the beginning of the year to its end.[19] As You look on our nation from this day forward, to December 31st, 2019, we ask for what we know we don’t deserve. We ask for Your blessing. Please…
You are the Fountainhead from whom all blessings flow. The list of our needs and our requests is endless. Please. Bless our doctors. Our lawyers. Our bankers. Our teachers. Our commissioners. Our farmers.
Bless me.
And now, God of grace, as we preprayer for the New Year, we ask bottom-line that You fill our circles with Your glory. Send down Your Holy Spirit in fullness. Ignite the fire of revival in our own hearts. Protect us. Defend us. Comfort us. Empower us. Equip us as we put on the full armor of God so that we can stand against the devil’s schemes…so that when the day of evil comes, we may be able to stand our ground…taking up the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God…and pray. With this in mind, we remain self-controlled and alert while we keep on praying until we prevail in prayer.[31] And we keep on watching expectantly. Is 2019 the year of Your return? We hope so! Come Lord Jesus! [32]
For the glory of Your great name…
Amen
*This prayer was originally a call for prayer on January 1, 2016
[1] (Footnote revised 1/14/16) The story I’ve shared about Honi is based on the writings of Josephus, a first-century scholar and very credible historian, who was born in Jerusalem shortly after the first coming of Jesus Christ. His writings are held in high regard, and have been used by the secular world as the primary source for both Jewish and Christian history.
[2] Taken from The Daniel Prayer; Chapter 7; Anne Graham Lotz; by permission Zondervan Publishing; May 2016
[3] Isaiah 40:25-26, Psalm 19:4, 6; 139:7-8 [4] Isaiah 59:1 [5] 2 Chronicles 20:6 [6] 2 Chronicles 7:1
[7] 1 Samuel 17:1-50 [8] Psalm 46:9 [9] 2 Kings 4:1-37; Luke 7:11-16; 8:40-42, 49-56; Ephesians 1:17-21 [10] Psalm 2:2 [11] Psalm 46:2-3 [12] Psalm 46:6 [13] Psalm 37:14 [14] Nahum 1:3 [15] 2 Chronicles 6:18 [16] Psalm 76:7 [17] James 4:8 [18] Jeremiah 29:11-13 [19] Deuteronomy 11:11 [20] 2 Chronicles 15:1-17 [21] 2 Chronicles 19:4-20:32 [22] 2 Chronicles 34:1-33 [23] 2 Chronicles 19:8-11 [24] Ezra 7:10 [25] 2 Timothy 2:15; 4:1-2 [26] 2 Chronicles 20:12 [27] 2 Timothy 2:21 [28] John 9:4 [29] Ephesians 6:19 [30] Ephesians 3:14-19 [31] Ephesians 6:10-18; 1 Peter 4:7 [32] Revelation 22:20
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