"Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!" (2 Corinthians 9:15).

The other day I stopped by to visit my friend Ken who packs eggs in a large chicken house. His work for most would have an element of drudgery but Ken has a contagious attitude of gratitude. He's likely to greet you by rejoicing that his heart is pumping steadily and after he draws in a deep breath he expresses thanks for the freshly oxygenated air. He tends to elaborate on the often unconsidered gifts from God. This gives him a joyful outlook which spreads to those around him.

This week in our encouragement series we have been focusing on the topic of thanksgiving. May we be full of gratitude to our Lord Jesus knowing that all we are and all we have is a gift from Him.

Many of us will give and receive gifts at Christmas, a custom that for so many is the main thing. The origin of giving gifts (at least in the Christian sense) probably goes back to the gifts the Magi presented to the baby Jesus. 

What is our response to these gifts? Some will likely be returned. They didn't fit, wouldn't work or weren't what we liked. Others will soon be forgotten. Others are appreciated but will wear out or break in a relatively short time. And there will be a few that we will cherish for many years, perhaps our entire life. It might even be passed down to our children and be meaningful to them.

"But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that" (1 Timothy 6:6-8).

This week marks the "official" start of the Christmas shopping season, at least here in the USA. However the newspapers are stuffed with sales flyers and the mall parking lot has been filled for weeks. Ester works at a store called TJ Maxx and it has been crowded each time I pick her up in the afternoons. But the big shopping day for many will be this Friday and there is an abundance of great deals, particularly if you want to go shopping at 6:00 in the morning, or even earlier!

There's just more and more neat stuff that claims it will make the people we love happy if we just buy it for them. Of course the ads are surely also designed to appeal to our own sense of desire as well. I can sure tell you that some of this stuff is alluring to my interests, particularly electronic type gadgets.

I want to pause this morning and consider the bigger picture. The foundational meaning of Christmas is that God sent His Son as the greatest and most needful Gift of all. Increasingly our current generation is losing sight of the initial Christian meaning of this sacred holiday due to the secularization and over-commercialization of this special season.

We that love the Lord and desire to live in obedience to the Scriptures are called to properly provide for our families. Indeed the Word declares that, "If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever" (1 Timothy 5:8).

However beyond our desire to properly provide for our families is the materialistic rat race. We're all affected by it and perhaps some of us are among the front runners in this race where the finish line is never within sight. Living in an age of affluence we have to be on guard against this tendency. The Apostle Paul's words that follow our daily reading are so applicable today; "People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs" (1 Timothy 6:9, 10). My, isn't that so often the case!

A great Biblical teaching in regard to experiencing balance in this tension between properly providing (good) and the materialistic rat race (bad) is contentment. Consider the power of the phrase, "But godliness with contentment is great gain." A Bible teacher has observed "Contentment is understanding that if I am not satisfied with what I have, I will never be satisfied with what I want." Among the many ways the world seeks to force us into its mold is the lie that it can offer true satisfaction. Contentment is not the fulfillment of what you want, but the realization of how much you already have and finding satisfaction with that. It's realizing in the words from the great hymn that, "All I have needed Thy hand hath provided." Contentedness and thankfulness are interrelated.

Our daily verse declares that "If we have food and clothing, we will be content with that." I wonder how much food Paul was accustomed to and the extent of his clothing line. Yet he says, "We will be content." I believe our need for contentment is an attitude we must diligently strive for. The pressures of materialism are ever before us, particularly during this season that we remember and celebrate God's greatest gift. What a wonderful, deep-settled peace we experience when we learn to live in contentment which gives us hearts of thankfulness!

Be encouraged today,

Stephen & Brooksyne Weber

Daily prayer: Jesus, when I get overly anxious about having the latest gadget or the newest fashion I usually overlook the fact that I have so much already at my disposal. So much, in fact, that I struggle to properly manage my possessions and can often be overwhelmed with clutter. Thank you for the people I know who live with less so that others can have more; more of the basics of life and the provisions needed to reach others with the Gospel message. Contentment from You cannot be packaged and sold, but it can be a way of life as I align my priorities in accordance to Your will. Teach me the great gain You want me to experience by setting my heart's affections not on this world's changing and peril-stricken economy, but by storing up treasures in heaven's economy where eternal riches never perish, spoil or fade. May that precious truth help me find contentment in a non-content society. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

Chaplain Stephen and Brooksyne Weber serve with Transport for Christ. Click here to contact the Webers.

“For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:17, 18).

