Lord, this is a dark and dangerous time for our country. Our politics is full of hate, and it is spilling over in how we think of and treat each other. And like any nation, we have guilt for the evil that we have done and permitted.

We have the blood of tens of millions of unborn children on our hands. How do you even begin to atone for 62 million children slain in the womb? We can only appeal to your mercy and pray for an end to the slaughter of innocents.

We have dismantled your design for marriage and sexuality and given in to a spirit of confusion over simple biological facts. We are engaged in a destructive project to do the impossible and transition people from one sex to another, and more victims will pay the price for our folly.

We have deep injustices in our criminal justice system. These work against minorities and the marginalized, resulting in many false convictions and plea deals done by the innocent to end their ordeal. In this way we have abused the poor and powerless in violation of your commands and simple justice.

We have made idols out of our possessions, out of sex, out of ourselves, out of our nation, and out of the government, and we have viciously attacked anyone who questions our false gods. We treat them as heretics to be despised and hated.

We hate and malign our political opponents, forgetting that they too are made in your image and forgetting Jesus’ teaching that to hold another in contempt is the equivalent of murder, an attack on the image of God and thus on you.

May we as your people resist the temptation to hate, to insult, to lash out. May we love our enemies and pray for those who insult or persecute us. May we be peacemakers.

May our allegiance be first and foremost to your Kingdom of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. May we live by Jesus’ teachings and the values of the Kingdom as agents of reconciliation and shalom in a world that desperately needs them. May we put your priorities over party, tribe, or faction. May we seek first your Kingdom and your righteousness, working for your justice in the world. Rule over all areas of life. May we be disciple makers in accordance with your final command to us.

May we live by the law of love—not the kind of sentimental love our culture promotes, but love that seeks the ultimate good of all persons, not their temporary satisfaction. May we love people enough to speak the truth with compassion and gentleness. May we care more about their eternal souls than we do about what they think of us.

Politically, the issues we are facing are many and complicated, and no party stands for the Kingdom in all areas. May we affirm and support what is good: the right to life, liberty of conscience, equal justice under law, limited government that carries out its responsibilities before you but stays out of things beyond its legitimate authority. May we oppose what is evil: infanticide, racism and all other -isms that denigrate your image bearers, abuse and injustice especially in our criminal justice system, dehumanizing rhetoric from all sides, politicized medicine that costs people their lives. And above all, may we put our hope in you, not in the election or the defeat of candidates or parties.

Lord, you and you alone determine the rise and fall of nations. Only your Kingdom lasts forever. If this is the time when we will see the decline of our nation, keep us from despair. Help us to remember that our citizenship is in Heaven from which we await our Savior, Jesus Christ our Lord. Our hope is in you, not in politicians, parties, laws, or constitutions. We commit our nation into your hands, and by your grace we will live in faith, hope, and love whatever happens.

We ask all this in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.