Praise for Change, Pray for Change
Published on January 20th, 2009.
These are our two responsibilities before God on this Inauguration day.
An hour from now, Barack Obama will be President of the United States. We have much to be thankful for in a peaceful transition of power. As history can testify, humans are capable of dramatic and dangerous changes in power. But while the ordering of this “change” is peaceful, underneath the surface of today’s events is a terrible violence. It is ironic that President Elect Obama, an icon of human and civil justice as the first African American president, is also a champion of injustice against the unborn members of our race. This is an irony famous to all of us who are both made in God’s image but who are fallen sinners in rebellion against our Creator.
Our nations sickness in its approval of abortion, I pray, will be an embarrassment of our nation’s history. Today, of all days, is a reminder that we can change our mind. Today is a reminder that we are capable of embarrassment over our own nation’s history.
The following two links express well the heart of and concern of those who know and follow Christ. Let us engage as citizens with the clarity and spirit of this letter, and let us pray with the fervency, theological conviction and creaturely-dependence of this prayer.
An open letter from Ron Jones, pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church, just blocks from the White House.
A prayer for Obama by Dr. Albert Mohler, President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Today, President Elect Obama sing the words ofGod, Our Help in Ages Past, in the tradition initiated by President Roosevelt in 1941. These words will help facilitate our own prayers for our president and our nation.
O God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Our shelter from the stormy blast,
And our eternal home.Under the shadow of Thy throne
Thy saints have dwelt secure;
Sufficient is Thine arm alone,
And our defence is sure.Before the hills in order stood,
Or earth received her frame,
From everlasting Thou art God,
To endless years the same.Thy Word commands our flesh to dust,
Return, ye sons of men:
All nations rose from earth at first,
And turn to earth again.A thousand ages in Thy sight
Are like an evening gone;
Short as the watch that ends the night
Before the rising sun.The busy tribes of flesh and blood,
With all their lives and cares,
Are carried downwards by the flood,
And lost in following years.Time, like an ever rolling stream,
Bears all its sons away;
They fly, forgotten, as a dream
Dies at the opening day.Like flowery fields the nations stand
Pleased with the morning light;
The flowers beneath the mower’s hand
Lie withering ere ‘tis night.Our God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Be Thou our guard while troubles last,
And our eternal home.
Filled under Miscellany.
Ben C. on January 21st, 2009
Amen. Becoming a father myself this year, I don’t understand how someone like Obama who has witnessed the miracle of life growing in his wife’s womb through the birth of his child could support abortion. An ultrasound at a mere 8 weeks shows a heart beat! Life is truly amazing. I hope we’re all in constant prayer for this administration.