What kind of light and momentary troubles are you dealing with today? At first glance we may assume “light and momentary troubles” are merely the minor annoyances and time robbers of life such as getting stuck in a traffic jam, spilling a cappuccino on the carpet such as Brooksyne did yesterday in our van, or dealing with a leaky faucet as I am right now.

But this is certainly not the case. Paul is writing of troubles that would rival or surpass our most difficult experiences in life. He had written a few verses previous to this; “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that His life may be revealed in our mortal body” (2 Corinthians 4:8-11).

These are relatively “light and momentary troubles” in comparison to the ultimate glories of heaven and eternity. We might argue that they sure don’t seem light and momentary at the time we’re experiencing them! Some of these troubles are constant or recurring and weigh heavy on our hearts. Some of them are appearing in your mind’s eye even as you read this.

Yet we need to embed this truth deep in our hearts, “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.” I marvel as I consider the last part of the verse, “are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.” These troubles are fulfilling a purpose ordained by God, achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. The small three letter word, “a-l-l” encompasses the multiple “light and momentary troubles” we continually experience as trials on this side of eternity.

This “eternal glory” must be the ultimate guide by which we view all that happens to us personally or in the world about us. We must live for the “then”, not just for the “now”. It’s something I’ve learned theologically and know in my heart to be true but need to constantly remind myself. As a believer in Christ I must remember that my times are in His hands. With my eyes I see only the physical results, but in my spirit I must always contend for the future eternal reward.

The big picture is so powerfully expressed by the Apostle Paul in these two verses. I’ve memorized it and even now, through eyes of faith, rejoice in its truth. But it only pertains to people of faith in Jesus Christ. People without faith are blind to the big picture. Understanding the eternal scope of life begins when we commit our lives to Christ. Have you done that?

Here’s a prayer of faith that essentially begins the journey of seeing beyond this immediate life to receiving the promised eternal life through God’s plan of salvation. If you have not done so I urge you to pray this prayer from your heart today. And if you have done so already join me in reaffirming your commitment to Christ today.

“Lord Jesus, I confess that I am a sinner. I believe that You came to this earth and died on the cross as a substitute for me. I place my faith in You and what You have done for me. I receive You into my life and choose this day to follow and serve You. Thank You for hearing my prayer.”

Be encouraged today,

Stephen & Brooksyne Weber

Daily prayer: Father, there is much that we can learn from our temporal problems here on earth that better prepares us for eternity. As we work through these troubles enable us to have the mind of Christ so that attitudes reflecting the fruit of the Spirit become a spontaneous response to the difficulties that challenge us daily. Just as light, soil, air and moisture are requirements for growth in vegetation so must faith, prayer, self-denial and persistence in obeying God’s Holy Word be requirements for growth in our Christian walk. Help us not to become so caught up in viewing our daily challenges from an earthly perspective that we don’t look for the deeper, spiritual, and eternal meaning that You have to teach us in all things. We stand in the strength of the Lord Jesus and pray in His name. Amen.

Chaplain Stephen and Brooksyne Weber serve with Transport for Christ. Click here to contact the Webers.

“And Saul’s son Jonathan went to David at Horesh and helped him find strength in God” (1 Samuel 23:16).

Among the various forms of ministry we are involved in is a creative expression of care by Transport For Christ, a ministry to truck drivers and their families. I staff a 24 hour trucker prayer line where drivers can call if they desire prayer (the 800# is set to forward to our home phone; if you know a trucker who needs prayer the number is (877)797-PRAY or (877)797-7729). This number is then published in various TFC literature materials and lately we have been getting quite a few calls from needy truck drivers.

The other day I got a call from a man who really just seemed lonely and wanted to talk. He didn’t have a specific request but shared several burdens and I offered to pray with him over the phone. He was not at all familiar with this type of prayer and nervously told me he didn’t know what he was supposed to do. I told him he just had to listen as I would be the one praying. I offered a brief prayer for him concerning several of the burdens he had shared and thanked God for him.

When we finished he told me how blessed he was and how he had never experienced anything like this in his life (He expained that he came from a more formal religious tradition where he was not accustomed to a personalized and spontaneous prayer like the one I prayed.). I was in turn blessed at having the opportunity to share an uplifting, encouraging conversation and prayer with this lonely driver.

Thank God for friends, for people who care. I hope you have a lot of them and that you have several friends like David had with Jonathan. Their friendship is surely one of the greatest found in Scripture.

Today’s text is a remarkable statement. At this point Saul was insanely jealous of David and was in hot pursuit of him. The previous verse states, “While David was at Horesh in the Desert of Ziph, he learned that Saul had come out to take his life.”

