With all that’s going on in America this year, have you ever felt discouraged about the state of our nation? I know that Mary and I have. In the late spring, and into the summer, we were feeling stressed. Truth be told, we’d felt like that for a few months. We both had a lot of changes going on in our lives, even without Covid-19, the election, and the chaos in our cities.

Called to Hope

However, as the summer progressed, God was drawing us back to the basics, and one of the things that meant was back to our Only By Prayer website. We did a major revamp of the site and went into a planning frenzy. As we sought Him for what that looked like, God reminded us that Jesus calls us to be people of hope and to faint not. One powerful tool that we always have when we need to fight the enemy and his schemes is prayer. Rather than despairing of ever seeing things change for the better, God reminded us to be a catalyst of change for the better.

Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. ‘The lord is my portion,’ says my soul. ‘Therefore I hope in Him.’

Lamentations 3: 22-24 NKJ

Pray for the USA

Patiently, He impressed upon us the importance to stop moping and to start praying for the USA more and to mobilize others to pray too. With that said, we’d like to give you an update on what’s in the works here at Only By Prayer so you can join us if you’d like. 

1. Facebook prayer group. We revamped a Facebook group we started four years ago and renamed it Pray for the USA. We then launched an event called 5 Days to Fast and Pray for our Nation in August. To our surprise, as of October 2020, God has brought over 800 people to the group to pray. Thank you, Lord! We’d love to have you join us as well. It’s a non-partisan group, and we do not allow any political arguments on the page — just praying.
2. October Event. We are ramping up for our next event on Pray for the USA: 5 Days to Pray for the Election. This is another virtual prayer event held on October 28, October 29, October 30, November 2, and November 3. We are adding 24-Hour Prayer to this event in addition to our daily prayer topics. Be sure to check out the details. 
3. Pray for the USA Prayer book! As we were organizing the prayer group, we realized how hard it can be sometimes to pray specifically about issues that are happening in our country. Mary felt God leading us to write a 31-day book of prayers targeted to culturally relevant issues of our day. Again the Lord came through. We recently finished this short book called Pray for the USA, and it’s now available for sale on Amazon. You don’t have to have an actual Kindle tablet to read it. You can download the Kindle app for your phone or computer and read it that way. We think you’ll find it helpful to pray through the relevant issues of our day. It only takes about two minutes or so to pray each prayer. If you happen to be a member of Kindle unlimited, you can actually read Pray for the USA for free. If you do purchase it/read it, we’d love if you’d leave us a review on Amazon.
4. ThanksLiving event. In November we are hosting our 12 Days to ThanksLiving event. It will run from Friday, November 13, to Tuesday, November 24. It will be held entirely on our website and is completely free. Details to follow soon.
5. Advent devotion. In late November through December, we will be leading a group through our Advent devotional (also published on Kindle) called Advent-urous: Seeking Jesus in the Season of Advent . This starts on Sunday, November 29 and runs through December 24, with a bonus week after Christmas. 
6. 3 Weeks to a Healthier You. In the works for January 11-29 is a new venture we are starting called 3 Weeks to a Healthier You, Body, Soul, and Spirit. More information to follow on this, but we are excited because the body segment will include an exercise program developed just for our group by certified fitness trainer Sarah Lewis. Sarah is also available for online training in these Covid times if you’e interested.

Join Us

Finally, we thank you for your support. We hope you join us for Pray for the USA and however many of the other events you wish. We’re excited for the upcoming months and how God is working in each of our lives during these difficult times. We pray He is encouraging you and your families too. Let us know if you have any questions in the comment section below. May God bless you!

Welcome to 5 Days to Fast & Pray for the Election. We are so happy to have you join us in praying for our country during this important time. No matter who you are supporting, we can all agree on the fact that prayer is needed as we head to the voting booth and as we transition to a new administration.

We are leaving it up to you to decide if you will participate in the fasting aspect of this prayer guide and if so, what type of fasting you will do. If you are able, remember to join us for prayer Monday-Thursday evenings from 8 p.m.-8:30 p.m Eastern time on our Facebook page. You may also post prayers anytime of the day or night on that page as well. If you have not yet asked to join that page and you would like to, go to the Facebook page and request permission to join, and we will grant it.

Day 1: Turn from Sin

1. Find a quiet place to process with the Lord. Take your Bible and a journal.
2. Pray for revival to start in your own heart. Ask the Lord to show you any habits, actions, thoughts, words, attitudes, etc. that need to change in you so that you are ready for revival.
3. Journal about what you feel God is showing you.
4. Once you feel your own heart is set, move to praying for your community, state, and nation. Choose a scripture that you can pray specifically for our nation and use that throughout the week.

Day 2: Turn to God

1. Make a plan to pray for the elections several times throughout the day. If needed, set the alarm on your phone to remind you to pray.
2. Pray for people in your building or neighborhood to pray for God’s will in this election. Ask another to join you in prayer today.
3. Take a prayer walk and pray for the elections and issues in your own city.
4. Get out a map or look up a map on Google and pray across the states in our great land. Ask God to raise up Christians tp pray and exercise their right to vote.

Day 3: Turn to Wisdom

1. If you haven’t done so yet, it is time to become educated about the issues of this election on every level. Please do your own research or click on the following link to learn about the candidates for 2016: Wall Builders. If you go to your state’s .gov site, you will be able to download a copy of the ballot to see all the candidates you will be voting on, plus any initiatives you may be voting on. 
2. After you have completed your research, make a list of whom you plan to vote for and for the proposals in your community.
3. Research the location of your polling place and check the hours.
4. Help elderly neighbors and relatives by offering then a ride to their polling place.

