Praying for America

For God’s Will to Be Done

In 1797—just fourteen years after America won independence from Britain, with the help of France—our relationship with France had deteriorated. The French Revolution had plunged that nation into godlessness. Churches were closed, crosses were forbidden, and Christian worship was outlawed. Hundreds of thousands were murdered in the name of “brotherhood.”

France’s new leaders seized American vessels and demanded millions of dollars in bribes to leave these ships alone. But America refused to pay these French terrorists.¹ This situation became known as the XYZ Affair, and it posed a great danger for the United States. As a new nation, we could not afford to lose ships, but we did not want to get mired in another war, either. With tensions mounting, President John Adams asked the retired George Washington to take charge of the army once again, and Washington agreed.

In July 1798, General Washington wrote to President Adams, placing the American cause in God’s hands: “Satisfied, therefore, that you have sincerely wished and endeavored to avert war, and exhausted, to the last drop, the cup of reconciliation, we can, with pure hearts appeal to Heaven for the justice of our cause, and may confidently trust the final result to that kind Providence, which has heretofore and so often signally favored the people of these United States.”²

President Adams chose to trust in God’s will. On March 23, 1798, he declared a day of prayer and fasting. A year later, on March 6, 1799, Adams issued another proclamation for the nation to pray and seek God:

Many Americans did so, and they trusted God with the results. By God’s mercy, war with France was avoided, and America thrived.

More than two hundred years later, our heavenly Father still has the whole world—including the United States of America—in His hands. While it’s certainly true that we are facing crucial issues today, it’s hardly the first time America has been in grave danger. Throughout our history, the United States has faced numerous threats, both from without and from within. Our Founding Fathers designed our system of government to withstand these threats.

But if we’re not careful, we can give in to anxiety and worry. Every time a presidential election comes around, we hear statements like these from people across the political spectrum: “If so-and-so gets elected, our nation is doomed!” “This is the most important election of our lifetime!” “If that candidate wins, I’m leaving the country!” You may have even uttered a sentiment like this yourself.

We have a responsibility as believers to stand up, push back against evil, and influence the spiritual and moral direction of our country.⁴ And the Bible encourages us to work hard for justice, God-honoring laws, and the spread of the gospel. But one thing Scripture says we should not do is worry. The apostle Paul put it this way in Philippians 4:6: “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”

“Now, wait a minute,” you might be protesting. “How is it possible not to worry when America is at a tipping point?”

First, we must do what we can to support God-honoring values, educate ourselves about the candidates, and participate in the voting process. We are to bring a Christian influence into our country. And one of the most powerful ways we can do that is through elections. When you cast a vote for a candidate, you are voting either for righteousness or unrighteousness.

Then, after you vote, trust in the sovereignty of God. Now, don’t use God’s sovereignty as an excuse for passivity in elections. Yes, God has ordained who is going to win the election, but He has also ordained the means by which that is going to come to pass—and it is through His people. You and I ought to be careful to maintain our witness during elections, never showing panic or fear or hatred toward others.

As Christians, God has called us to be salt and light in this decaying and darkening world. We are to pray for God’s will to be done, participate in the political process, and then trust God with the results.⁵

A Prayer for America

Heavenly Father, thank You for being in control of the universe—including the United States and our elections. And thank You for giving me a say in who represents me in my government. Help me to fulfill that responsibility faithfully by voting in our elections. Whenever I am tempted to worry about the future of our nation, remind me of Your great love and provision. Forgive me when I give in to anxious thoughts instead of trusting You to work out Your purpose in America. May Your perfect will be done in all our elections. May the candidates seek after You and Your wisdom. And let me know if You desire for me to be one of those candidates. Bring revival to America before Your Son’s return. Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is done in heaven. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

—PHILIPPIANS 4:6–7

For Religious Freedom

In the early 1600s, every nation in Europe demanded loyalty to its state church, and England was no exception. Those who disagreed with the Anglican Church were harassed, fined, or jailed. But no Englishman could leave his country without permission. So, in 1608, one congregation of Separatists—as religious dissenters were known—uprooted their families and fled their homeland in secret, traveling across the English Channel to the Netherlands, which had recently become the first nation to grant religious toleration.

In the Netherlands, the Separatists enjoyed some measure of freedom. However, after eleven years, the situation began to change. Their work was hard, their children were abandoning their faith for the materialist Dutch culture, and war with Spain was looming on the horizon. If Spain conquered the Netherlands, then the Separatists would lose whatever religious freedom they had. In addition to all this, the small congregation was stopped from printing religious materials. They also desired to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ to new lands. So, after much prayer, the congregation decided to move again across the water, but this time much farther, to the brand-new English settlement of Virginia, in America. Virginia stretched all the way up to New York at that time, and the Separatists figured they could settle there in peace—within English rule, but far enough removed to ensure religious freedom.