However Saul’s son Jonathan apparently saw his father’s error and remained faithful to his friend David. David had just learned that Saul was determined to kill him. Surely Jonathan knew this as well and he was risking his own life and the resulting fallout from his father’s wrath in order to help David.

Notice that Jonathan “went to David.” He took the initiative and made the effort to help a friend in trouble. David had fled to Horesh in the Desert of Ziph, which was a very desolate and remote region south of the Dead Sea.

The purpose of Jonathan’s visit was to “help him find strength in God.” The NASV states, “encouraged him in God.” This is surely one of the most powerful examples and images of strengthening encouragement found in the entire Bible.

You may know of people like David who are besieged by difficult circumstances. They need a friend like Jonathan. They need someone to help them find strength. But notice the very clear source of strength, “in God”. This verse expresses the highest purpose of a truly godly friendship.

Although God is the source of strength He uses people to be channels of that strength. Aren’t you thankful for people who come to you when you need a helping hand, a listening ear and a compassionate heart! Those who do so have generally developed a spiritual sensitivity that helps them see beyond surface conversation to sense the deeper needs that one might be hesitant to bring out in the open.

The most practical way we help strengthen them is to pray with them. Notice I say “pray with” rather than just telling them, “I’ll pray for you” and walking away. Right then and there lift them before the Father in prayer as you’re gathered in His presence. “Where two or more are gathered in My name there am I in the midst of them.”

One of the blessings Brooksyne and I especially appreciate about our workplace chaplaincy is being able to pray with a troubled employee. Many are often burdened down with personal cares and experiencing a very difficult day at work. We stop and pray, as long as the employee is comfortable with this practice, and we’ve often receive feedback of how much this helped to lift their load while at work.

Praying for others is important, but I also experience a great deal of spiritual strength when a brother or sister thoughtfully considers a verse that matches my need and shares it with me. We all know of weary, discouraged and fearful people like David. Let us help them find strength in God through prayer and Scripture!

Is there someone you need to seek out today? It might be a walk down the hall, a brief trip, a phone call or maybe just a short, “I’m praying for you” email, forwarding a message like this. Will you be that channel of strengthening encouragement today?

Be encouraged today,

Stephen & Brooksyne Weber

Daily prayer: Father, I pray for a sensitive heart that I might be a representative of Your indwelling Spirit to those who have distressing needs. Develop in me a discerning heart that I might seek out those in need just as Jonathan did with David. While I don’t have all the answers I do know that Your Word brings light, direction, and confidence as we must navigate through the frequent twists and turns in our sojourn here below. We offer ourselves to You to be a blessing to others. We do this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Chaplain Stephen and Brooksyne Weber serve with Transport for Christ. Click here to contact the Webers.

"I then, as Paul--an old man and now also a prisoner of Christ Jesus" (Philemon 1:9b).

Today is Veteran's Day here in the United States, a day in which we properly remember veterans and consider the tremendous price they paid for our temporal freedoms. I realize many veterans read these messages including several we know personally and there other readers who are in active service. We thank you for your service. I specifically consider my Uncle Jim who passed away earlier this year who served in WW2 as a navy pilot.

Today I want to focus this devotional on spiritual veterans. Many have gone on before us and are now in the great cloud of witnesses. Others are still on this side and in their senior years of life. They have faithfully served God in their generation and await their call home.

Pastor John Howard was my first pastor (as a born-again Christian). Pastor Howard never had large churches, but due to his commitment to Christ, integrity, friendliness and genuine interest in people he impacted many for Christ. I was one of several ministers he and his wife, Sister Howard, introduced as one of "our boys". I saw her a couple years ago when we took this photo.

They both had such a sweet, loving spirit although they surely have known pain and fought bitterness. Their only son was killed when he was eleven by a drunk driver. I still recall the pain and honest confession, "I still don't understand" in Mrs. Howard's voice as she shared this story with me several years ago. However, in spite of the pain and questioning, they have kept the faith and rejoice in the impact of their ministry in many other ways. I'm glad I'm a part of that.

As we grow older we see more and more of our spiritual mentors going to be with the Lord. Pastor Howard passed away in 1999. I spoke to Mrs. Howard, who is now 89, on the phone last night and she again told me how proud she was of "her boys" (those she and her husband had discipled).

Today remember the contribution made by the countless old spiritual veterans. Let us look at a tiny statement made by the apostle Paul, a true veteran of the Christian conflict. He had fought the good fight of faith and was not at all reserved in identifying himself in the text as an "old man". (The KJV states "the aged".)

He is one of scores of men and women who have risked their lives and sometimes laid down their lives, faced hardship, and otherwise bear the scars of battle for Christ and for our souls. Our spiritual freedom was supremely paid by Christ's death on the Cross. However many others have paid a great price to bring that message to us and to keep the flame burning bright. Let's honor them and let us now take our place in line with the faithful!

