All Together Now

In response to the Father, the voice of the prophets and our president, President Donald Trump's call for a national day of prayer today, I offer this prayer to the Father.

God bless you all.

Forgive us, Father, for being like shepherds who lack understanding; and turning to our own way, seeking our own gain. Forgive us for believing that "tomorrow will be like today, or even far better" (Isaiah 56: 11-12). Forgive us for turning our back on you. Forgive us for ignoring your outstretched hands. Forgive us for denying you and insisting that we go our own way, rather than follow you and your ways. Forgive us for insulting you to your face. Forgive us, for we have openly and defiantly offered sacrifices to other gods. (Isaiah 65:1-7)

We have been guilty of turning our pleasure and indulgence of sin into our gods. We have been guilty of embracing corruption, displays of sexual sin, perversion, abortion, rape, incest, worship of the flesh, bestiality, murder, antisemitism, disrespect of authority, defacement of the human form, by brazenly displaying in great detail our disregard for your law through the excuse of entertainment via the media, movies, social media, the internet, theater, schools and the like. We have justified sexual experimentation and indoctrinated our youth into unhealthy lifestyles that promote unhealthy relationships, rebellion, justification of self-harm through movies that promote suicide all in the name of our freedom and rights.

Father, forgive us, for we have taken the freedom you gave to us and we have mismanaged that freedom and made it into something that is harmful. Forgive us, for misappropriating the letter from Thomas Jefferson

Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between Church & State. Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties." [1]

by separating ourselves from matters of our country, that we, the church have too often looked the other way and turned the other cheek when you have asked us to speak up for those who don't have a voice (James 1:27), you have asked us to govern and lead as you lead us (Proverbs 31: 8-9), you have asked us to pray for our city (Jeremiah 29:7), our state and our nation and we have excused ourselves and separated ourselves from what most requires our prayers in the name of freedom of religion. Forgive us Father for celebrating the destruction of life, namely abortion, in the name of freedom and rights, annulling the very rights of those who cannot speak up for themselves, namely unborn humans. Forgive us for not applying Your decrees and laws to every situation.

5 See, I have taught you decrees and laws as the Lord my God commanded me, so that you may follow them in the land you are entering to take possession of it. 6 Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations, who will hear about all these decrees and say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.” 7 What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is near us whenever we pray to him? Deut 4:5-7 NIV

Forgive us for blaspheming your name and shaming others who know you or who don't know you. Forgive us, Father. We set our crown down before your feet in honor, faith, hope, love and repentance. Forgive us for speaking against your anointed one and cursing our president rather than praying for him. Forgive us for our threatening behaviors toward one another, especially within our own borders (Matthew 5:44).

We have trusted money and comfort more than we have trusted you. Forgive us for sacrificing our own families to make money, rather than trusting you. Forgive us for resorting to manipulation to get what we want or need rather than simply asking you for what we need and trusting you. Forgive us for practicing pride and creating division and building our own religion around it. Forgive us for embracing our liberty but denying our Liberator.

Forgive us, Father, for not standing up for what is true, right, pure, lovely admirable, excellent and praiseworthy (Phil 4:8).

Forgive us Father for fearing man more than we fear to live eternally without you.

Forgive us for grieving you Holy Spirit- for not responding to you when you ask.

Forgive us for justifying the judgment of others because of our own pain, sorrow, and suffering. Thank you, Father, that you see our pain, you see our hurts, you see what we need even before we ask, you stand ready to give it. Forgive us for never asking. Forgive us for our selfish pride that argues we will do it ourselves. Forgive us Father for the secrets hidden in the land. Forgive us, Father, when those secrets try to rise up and we hide them yet again. Forgive us for the murder in our country, the murder of innocents by justification through the industry, media, financial and personal gain. Forgive us, Father. Forgive those who do not know what they do. Forgive us for not teaching your ways and avoiding your truths with the excuse that it is just too hard. Forgive us for being too busy for you.

Forgive us for not getting help for those who don’t have a voice and are too young, too frightened and too bruised to speak up for themselves. Forgive us for retaliating when someone does speak up against someone who has given voice to Truth. Forgive us for twisting the simplicity of your word and using it for our own gain, or to cause others to be in bondage to your word rather than free to love a Savior. Forgive us for despising you.

Forgive us for evicting you from public schools and thinking we could fix that on our own. Forgive the church for not fighting harder by praying together, rather than apart, divided between buildings and justified through denominations. Forgive us, Father, for not loving each other simply, for the basic truth that each person is precious- each life is precious. Forgive us for ungodly and unholy alliances that cause deeper rifts of division. Forgive us for breaking your laws and believing that we got away with it. Forgive us for not coming to you sooner.

Forgive us for using our positions of influence to control those who are still trying to find their way. Forgive us for holding onto those who have come to us for help and never letting them go because of our own pride and arrogance. Forgive us for stunting the growth of a nation, by speaking hate and cursing one another, or gossiping about others or manufacturing untruths about each other. Forgive us for not listening to you or to each other. Forgive us for caring more about the news channel than listening to you each morning, you love to speak to your children. Forgive us for not investigating more deeply why someone is hurting, rather than rushing to conclusions. Forgive us for not exploring more deeply how much you truly love us. Forgive us for not trusting you.

Forgive us for leaving the homeless to someone else, when we are all called to love our neighbors as ourselves. Forgive our impatience while You wait for every son and daughter to be adopted (Ephesians 1:5) for that is your greatest desire (2 Peter 3:9)- that all come to the full knowledge (Romans 8:23) of how wonderful You are, how loving You are- Who You Are! Forgive us for not waiting with you. Forgive us for not being more patient with each other when you demonstrate time and time again that Love is Patient (1 Cor 13:4). Forgive us for using our earthly privileges: our gender, male or female, our socio-economic status whether we be poor or rich, or our nationality or culture to manipulate others to gain what we want and/or what we need rather than our sonship which grants us direct access to You (Galatians 3:28)! Forgive us for not coming to you first.

Forgive your church for hiding behind walls of denominations rather than joining the living stones together so we can become your radiant bride, one in Christ. Forgive us for loving our temples more than loving You, the Lord of our temple. Forgive us for hidden agendas, for exclusion...for all are welcome at your table.

Jesus, we stand before you with nothing, leaving behind all of our lovers, our idols, our addictions, our contempt, our frustrations, anger, malice, our fear and our corrupt identities to embrace You, the one true King, the Lord of lords and King of kings. Forgive us- for in hating each other we have hated you. When we spoke roughly to another, we spoke roughly to you, when we hit another, we hit you... for if you are the same God who calls us to entertain strangers and they come as the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick, the imprisoned then we have treated you with contempt (Matthew 25:31-46). Forgive us, Lord.

In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray.

I. Jefferson, Thomas. Jefferson's Letter to the Danbury Baptists: The Final Letter, as Sent. The Library of Congress Information Bulletin: June 1998. Lib. of Cong., June 1998. Web. Aug 7, 2010.

Philippians 4:8 New International Version (NIV)

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

It is YOU, Lord! You are true, you are noble, You are RIGHT, You are PURE, you are LOVELY and admirable and I will praise you all of my days! I cannot contain myself! I will think about you all of my days! I will praise you all of my days- YOU the RADIANT ONE and the LOVER OF OUR SOULS! Thank you, Jesus!