A CHRISTIAN PRAYER FOR A DIVIDED NATION ON ELECTION DAY

O God, here we are in the USA, casting and counting ballots on this Election Day. Here we are, a nation divided. Lord, have mercy upon us.

We thank you, God, for the privilege that is voting in a system founded, however imperfectly, on democratic principles. We pray for those unable to vote, for those whose votes may be unfairly treated in any way, and for those so discouraged they have chosen not to participate. We pray that our democracy may someday be more truly worthy of the name.

O God, through the trials of this day, draw us closer to you and closer to one another. We pray especially for those among us who find ourselves torn from the affection of friends and family by this election. We know that you suffer with us, and that all day long you are working for love to prevail in the world.

O God, we pray that someday there will be no divisions among us, our national life marked by justice in every corner. We long for that day when every valley will be exalted and every mountain and hill laid low, when the poor will hear nothing but good news, when the prisoner and oppressed will be set free. We pray for the day when all the earth's peoples and nations will live in kinship with one another.

Until that day, O God, we pray that you would give us grace to live peaceably with one another, even as we fight for the right as we understand it. Give us strength and faith and hope and confidence to work for justice, such that our dreams, as they align with yours, would be fulfilled in our lives.

O God, we thank you for the great good gifts of sun and moon and earth and sky that have made possible another beautiful day. We know that we are standing on the shoulders of generations who have gone before us, who have fought and died for freedom, who have marched and protested and died for justice, who have cast their ballots as an expression of desire that ours would become a more perfect union.

And so here we are in the USA, casting and counting ballots on this Election Day. Here we are, a nation divided. We ask your mercy on us, for we recognize our need of your mercy.

And may those of us who ask these things in Jesus' name hear anew his call on our lives this day. Amen.