I'm sure you can think of some veterans today. Why don't you take a moment to thank God for them, and if you're able, get a word of appreciation to them. You'll make their day an extra special one. That's what Mrs. Howard said to me as we concluded our conversation last night!

Finally we all will become spiritual veterans should the Lord keep us on this side. Brooksyne and I state our determination to stay faithful and enlist readers, near and far, to join us.

Oh, may all who come behind us find us faithful,
May the fire of our devotion light their way.
May the footprints that we leave, lead them to believe,
And the lives we live inspire them to obey.
Oh, may all who come behind us find us faithful.

Be encouraged today,

Stephen & Brooksyne Weber

Daily prayer: Father, for those who've gone before us and remained faithful to the end we take note of their example. For those who have sacrificed their lives that we might have freedom to read Your Word and worship freely we are greatly indebted. And for those of us who remain we want to be vigilant in our daily walk with You, ever growing in Your grace and knowledge, and staying faithful until we draw the last mortal breath on this side, so that our first immortal breath on the other side will be from the portals of heaven. It's all because of Your amazing love, Father, and Jesus' divine sacrifice. Amen.

Chaplain Stephen and Brooksyne Weber serve with Transport for Christ. Click here to contact the Webers.

"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us" (I John 3:16). "How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!" (I John 3:1). "This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins" (I John 4: 9, 10).

Earlier this year I learned about a woman diagnosed with a rare form of lung cancer who had need of light meals to be brought into her home. Except for getting radiation treatments and chemo therapy at the cancer clinic Mary Lou was homebound making the sofa in her living room her daily recuperation bed month after month.

I began visiting Mary Lou in February of this year. I took over light meals and spent time talking to her. She was in obvious physical discomfort, but I also sensed that there was a pressing spiritual need. I talked to her about Jesus and learned that she had become very angry with God 48 years earlier when she was just 12 years old. A jolting loss in her life had caused her anger to turn to bitterness over the years and Mary Lou turned her back on God.

During my months of immobility due to my broken ankle I lost touch with Mary Lou, but I went to visit her a couple of weeks ago and saw an immediate change in her countenance. Bibles were sitting on her coffee table and she had a bookmarked copy of a Christian book she was reading. Our conversation flowed and she told me that she had asked God back into her life and asked Him to forgive her. He had restored her joy and peace. But the one thing she couldn't fully comprehend is how God could love her so much that He would give up His only Son to come to this world and die for her sins.

Our warm conversation refreshed my spirit and reminded me that I often take God's redemptive and inexhaustible love for granted. I read the following message from an article by Regis Nicoll that especially deals with the subject of God's inexhaustible love:

"At the heart of love is other-centeredness. From small acts of kindness to the laying down of life for another, love is lived out and authenticated through personal sacrifice. It is thus, in the Incarnation, that we find the highest expression of divine love. For there we find a God who refused to exempt Himself from the stinging injustice of a world gone wrong. For a brief moment in history, God set aside His omnipotence to be the Son of Man—the Advocate who presents God to man and man to God.

Making Himself as one of us, God invaded the world, not as sovereign king but as a helpless infant. Associating with the downcast and outcast and ministering to the least and the last, He was shunned by His brothers, rejected by His countrymen, convicted on phony charges, tried by an illegitimate assembly, sentenced to an unjust death, spat upon, beaten, cursed, scourged, nailed to a tree, and, crying out in anguish, killed in infamy with common criminals as the hand of his Father was withheld. If anyone knows, from first-hand experience, about injustice it is He.

Because He walked in our shoes, He is the only deity who can understand our pain, sympathize with our suffering, and be patient with our questioning hearts. The Incarnation is the shocking and irrefutable display of inexhaustible Love."

Mary Lou and I sat together and discussed how impossible it is to fully understand this kind of inexhaustible love the Father has for His creation. In fact it made her weep as she realized how gracious God is to forgive her 48 years of walking away from this incredible love she had once known as a young girl. We can't fully understand it, but by faith we can accept it! I hope you have done so today.

Be encouraged today,

Stephen & Brooksyne Weber

Daily Prayer: Father, we ask that out of Your glorious riches that You might strengthen your children with power through Your Spirit in their inner beings, so that Christ may dwell in their hearts through faith. We pray that they, being rooted and established in love, may have power together with all the saints to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge that they may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. In the precious name of Your Son, Jesus, we pray. Amen.

