Pray for a politician

Ok so the pundits say that if all of us who are so angry at our current leadership will get out there and vote tomorrow it appears very likely that a very large herd of elephants and a smaller herd of jackasses will soon be descending upon Washington DC.

Big promises were made by politicians of all stripes, but will they be kept when the flash and the cash and the intoxicating power is realized by them come this January when they enter Mecca DC?

Hmmm Call me crazy but I’m among those who are not overly confident that merely changing out the old politicians with the new will effect lasting change. I think there is too much money in Washington DC and money has a way of changing people. In my book I detail the temptations that I underwent as I made the transition from making an average wage in an average job and barely making ends meet, to six months later netting out $40,000 per week and feeling pretty good about myself. Actually I became an arrogant obnoxious fool and very nearly threw away my God and my family in pursuit of the vanities of life before I woke up and refocused on God.

Sneer if you might, but pride, money, power, and fame have felled those mightier than me and perhaps would fell even you. These are among satan’s mightiest weapons.

It occurred to me over the weekend, (in a dream actually), that there is only one alternative for this country to take in order to climb out of its current dilemma and that alternative is not an election but to turn to God. That is what it took in my personal life and I believe that is what it will take for our country. My dream was that what is needed is to establish a 24 hour prayer vigil. We need a steady stream of prayers going up to God almighty, seven days per week -24 hours per day – someone praying for the politicians in this country all the time – night and day.

I called a friend of mine yesterday and asked if he would be willing to help me to setup a “Pray for a Politician” website with a calendar where folks could sign up for a time slot to pray for our leadership and to ask God to intervene and intercede in their lives and to remove the temptation of the flash and the cash and that they might make the right decisions that would save this once great country. I told my buddy that I thought the site should be non-denominational and non-partisan.

If anyone wants to be a part of this, but can’t bear the thought of praying specifically for someone like President Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Barney Frank, or Mitch McConnell, John Boehner, or Eric Cantor, just keep your prayers generic.

I don’t have time in my crazy life to manage the details, but I will finance the website setup, design, and maintenance. If you are interested in appealing to folks to sign up for prayer slots and overseeing this site, then just please let me know and we’ll get it going.

Even if my website dream falls through, all of us can pray for a politician every day. If you believe in the Bible, you should believe in the power of prayer. Our great country does not have to be doomed to become a second rate country. God has promised that if we turn to Him He will heal our land.

He also said persistent prayer works. Remember in Luke 11:5-10 where it records Jesus’ parable about prayer in which a person in need of three loaves of bread knocked on a friend’s door at midnight. The one inside answered, “Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children are with me in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything”. Undeterred the friend kept banging away on the door until the bread was forthcoming. The conclusion was that though friendship was not enough to cause the person in the house to get up and provide bread, the persistence expressed in knocking on the door even at midnight was enough to yield the desired result.

It is not that God is unwilling and must be pressed into answering. The context makes it clear that God longs to give good gifts to us and is eager to give. But if we want what we are asking for enough then we should be persistent. We see this persistence stressed again in the verses which follow the parable. Here Jesus said, “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.” In these verses the words “ask,” “seek,” and “knock” are in the present tense, which indicates continuous activity. We are to keep on asking, keep on seeking, and keep on knocking.

My conclusion on the matter is if we keep beating on God’s door long enough He will answer our prayer if nothing more than to get us off his back already, (assuming that our request is within His will for our lives)

2 Chronicles 7:14
If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place.