Day 4: Turn Your Eyes

 Day 5: Turn Your Heart

 (VanOsdol)

“He changes times and seasons; he deposes kings and raises up others. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning.” Daniel 2:21

In case you’ve been shipwrecked on a desert island for the past 8 months and didn’t know it, there’s an election coming up. What an election. In all my fifty some years, I cannot recall an election with more drama, animosity and twists and turns than this one. (Please, no more ranting on Facebook. Our country will not survive.) The media reports there has never been two less-popular candidates. Ever. It’s kind of like that game kids play, Would you rather get attacked by a lion or a grizzly bear? 

Neither.

Would you rather vote for Donald or Hilary?

Neither. IKR?

But we must.

Sorry. The #I’mjustnotgoingtovote attitude doesn’t help. It is our duty, right and privilege to vote. Remember, it’s not just the president who’s on the ballot. There other important issues and proposals at stake. Also, the next president will appoint the next two, possibly three, Supreme Court Justices to the bench and people mean policy.  NOTE: the decisions of the Supreme Court greatly affect the course of this nation.

All the drama aside, regardless of who wins, there are four reasons we can have hope about this election.

1. We see the real issues. People have had to stop and thoroughly examine their beliefs and worldview. What is truly important? What is a deal breaker for me? What does the Bible say about the issues at hand?
2. We see the real Savior. This election, more than any other, we clearly see the Democrats can’t save us. We clearly see the Republicans can’t save us. All we are left with is Jesus. Just Jesus. And this is a very good place to be.
3. We see opportunity. There is no clear-cut Christian candidate in 2016. Both candidates present serious moral and ethical challenges. Therefore, Christian influence is dispersed of being anchored to one party.
4. We see real promises. Political promises have been  made and broken. Government policies are initiated and forgotten. Laws are ratified and the overturned. Where can we place our trust? In the God who says He will never leave us or forsake us. In the God who promises to use all things for our good and His glory. In the God who states the government rests upon His shoulders and He is the one who establishes and deposes kings according to His will.

So what should we do?

Research. Checkout the following links to learn about the issues and the candidates:

Christian Voters Guide

Wall Builders

Pray. Cick on the link to signup for 5 Days to Fast and Pray for the Election

5 Days to Fast and Pray

Get involved. Vote.

Simply type in “Where do I vote?” as a Google search and you will see a search box to enter your address.

How do you feel about this election?

Please leave a comment below. I’d love to chat with you.God Bless America.

All rights reserved. Copyright 2016

As I woke up the morning after the election, admittedly feeling despondent about the results, my Bible opened up to Psalm 133, and these were the words that greeted me:

 How good and pleasant it is

when brothers live together in unity!

It is like precious oil poured on the head,

running down on the beard, 

running down on Aaron’s beard, down upon the collar of his robes.

It is as if the dew of Hermon

were falling on  Mount Zion.

For there the LORD bestows his blessing,

even life forevermore. NIV

One thing we are not right now in America, is unified. With just slightly more than half of our country voting one way, and the rest another, we are a fractious, quarreling, divisive group, who have re-elected a President who must somehow put all of us Humpty-Dumpty people back together again.

Whether you are happy or sad about the election results, a few thoughts stand out to me in the midst of it all.

1.  God is not calling us to capitulate on our values and beliefs. He is calling us to pray. I am even more convinced of the need for prayer in America. We can follow Nehemiah’s example of prayer in Nehemiah 1:1-9 as he confessed and prayed for forgiveness for Israel before he began his task of rebuilding the wall. We have many problems facing us and much rebuilding that needs to be done on our country’s “walls.” We are facing trillions of dollars in debt, a “fiscal cliff” in January, illegal immigration, new health care, attacks on our embassies, continuing job losses, and social issues like same-sex marriage and abortion, just to name a few things.  God reminds us in 2 Chronicles 7:14 that if we humble ourselves and pray and seek Him that He will hear us and heal our land. Let’s pray for God’s intervention in these areas.
2.  We can pray that our witness for Christ will shine brightly during these times. We need to each be growing our relationship with our Savior, being conformed to His likeness, and then praying for the boldness and the leading of the Holy Spirit to reach out to others as God opens up the opportunities. God’s plan does not necessarily include a comfy, safe life for each of us. We need to be courageous in our faith–as wise as serpents and as gentle as doves.
3. Pray specifically for President Obama and Congress. As we intercede for godly wisdom, courage, bi-partisanship, biblical morals, honesty, protection, and God’s blessing on our nation, God can move to bring down the barriers that divide us. He is powerful and can do immeasurably more than we ask or think (Ephesians 3:20).
4. Pray that God will raise up godly leaders for our nation. It’s not too early to begin praying for 2016!

Getting Practical

Let’s join together in a powerful prayer effort for our country. I’ve put together a few suggestions on ways to incorporate this.

Monthly themes

We can take a theme and pray it for an entire month.

• January–Debt, budget,
• February–Bi-partisanship
• March–Health care
• April–Jobs
• May–Biblical morals, revival, same-sex marriage
• June–Foreign policy
• July–Protection of life and the unborn
• August–Immigration
• September–Schools and teachers
• October–Religious freedom
• November–Godly leaders
• December–Military

Weekly Themes

If you prefer to pray for all of these every week, you could split them up the following way:

• Monday–Pray for debt, budget, and bi-partisanship
• Tuesday–Pray for health care and jobs
• Wednesday–Pray for biblical morals, revival, salvation, same-sex marriage and foreign policy
• Thursday–Pray for protection of life and the unborn and immigration
• Friday–Pray for schools and teachers and religious freedom
• Saturday–Pray for godly leaders and our military
• Sunday–Pray for President Obama

What are your feelings about praying for our nation? Please share any ways that you like to pray for America in the comments section.

Pray on!

Image courtesy of [Stuart Miles] / FreeDigitalPhotos.net