What Should You Pray For In The Coming Presidential Election

I recently returned from a missions trip to visit some of our missionaries in Central Asia. The Central Asian republic that I visited had lived under Soviet domination for seventy years. For the last decade people have begun to taste freedom. So what have they done with their first taste of freedom? Did they flock to local churches to celebrate their newly found religious liberty? Did they use their freedom to begin many new newspapers or to write poetry or music?

I was stunned to find in this nominally Muslim country, gambling casinos springing up by the dozens. Prostitution is rampant and extremely open. One sees prostitutes everywhere on the streets. Pornography is sold from every newsstand. Alcoholism and drug abuse have become major social pathologies. In short, liberty for this Central Asian republic has essentially meant license to engage in vice.

John Adams, the father of American independence issued a warning to the newly formed United States of America back in 1798 saying: "We have no government armed with power for contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge…would break the strongest cords of our constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our constitution is made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."

After the Constitution was drafted, a Philadelphia woman rushed toward its most senior delegate crying out: "Oh! Mr. Franklin, what have you gentlemen wrought, after so many weeks of secrecy behind those thick doors?" Franklin is said to have adjusted his glasses before offering his famous retort: "A republic, Madam. If you can keep it."

What should you pray for in the coming elections? I would suggest that you not pray that your candidate would win, as if you knew who God's candidate is. Rather, I would suggest that you pray for a major religious revival in America that alone can support our constitutional government.

In 1857 the United States was on the verge of an awful war and the economy was crumbling. Jeremiah Lamphier was a young man who had a heart for God. Instead of looking to the political arena to solve our national problems, Jeremiah Lamphier decided to pray about them. He printed handbills stating that he was starting a noon prayer meeting in the financial district of New York City. On the announced day for his prayer meeting, September 23, at noon, no one showed up. So he began to pray alone. He asked God to send revival. By the time he had finished praying that day, six men had joined him.

Two days later the Bank of Philadelphia failed. The nation was on the verge of a complete economic meltdown. The next week twenty people turned out to pray. On October 7th there were forty people at the prayer meeting, so they decided to pray together daily at noon.

On October 10th the New York Stock Market crashed. The financial panic triggered a renewed desperation for God and people flocked to prayer meetings. Within six months nearly ten thousand people were gathered daily for prayer in New York City alone. The "Send Revival" prayers of one young man sparked a citywide revival.

Soon the media got a hold of the story and news of the revival traveled to other cities. People organized inter-denominational prayer meetings in cities across the east coast. One historian of revival writes: "For six to eight weeks during the height of the revival, some fifty thousand people were converted weekly. The average for the two years (1857-1859) was ten thousand new converts joining the churches each week. One [newspaper] reported that in several New England towns not a single unconverted person could be found."

The revival that began in America spread around the world to Ireland, Scotland, Wales, England, Europe, South Africa, India, Australia, and the Pacific Islands.

What should you pray for in the coming elections? Why not pray Psalm 85:4-7, which states: Restore us again, O God our Savior, and put away your displeasure towards us. Will you be angry with us forever? Will you prolong your anger through all generations? Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you? Show us your unfailing love, O Lord, and grant us your salvation.

Do vote! Exercise your privilege as a citizen to vote! Do pray for wisdom in casting your ballot. But most of all, pray for revival! This alone will save America and potentially the world from problems too big for politics.