Today, Pray Not For Victory, But For National Salvation

“For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:12 RSV)

And a great storm of wind arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. 38 But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care if we perish?” 39 And he awoke and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. 40 He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Have you no faith?’” (Mark 4:37-40 RSV)

In the past, in times of great crisis, Americans have turned to prayer to plead for divine intervention to save the Nation, and no President has faced a greater national crisis than did Abraham Lincoln.

Yet, in the many Lincoln prayers passed down to us one thing stands out: Lincoln didn’t pray for victory, he prayed for the wisdom to divine God’s purpose and to align himself with it.

After the Union lost the Second Battle of Bull Run, on a battlefield just a few miles from our office, Lincoln wrote:

The will of God prevails. In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be wrong. God cannot be for and against the same thing at the same time. In the present civil war, it is quite possible that God’s purpose is something different from the purpose of either party — and yet the human instrumentalities, working just as they do, are of the best adaptation to effect His purpose.

In that vein, throughout that great and terrible war Lincoln continued to view the suffering of Americans on both sides as part of God’s plan.

In 1863, when the war appeared to be going against the Union, Lincoln issued a proclamation declaring a day of prayer and fasting, saying in part:

And insomuch as we know that by His divine law nations, like individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war which now desolates the land may be but a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people? We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown; but we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious land, which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God who made us:

It behooves us then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.

Today, we stand on the precipice of another great national conflagration. And like Lincoln, we search Scripture for the reasons for the punishments and chastisements visited upon our Nation and many of its most faithful citizens.

And if we look for reasons why God might withdraw his favor from us, there is no doubt that as a Nation we have vainly attempted to take upon ourselves many of the powers God reserved to himself.

It is undeniable that as a Nation we have taken upon ourselves the power of life and death, the creation of new forms of life, the remaking of ourselves, not in God’s image, but in new and unnatural forms, and we have enabled, and even set into law, other clear violations of God’s commandments.

And, just as in Lincoln’s time, many Americans have vainly imagined in the deceitfulness of their hearts they are acting according to Scripture and celebrate those transgressions.

But as Lincoln correctly understood, God cannot be for and against the same thing at the same time, nor can a Nation working against his scriptural laws expect to forever receive his protection and bounty.

Today, many will be praying for the victory of their preferred candidate for President, Vice President and other offices. But God cannot be on both sides in this great contest. The trials and tribulations many Believers have endured at the hands of our political opponents are part of God’s plan, but to what end?

Lincoln searched his heart and Scripture and came to this conclusion: “The ways of God are mysterious and profound beyond all comprehension — ‘Who by searching can find Him out?’ God only knows the issue of this business. He has destroyed nations from the map of history for their sins. Nevertheless, my hopes prevail generally above my fears for our Republic. The times are dark, the spirits of ruin are abroad in all their power, and the mercy of God alone can save us.”

Today, as in Lincoln’s time, the spirits of ruin are abroad in all their power. In the great spiritual battle of this election let all our actions align themselves with God’s purpose and let our prayers not be for the victory of any man, but for the restoration of God’s laws in our Nation, so that, as a Nation living according to God’s laws, in His mercy we may be restored to peace, prosperity and unity.

CHQ Editor George Rasley is an ordained Elder of the Presbyterian Church and a member of Faith Leaders for America. The views expressed in this column are his own and not necessarily the views of any denomination, congregation or religious organization.

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