Pray as America goes to the polls

Here is a “Prayer for Godly Leaders” by David Campell, pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Carlisle, PA. It comes from a new book from DayOne, In a Heart Cries to Heaven, a compilation of his prayers. [thanks to Tim Challies for mentioning this]

Our great and gracious God,

We pray that you will give us leaders who fear your name. We ask for those who are in authority over us that they may be men and women of Christian integrity, men and women imbued with the principles of the Word of God, who will themselves walk in your ways and set an example in public office.

We ask, Lord, that you will not give us up to the sway of those who care nothing for you and for your laws. Give us godly leaders, we pray.

We pray, too, for godly leaders within the church.

We pray for the reformation of the visible church and for great revival within its midst. May those who are in the positions of leadership manifest the same qualities that we see manifest supremely in our Lord Jesus Christ, and that, under the leadership of such men, your church would flourish.

Give us all grace, we pray.

Everyone who is a member of this congregation or of another congregation, to be a good and faithful servant of Jesus Christ, each one of us. We pray that you will bless our time together to that end.

We pray that you will stand with your servant as he opens up the Word, that you will put words in his mouth, that you will give to us illumined minds and hearts, and we pray that you will make that Word written upon our hearts and make our time together to be truly a means of grace, that we, in this week that is before us, may walk in your ways.

Hear us, O God, we pray, and these prayers and the many others that in the silence of our hearts we would lift to you, the omniscient God.

Hear us, for Jesus’ sake.
Amen.

The eye of faith…

My God,

I bless thee that thou hast given me the eye of faith,
to see thee as Father,
to know thee as a covenant God,
to experience thy love planted in me;

For faith is the grace of union
by which I spell out my entitlement to thee:

Faith casts my anchor upwards
where I trust in thee
and engage thee to be my Lord.

Be pleased to live and move within me,
breathing in my prayers,
inhabiting my praises,
speaking in my words,
moving in my actions,
living in my life,
causing me to grow in grace.

Thy bounteous goodness has helped me believe,
but my faith is weak and wavering,
its light dim,
its steps tottering,
its increase slow,
its backslidings frequent;
It should scale the heavens, but lies grovelling
in the dust.

Lord, fan this divine spark into glowing flame.

When faith sleeps, my heart becomes an unclean thing,
the fount of every loathsome desire,
the cage of unclean lusts
all fluttering to escape,
the noxious tree of deadly fruit,
the open wayside of earthly tares.

Lord, awake faith to put forth its strength
until all heaven fills my soul
and all impurity is cast out.

From: The Valley of Vision,
A. Bennett, ed. (Banner of Truth)