Christians should be among those most deeply concerned about the divided state of our nation. Left vs. right, masks vs. no masks, reopen vs. stay-at-home, virtual school vs. in-person, race, politics, police, abortion, religious liberty – not to mention the remainder of what’s certain to be a brutal presidential campaign.
The issues range from essential to nonessential. On the essential matters, we mourn and vow to fight deception. On the nonessential matters, we mourn and hope to overcome division. God’s people can neither stay on the sidelines nor run away from the struggle. Instead, knowing there is no hope outside of Christ, we ask God to mercifully and powerfully mobilize his people to advance the true and good.
If Christians are to speak with clarity, courage and confidence and be voices of truth and love in a world of noise and echo chambers, we will need to be prepared. But even perfectly crafted arguments cannot replace, as Chuck Colson said, “the church being the church.” Speaking cannot replace being. To be the people God calls us to be, we must rely on prayer.
Each Wednesday morning Aug. 12 through Nov. 4, which is the morning after the 2020 election, the Colson Center will host a national prayer time, via webinar. We invite you to join us, each week, to pray first and foremost for God’s mercy, that he would revive his church, that he would bring about renewal of righteousness, that he would empower us to courageously offer protection for the most vulnerable, to champion reconciliation across our deepest divides, and that he would allow us to be instruments in the sustaining of religious freedom and the national recovery of the family.
Each prayer time will feature a devotional challenge and prayer by Christian leaders such as Os Guinness, Joni Eareckson Tada, Focus on the Family president Jim Daly, Woodside Bible pastor Chris Brooks and Watermark Church pastor Todd Wagner, as well as Ed Stetzer from the Billy Graham Center and Heritage Foundation president Kay Cole James.