For weeks, each Wednesday morning, the Colson Center has hosted a time of prayer for the church and the nation. Led by ministry partners and Christian leaders from around the country, these times have been moving and inspiring.
This past Wednesday morning, the day after an election that is still not resolved, my friend Ed Stetzer challenged us, in direct and clarifying terms, what kind of church the world needs right now. Despite what we might feel, the political and cultural chaos that engulfs us is, Stetzer said, an opportunity to champion the Kingdom of God in this time and in this place. After all, just as the prophet Isaiah learned, no amount of political or cultural chaos upends the plans of God.
Here’s Ed:
“I voted like an Arminian and rested like a Calvinist, because I know at the end of the day, I’ve read the end of the book, and Jesus wins.
“My original assignment from the Colson Center was to pray for the newly elected or re-elected president, and, of course, we don’t know who that will be at this point. It does remind us a bit of Isaiah Chapter 6, verse 1: “In the year King Uzziah died…” Now that’s a very casual phrase that Isaiah writes, and it’s worth noting for us that the year a king dies is a very, very big deal. It makes a contested and uncertain election look like nothing. . . A just ruler can replace an unjust ruler, or an unjust ruler can replace a just ruler. Alliances that kept enemies at bay can fall apart. So in the wake of Uzziah’s death, the whole nation asked the question “What’s next?”
“So, Isaiah writes, ‘In the year King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord high and exalted, seated at the throne with the train of his robe filling the temple.’ I want you to know this is really key. We look to the words of Scripture, and people in the time of tumult and turbulence looked to God.
“When God’s people pray, we know their hearts are-aligned with God’s heart. We know ultimately that He hears our prayer.”
After that brief introduction, Ed began to pray. You can listen to the whole thing on a special edition of the BreakPoint podcast, which you can find at BreakPoint.org or wherever you get your podcasts. Here’s a portion of that prayer and, with so much not clear right now, I encourage you to pray along:
“Father. We come before you today and we acknowledge your Holiness and goodness. We acknowledge that the thing we can do that is most important, more than anything else, is not the flip on the news and to see where the electoral counts are not to see where the votes are coming in.
“Right now, the most important thing we can do is to say ‘Holy, Holy Holy.’
“All of you pray with me out loud, the three-part ‘Holy.’ Let’s say it out loud together.
“Holy Holy Holy is the Lord God Almighty. The whole Earth is full of your glory. In places for the vote’s been counted– full of your glory. In the places where votes have not been counted–full of your glory. In places where people are afraid—full of your glory. A place where people are excited–full of your glory.
“Lord, we know this truth literally shook the thresholds in Isaiah 6 and it shakes the thresholds of our world today …
“We pray for our nation. That you might forgive us when we haven’t valued the unborn. We pray as a nation that you would forgive us when we haven’t cared about racial injustice. We pray that you would forgive us for when we have celebrated the wrong and pushed aside the good.”
“Father, forgive us for relying on politics for what only Jesus can do.
“Father, I pray for God’s people on this call, in this conversation, people who will watch later or who are watching and sharing right now. Father I pray that they would be bearers of the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”
Please come to BreakPoint.org to find this special episode of the BreakPoint Podcast.
Publication date: November 9, 2020
Photo courtesy: ©Getty Images/Simon Lehmann
The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of CrosswalkHeadlines.
BreakPoint is a program of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. BreakPoint commentaries offer incisive content people can't find anywhere else; content that cuts through the fog of relativism and the news cycle with truth and compassion. Founded by Chuck Colson (1931 – 2012) in 1991 as a daily radio broadcast, BreakPoint provides a Christian perspective on today's news and trends. Today, you can get it in written and a variety of audio formats: on the web, the radio, or your favorite podcast app on the go.
John Stonestreet is President of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview, and radio host of BreakPoint, a daily national radio program providing thought-provoking commentaries on current events and life issues from a biblical worldview. John holds degrees from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (IL) and Bryan College (TN), and is the co-author of Making Sense of Your World: A Biblical Worldview.
