Hi Friends,

During our Sunday worship service y we always spend time in prayer together.  We do this because we believe that prayer is not meant to be our last resort, but our first priority.  We believe that God can do in a moment far more than we could do in a lifetime and so we pray and ask God to move for the glory of His name.

As we approach this year’s election, I wrote a blog post about 5 things that I believe God would want to see us marked by during this season.  Over the next 5 weeks we are going to be taking one of these points and praying about it together as a church.

1. Your identity is not in your politics

Our name is Christ Church- We are not a Democratic church. We are not a Republican church.   We do not endorse any candidate.  We worship Jesus. Jesus transcends political party and has no agenda other than His own.  If our identity is found in Jesus, then we should expect to not fully agree with any one candidate, political party, or news outlet.  Identifying with Jesus should result in us being uncomfortable with any perspective, other than His own. Therefore, even if our political opinions clash with one another, we are brought together through our shared identity in Christ.  Jesus must stay our focus and be our uniting force.

Prayer

Jesus, you gave us a picture in heaven of your church, your people brought together.  You said they come from every tribe, tongue and race.  And so Lord that must mean they also come from different political parties.  God, help us not to hold on to an identity today that we won’t care about for one moment on that Day.  Help us to live now with a vision of you, a vision of your worship, and a vision of us all worshipping you around your throne.

We confess that we can hold on to our opinions and exalt them over your worship.  We confess that we can identify more with our politics than with you.  We confess that we can be arrogant and think that we have it right and everyone else is the problem.  We confess that we can buy into the fear that is being put out by both parties.  We confess our anxious thoughts and worries about the future.  We bring these things to you and confess that they are all examples of our sinful hearts not looking to you and trusting in you. Sweet Savior, cleanse us, purifying us, bring us back to yourself

May your cross, the cross where our sins were paid for in full, the cross where God’s justice was met as you gave yourself as a sacrifice on our behalf, may your cross shine forth like a blazing fire and as we draw close may it set our hearts aflame again for you.

Jesus, we together say as a unified voice that we do not identify with any of the systems of this world.  We identify with you. You are our King. Help us to live like that is true. Help us to love others like that is true. Help us to honor you.

In you name we pray.  Amen.