To procure supplies and passage, the Separatists had to become indentured servants to a shady investment company for seven years. Those who could afford to go purchased a small ship, the Speedwell, and set out for America on July 22, 1620. They had to make just one stop first, in England. There, the Pilgrims (as they now called themselves) met up with another small ship the investors had rented, the Mayflower, which would carry another group of Separatists and some Anglican colonists to the Virginia Colony.

After some underhanded dealings from the investors, both ships finally departed for America. But they had to turn back because the captain of the Speedwell said the ship was leaking. This happened a second time, and the captain declared the ship unseaworthy. Reluctantly, the passengers crammed together—Separatists and strangers alike—into the tiny Mayflower. Some families had to separate as the ship could not hold everyone.

At last, on September 6, 1620, the Mayflower set out alone across the vast Atlantic—a 150-foot-long boat stuffed with 102 passengers and 40 crew members, along with furniture, books, supplies, seed, livestock, and a new printing press.

Storms rocked the ship. At one point, the Mayflower’s main beam began to crack. If it broke, they would all die. Providentially, they had the printing press. They fitted its giant screw under the beam, cranked it up, and kept the ship from breaking apart.

It seemed that God was protecting them. But the storms blew the Mayflower far off course northward, all the way to Cape Cod, which they reached on November 11, after sixty-six days at sea. Because of poor winds, dangerous shoals, and the oncoming winter, they decided to settle on the Cape. Since they were now outside English territory, both Separatists and Anglicans signed a document known as the Mayflower Compact, which laid the foundation for the new colony’s government.

The Mayflower Compact assured religious freedom. And God assured that this principle of freedom took root in the new land. When a landing party set out in a skiff to find a suitable settlement, a huge wave came out of nowhere. But instead of capsizing the boat, it deposited them gently on shore within sight of the ideal location: an abandoned native community that had plentiful water, a good harbor, cleared fields, a hill for defense, and buried corn and beans. They were saved from starvation! Even with this discovery, only half of the original passengers and crew survived that first harsh winter.

Over the next four months, the Pilgrims saw Native Americans only at a distance. Finally, on March 16, 1621, an Abenaki named Samoset walked into their town. “Welcome, Englishmen!” he said. The Pilgrims were stunned. Samoset had learned English from Anglo fishermen and traders. Later, Samoset brought another Native American who spoke even better English: Squanto.

Squanto had been abducted in 1614 from his Patuxet tribe by the English slaver Thomas Hunt and sold in Spain. There, he became a Christian and was freed by monks to travel to England. He learned English and found employment on a ship headed to America. But when he arrived back home in 1619, he found that his entire tribe had been wiped out by a three-year-long plague.

Squanto missed the plague but arrived back in time to help his new tribe of Pilgrims. He interpreted for them, arranged peace treaties, and taught them how to fish, hunt, and plant corn. He stayed with them until he died just a year later. Without Squanto’s help, the Plymouth Colony likely would have perished.

To create a safe haven for religious freedom, God blew the Pilgrims 250 miles off course at just the right time so they would find two English-speaking Native Americans, one of whom was a fellow Christian! The Pilgrims rightly thanked God for Squanto. They had struggled hard for religious freedom, and God had moved heaven and earth to ensure they got it.¹

What about us? In America, we enjoy freedom of religion. But do we really value it? If we didn’t have religious freedom, how far would we go to obtain it?

Our religious freedoms are being taken away at an alarming rate. God is not asking us to risk a dangerous journey across tumultuous seas to an unknown continent for the sake of our children. He simply wants us to pray—and fight—to keep what others have already won for us.

Pray that our religious liberties are protected in America. In addition to prayer, we can work through the legal channels to ensure that our nation’s children inherit this same blessing. But even if we lose this freedom, pray that Christians in America stay committed to Jesus Christ.

In these last days before Christ’s return, Christians will increasingly be challenged to stand against those who attempt to abrogate our constitutional rights and our biblical mandate to spread the message of Jesus Christ. But in doing so, we don’t have to act like jerks. We must pick our battles carefully, be respectful of the governmental authorities that God has established, and be willing to suffer the consequences of our disobedience. Whatever happens, we need to be productive in the life God has given us, especially if we in America still have our hard-won religious freedom.²

A Prayer for America

Heavenly Father, You have called Americans to worship You in freedom. May I never take that privilege for granted. May I always remember the heavy price it took to gain that liberty. And may I use my freedom to offer thanksgiving to You and sacrificial love to others. I know that You are working all things together for the good of those who love You, whom You have called according to Your purpose. Help me to believe that, no matter what I am going through. Thank You for loving me and giving me freedom. In Your name I pray, Lord Jesus. Amen.

You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.

—GALATIANS 5:13 NIV

For Truth to Prevail

When the Pilgrims lived in England and the Netherlands, their freedom of expression was routinely stifled. When they finally came to America, they brought only the essentials for survival—which included a giant printing press. That’s how much they valued freedom of expression.

Throughout history, political tyrants have tried to promote only their viewpoint and silence any disagreement. The same still happens today in many parts of the world.

