Prayers for Election Day
AACC staff members share their prayers for this consequential day. May you and your community be centered in the Father’s love and peace today and in the days to come.
By AACC Staff
From the Book of Common Prayer:
O God, you made us in your own image and redeemed us through Jesus your Son; look with compassion on the whole human family; take away the arrogance and hatred which infect our hearts; break down the walls that separate us; unite us in bonds of love; and work through our struggle and confusion to accomplish your purposes on earth; that, in your good time, all nations and races may serve you in harmony around your heavenly throne; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
“For the Human Family,” Prayers and Thanksgiving, Prayers for the World
Lord, you invite us to live holy lives that are worthy of the calling we have received. These holy lives are marked by doing justice, loving mercy, and walking humbly with our God. You call us to care for those considered the least, the lost, and the last.
As citizens of your kingdom, allow us to be ambassadors through whom your will is done on earth as it is in heaven. May we not get entrapped by political idolatry, but represent you through our civic engagement.
Let us remember that the elephant and the donkey are poor replacements for the Lamb, and help us to live with our eyes upwards towards you and outwards towards those who are overlooked by the rest of the world. In Jesus’ name.
Raymond Chang, AACC president
O Father,
Quiet our hearts today. May we find space to sit in solitude and stillness and know that you are God.
We don’t know who’s going to win the election, but you do. We also know that the next president won’t be decided by chance. You both set up kings and remove them as you please (Daniel 2:21). You are sovereign over our next president because you are the king of the universe and today, like every day, you are seated on your throne.
Help us to dwell on the truth that you sustain all things, direct all things, plan all things, ordain all things, superintend all things, and work all things together for good. No matter what happens this day, you are still king on your throne and we trust that you will sovereignly rule over our new president elect.
Amen.
Dr. Michelle Reyes, AACC vice president
Lord, forgive us for the ways that each of us, through words or deeds or silence, have contributed to the division and hostility across our nation. We have too easily labeled those who disagree with us as other or less than. Teach us anew what it means to be instruments of your peace. Show us Imago Dei in each human being we encounter. Help us to use our words wisely and compassionately in the days and weeks to come.
Give us the courage to be humble. Give us the grace to forgive. Give us the faith to persevere. Give us the love to reach out and build bridges.
Lord, you are the redeemer of all things, the renewer of all things. We entrust our country, our political leaders, and our communities to you. Have mercy on us, and make paths for us as we seek healing, reconciliation, and transformation.
Amen.
Dorcas Cheng-Tozun, RECLAIM editorial director
O Lord,
So declares the psalmist,
“The LORD is my light and my salvation—whom shall I fear?”
But so declare I to my confidantes,
to the pages of my journal,
to my Twitter timeline,
I am afraid, I am afraid, I am afraid.
Late into the night, I bloat my anxiety,
skimming headlines over which I cannot control,
Gorging blistering takes,
nibbling sardonic rebuttals
Stewing in moral outrage,
all the while a loitering thought continually nudging,
“What could get worse?”
A question that enervates me even as each month keeps offering a fresh expression of the answer.
O Lord,
I want to wake up in the morning and it all to be over even
A thought which assumes a period in which events were less horrible,
When perhaps atrocities were more concealed.
Perhaps this subject/verb construction removes me from the role I must assume in ending the catastrophe.
Lord, I do not believe you call me to save the world,
To presume myself a savior when I believe he has come and will once again,
And yet, I both wonder what more you have for me
Than to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly alongside you
Even as I immerse myself in my own arrogance, offer bitterness to my enemies, and benefit off the plunder of those who have come before me.
Comfort me in my dread, O God.
And if the dread shall continue, persist in your peace that transcends my understanding.
Morgan Lee, RECLAIM editor
On Sunday night, a few friends and I who have been wrestling with our Asian American identity and Christian faith gathered over Zoom to study the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). We were struck first by the lawyer’s dismissal of Jesus’s first commandment to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind.” The lawyer seems to assume that he has gotten that piece down and asks about who his neighbor might be. How many times do we, as Christians, assume we truly are loving the Lord our God with our entire being?
The second takeaway we had made us question: Who was our neighbor? In the Greek, the word is plesion, which literally means “nearby,” regardless of religion or nationality. The Latin Vulgate translates that as proximus, from which we derive the English word “proximate,” meaning “closest in relationship.” Who are the people who are closest to us in relationship, and are we loving them? As Asian Americans, are we aware of how our racial/ethnic identity impacts how we relate with others and vice versa?
On election day, may we be reminded of our call to love God and to love people, even if all the differences in upbringing, opinion, and lifestyle make it challenging. I pray that, as Christians, we can hold each other to a higher account in line with the true gospel, calling in and working with each other to be more like Jesus.
Woojin Kim, RECLAIM editor
Lord, may you grant us peace.
May this peace be not solely for our own comfort, but for the peace and well-being of our neighbors. I pray that in this election, you would grant hope for the immigrant, freedom for the captive, and justice for the poor. For when the least of these has received peace, only then shall we all have peace. May our actions on this day and the days to come reflect your kindness, your mercy, and your love.
On this day, may our hearts echo Jesus’ inaugural vision:
The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor (Luke 4:18-19, NIV).
Amen.
Joshua Huver, RECLAIM editorial assistant
Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash
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