Hey, my dear loved ones!

I believe God has placed something on my heart for us to do here in our community for the next several vital days on our nation’s calendar. It will take place in two parts.

Part One: Today and for the next twenty-four hours in comments to this post, those who are willing are going to comprise prayers drawn from Scripture for our new president and the nation he will lead. These Scriptures incorporated into prayers don’t have to be limited to the ones we’re most accustomed to seeing for leaders. By all means, look at those but also consider a Bible-full of precepts that speak to character and integrity and the many qualities that comprise a great leader.  See how the Holy Spirit might lay them on your heart and turn them into intercession. Also consider Scriptures that speak to issues like protection from harm for our president and for our nation and wholeness of heart.

If you need a launching point for your thoughts, think about how you’d want people to pray for your husband if he were elected president tomorrow. Go from there. Make it any length from a few sentences to a meaty paragraph but not long. Remember what Jesus said about those wanting to be heard for their many words in prayer. Keep it succinct and sincere. This is really important and you’ll see the reasons why during Part Two. The comments to this post will be limited entirely to prayers. Please add no other words or comments or even greetings or replies to one another on this one. Let’s just do the thing that really makes the difference. Refrain from signing your name to the bottom of it because you’re going to see in Part Two that others will be using it. Just sign off with an “Amen” or similar benediction but do indeed list any references for the verses your prayers were based on.

The most important discipline of this process is writing our prayers before we know who our president will be. Needless to say, other petitions specific to the man who is elected will be vital throughout his presidency but for this public format and for this 24-hour period of time, we’re going to write our prayers without knowing who it will be. I think (and hope!) we will find this approach very effective and helpful in our focus and prayer-direction throughout Part Two. Oftentimes, heightened emotion and opinion cloud focus, clarity, and wisdom in our prayer lives, especially with so much at stake. It’s hard to pray according to the Holy Spirit when our flesh is inflamed. Remember at the end of all of this, our God is sovereign and at no time does He lose control.

Your prayer will need to take this basic skeletal form:

Address God the way you feel led (Dear Father in Heaven or Creator of Heaven and Earth or Sovereign Lord, etc.)

Write the petition for our new president and for our nation.

Conclude it “In Jesus’ Name, Amen” or with something of similar intent and assigned authority.

List all Scripture references that your prayers were drawn from or based on. (Just the locations. You do not need to write them all the way out.)

Part Two: 24-hours or so after this post opens for comment, it will be closed. In other words, by mid-morning Tuesday, November 6th (Election Day) there will be no further way to leave additional comments but you will have full access to all of those already written. (Comments that come in after work hours this evening will all be posted before the 24-hour closure so don’t worry. If you write a prayer before the 24 hours is up, it will get posted when Lindsee is able to complete all moderations. It takes a while.)

After the election results are in, here’s what I’m suggesting. This is the time we get to reap the harvest sown in Part One.  Come back to this post and start voicing a number of these prayers that resonate most with you. More importantly perhaps, consider voicing the ones that may be harder for you but you know they are godly, sound, and Scriptural. If you’re less sure about some of them, look up the Scripture references the intercessor listed and see if the context gives you any insight or direction. You can use this as a resource for your prayers not only in this 48-hour period but in days to come. Consider praying several of them per day until you work your way through them. That’s what I’m going to shoot for. I’m hoping to print them out and stick them in my prayer journal and voice several at a time over the weeks to come until I’ve agreed in prayer with practically all of them.

I’m not remotely suggesting this is the only way to pray for the next few days and in the weeks to come. It’s just one way but I really do believe this is the approach God placed upon my heart for our blog community. I’m looking so forward to harvesting some of this fruit in the coming days and there is no doubt in my mind that it will help direct my petitions and cause me to intercede for things I would have overlooked. I am continually inspired in my prayer life by the powerful prayers of others. Aren’t you? Let’s do this, Sisters. I think blessing awaits us and, far more importantly, awaits our new president.

I love you so dearly, ladies. My word, we’ve been around long enough to spend our second election together. I pray with all my heart that God will be pleased with this community and will use it to encourage and edify the Body of Christ in a way only He can empower or explain. He is so worthy of our trust and He is well able and willing to respond to earnest prayers that align with His will and come to Him through the glorious, saving Name of His Son.

Before I sign off, all three Moore-Jones-Fitzpatrick girls could use your prayers! We are all headed to the other side of the world and to two different locations. Later today Melissa and I will board a plane for Greece for a dual-purpose trip over the next 7 days. (Voted early) As guests of Nick and Christine Caine, we will have the privilege of seeing some of the work of the A21 Campaign (Abolishing Injustice in the 21st Century) from a much closer angle and attend (and serve at) a conference there. I love nothing better than seeing what God is doing around this globe. God is using this time on the Kingdom calendar to expose horrendous injustices – particularly in the areas of human trafficking – that need to be fought by the Body of Christ. (See Isaiah 58!)

Melissa and I are also beginning a new Bible study journey together and, with the help of a guide, will be doing research in some very strategic places involved in the series. You will not waste a prayer on us! Pray for God to show us great and mighty things that we do not know (Jeremiah 33:3) and bless us with powerful encounters and insights and help us to serve people effectively and affectionately there amid such cultural differences. We are certain they will be a blessing of God to us but we want so much to also be a blessing of God to them. THEN, Amanda follows right behind us two days later (on Wednesday) heading to India for a very important mission trip with the organization “As Our Own.” Even in our very different destinations, all three of us will be serving in areas where human trafficking is appallingly prevalent and believers are being mobilized slowly but surely to cry out and labor for its end.

So! As usual, you won’t waste a prayer on the Moore-Jones-Fitzpatrick women and our families. (But don’t write them into your comment. Laughing. Don’t let me, your very own blog mama, get you off course with our purpose today! Only prayers for the president in your comments please.) Thank you so much, dearly loved ones.

Though I will be far from home, I’ve already prepared some blog posts for you in advance (look for one on Thursday) and Lindsee will be also be holding down the fort. So, have no fear, Siestaville! The city doors will stay wide open here throughout! Watch for the three of us on Twitter if you want to keep up with some things we’re experiencing in real time. (@bethmooreLPM, @AmandaMoJo, @MissFitz77)

You are dearly loved and prioritized here, Sweet Things. Now START WRITING PRAYERS!

This entry was posted on Monday, November 5th, 2012 at 7:26 am and is filed under Beth, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.