But our Founding Fathers valued freedom of expression so much that they included it as part of the First Amendment to the Constitution, along with freedom of religion, of assembly, and of petitioning the government. They knew that the free sharing of ideas kept people thinking and kept tyrants from suppressing the truth. This is why freedom of expression is one of our most cherished liberties today.

But it may not be for much longer. In America, freedom of expression is under attack. Instead of engaging in honest debate and allowing people to decide for themselves, many Americans label any views they disagree with as “hate speech” or “racist.” They even try to pass laws that ban undefined “hate speech.” And we are all aware of “fake news,” in which media outlets engage in blatant bias and pretend it is honest reporting.

This destruction of dialogue is in full force on many of America’s college campuses as well. Any discussion that faculties do not like is often labeled “hate speech,” “microaggression,” or “bigotry.” Those with dissenting views have become the targets of open violence or have been expelled for not using a person’s preferred pronouns.

But even this is not the biggest threat to our free speech. The biggest danger we face today comes from a tool that was meant to be the ultimate source for the open sharing of ideas: the internet. Today, a few gatekeepers—who were given special privileges by Congress as the new digital “neutral public forums” under section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996—have now come to dominate the worldwide web. They no longer act as forums but rather as publishers who are immune from litigation for the material they publish or refuse to publish.¹ Let’s examine just one of those gatekeepers as an example: Alphabet, Inc.

Now, you probably have never heard of Alphabet, Inc., even though it is one of the most powerful companies on earth.² You certainly have heard of at least two of the companies that Alphabet owns: Google and YouTube. Google is the number one site on the internet, and YouTube is the number two site.³ A full 93 percent of Americans use Google to search the internet, and nearly 20 percent of all internet traffic is generated by YouTube. Nearly one billion people worldwide rely on Google every day.⁴ You can see the power that Alphabet wields with just two of its many companies. People trust that Google, as a search engine, will help them find the news and views they are looking for.

But recent accusations against Alphabet are very disturbing.

Several senior engineers at Google admit that leadership at their company has a very left-leaning slant and that the search results they turn out are designed to give you what they want you to see and believe.⁵ In other words, if you type in a controversial topic—say, “abortion”—then Google will give precedence to articles with their point of view. Opposing viewpoints appear way down the list, if at all.⁶ In fact, Google recently included a “fact-checking” feature for search results that almost exclusively targeted conservative sites.⁷

Even Google’s “autocomplete” program pushes their agenda. For instance, at the time of this writing, on Google’s search page, if you start typing “men can” and then hit the space bar, Google autocompletes with “have babies,” “get pregnant,” “have babies now,” “cook,” “have periods,” and “think about nothing.” Likewise, if you type in “women can” and then hit the space bar, Google autocompletes with “fly,” “vote,” “do it,” “do anything,” and “be drafted.” These suggestions do not reflect the most popular searches beginning with those words.⁸ But Google wants you to think that they are. This is not speculation; it has been confirmed by internal documents and by programmers captured on insider videos.⁹

Speaking of insider videos, Google’s sister company, YouTube, has banned those videos. In fact, YouTube has removed, shadow banned, or demonetized thousands of videos that express views that they do not like.¹⁰ For example, YouTube placed G-rated educational videos about the Ten Commandments, the Korean War, and the formation of the nation of Israel on the “restricted list”—the same list as pornography.¹¹ This designation prohibits children in schools and libraries from viewing them. Members of Google’s “transparency-and-ethics” group have also labeled Orthodox Jews Dennis Prager and Ben Shapiro as “Nazis.”¹² Thousands more examples like this could be listed.

We could chalk up these designations to mistakes, except that these “mistakes” disproportionately happen to those on one side of the political spectrum.¹³ And Google does not correct these designations even when confronted about them.¹⁴ This is dangerous.

It is clear that this bias has a political motivation. Google executive Jen Gennai and senior Google engineers Zach Vorhies and Greg Coppola openly admit that Google’s goal is to manipulate our political elections to one side.¹⁵ And it has worked. Robert Epstein claimed that Google’s one-sided influence on undecided voters in 2016 gave between 2.6 and 10.4 million extra votes to Hillary Clinton! This should alarm anyone, regardless of political persuasion.¹⁶ Epstein voted for Hillary Clinton, but he values truth and free speech more than his preferred candidate getting into office. He worries that so much power over free speech—wielded by a handful of like-minded technology companies—will destroy our democratic process. As Dennis Prager testified before Congress on July 16, 2019, “Google and YouTube’s (and for that matter Twitter and Facebook’s) suppression of internet content on ideological grounds threatens the future of America more than any external enemy. In fact, never in American history has there been as strong a threat to freedom of speech as there is today.”¹⁷

For our nation to survive in the internet era, Christians need to pray that Congress and the Justice Department break up technology monopolies and aggressively protect our free speech. You can also put pressure on your congressperson or senator to hold tech companies accountable for censoring speech, which is illegal under section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. Pray also that those who manipulate information and stifle free speech would repent.