Justin - Prayer

About the writing

I am not going to be exhaustive here. There are a lot of issues that I see with America today, most f which could be solved with “Love your neighbor as yourself.” This is a prayer for those issues.

A Prayer for America

Father, we come to you a broken people. You created all things and called them good and you made us in your own image. We destroy your creation and kill your image bearers and pretend that we honor you in doing so. We ignore the cries of the less fortunate and pretend in piety that we help them learn by letting them do for themselves. We point our fingers at other countries, condemning their treatment of women and minorities, and ignore our own treatment of the same. We romanticize our country’s days of prosperity, built on the backs of slaves, and idolize our founding fathers who called a black man three fifths of a person all while yelling “all lives matter” to drown out the cries of the continually oppressed. We have beholden ourselves to political parties as if they were our salvation and held their platforms as scripture so that we might deny the possibility of moral or intellectual standing of those who oppose us. We pretend to strive to make things better while refusing to face our own sins against you and against our brothers and sisters. We do not understand and we do not try to. Heal us, oh Lord.

I pray that you will teach us to care for your creation as you charged Adam to do and to see your image in all people regardless of how they may look, speak or believe differently than us.

I pray that you remind us that it was a Samaritan, one of mixed race, in your parable helping his neighbor, a stranger in need on the road. That we would remember that our neighbor is not one who necessarily looks like us, but one in need of our help. That we cannot cross the street ignoring his need and obey your command to love him. And that we cannot say we love while we ignore his cry for help.

I pray that the cry of “black lives matter” should cease because an empowered majority finally, willingly sets aside its privilege in love and fights to fix a system that disproportionately targets people of color. That we should live remembering that violence begets violence; that inequality begets resentment and hate, and need begets desperation.

I pray that you will embolden good police officers of this country to stand against those that abuse their power; that there would be just accountability for excessive force and for unfair targeting of people based on their skin color or style of dress. That you will not allow the corruption of some to taint the whole and that “protect and serve” is recognized to mean ALL people.

I pray that we can have civilized dialogue about our issues and make strides to correct our errors instead of blaming and demonizing those we disagree with. That we would search for common ground to build from instead looking for subversive motives. That we learn to listen to understand rather than listening to respond.

God, we are broken and I am broken. I pray that you would show me where I have bought into the lie of a broken system and what I must do to be part of the solution. Show me where I am racist and sexist, where I use my privilege and what I must do to lay it down and work for the betterment of all people regardless of their color, gender or creed. Help me to have the courage to say to my friends and family that they are wrong when I hear them voicing hate against any group and help me listen when I am called on my own bigotry. Help me love all people, as Christ did, sacrificially.

I believe that there is nothing that we have damaged that you cannot fix and I believe that you work through people to your will. Heal us, oh Lord. Make us want to be healed.

Amen.