Brooksyne has written the full story about Mary Lou's heartbreaking childhood experience that embittered her and the physical struggle she faces today in Mary Lou's Story.

"For this God is our God forever and ever; He will be our guide even to the end" (Psalm 48:14).

600,000 Christian Armenians were executed by Young Turks who implemented a genocidal program on April 24, 1915. A young Armenian dragged herself into an American relief camp just inside Russian territory and collapsed in relief. A nurse quickly brought her food and water and asked if she was in pain. The teenager shook her head. "But I have learned the meaning of the cross," she murmured. At the nurse's perplexed look, the girl exposed her shoulder. The shape of a cross had been burned deeply into her flesh. Then she told her story.

Rounded up with others in her village and separated from home and family, she was asked to choose: Muhammad or Christ? "Christ, always Christ!" she replied. Seven days in a row she was asked the same question, and her reply was always the same. And each time she answered, part of a cross was burned into her shoulder. Finally she was told that the next day would be her last chance. If she chose Muhammad, she would live; if she chose Christ, she would die. But that night, hearing rumors that Americans were close by, she escaped to safety. "That," she finished, "is how I learned the meaning of the cross." (Excerpt taken from the book "Christian Heroes".)

The Armenian teenager had to make the difficult choice:  Muhammad or Christ. In the Old Testament three Hebrew boys were also forced to make the difficult choice: bow down to the golden image or remain faithful to the God of Israel. Their ancient story has emboldened saints, both young and old, throughout the ages as they refused to bow down and worship the image Nebuchadnezzar had set up. They expressed unswerving confidence in God even if it meant their lives would be sacrificed.

Psalm 48 is a familiar Scripture passage to many because of a chorus we sing based on the first two verses, "Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised…" This Psalm is written by a group of singers known as the "Sons of Korah". Most likely these were temple singers who lived during the period of the divided kingdom.

This Psalm extols God for His greatness, His deliverance, His unfailing love and other divine attributes. But the Psalm ends with our daily text which empowers us as we transmit the life-changing message of God's truths to our generation. Let us examine it today, consider its relevance, and receive its assurance.

"For this God is our God forever and ever." This is our great God. This God is our Maker, Defender, Redeemer and Friend. Consider His great acts throughout history. Consider the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, of Moses, Joshua, Samuel and David. The God of Ruth, Esther and Mary, of Isaiah, Jeremiah and Daniel. The God of Peter, Stephen and Paul. The God of those who have stood up throughout the long history of the church. Martin Luther, John Wesley, D.L. Moody, Jim Elliot and countless others like the Armenian teenager, whose name we don't even know, in today's opening illustration. 

In your own life consider those who have walked faithfully with God and impacted your life. Some are now with Christ, others still labor here below. Let us together with one heart and one voice declare, "This God is our God! And He will be forever and ever!"

And, "He will be our guide even to the end." What a great promise this is. Let us praise God today and live our lives faithfully in His service, for He is indeed forever God!

Be encouraged today,

Stephen & Brooksyne Weber

Daily prayer: Father, You are great in power and unsurpassed in wisdom. Though Your marvelous handiwork is seen in every direction, Your most awesome work is visible in the way You change and redirect our lives. When we consider the saints throughout history and the marvelous saving power exhibited in their lives we're encouraged by their example and enduring walk with You. We recognize these "greats" of the past and those in our own generation who are faithful and powerful examples. They do not build their own kingdom or take credit for their accomplishments. Instead they declared it is God and God alone who deserves our truest praise, no matter the sacrifice. So we praise You, Lord, and You alone this day as we seek to be faithful even to the end. Amen.

Chaplain Stephen and Brooksyne Weber serve with Transport for Christ. Click here to contact the Webers. 

"Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people" (Proverbs 14:34).

Finally, it's Election Day here in America. When we pastored in New England our church was on a very busy US highway and was also used as a polling place. We had a large road sign with a changeable message at the entrance. On Election Day my dedicated secretary placed this message on both sides of the sign: "Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people" (Proverbs 14:34). For many voters that was probably the extent of their exposure to Scripture!

Half a century ago Peter Marshall made the following cogent statement: "No nation has ever made any progress in a downward direction. No people ever became great by lowering their standards. No people ever became good by adopting a looser morality. It is not progress when the moral tone is lower than it was. It is not progress when purity is not as sweet. Whatever else it is, it is not progress!" 

My family, along with so many others, is praying with great fervency for our country at this time.

We have been disgraced as a nation. The disgrace of sin abounds yet so many are blind to it. As I prepared this message I considered my grandmother who died in the early seventies. As best as I can determine she is a strong link in my spiritual lineage. Could she even have imagined if we were able to foretell the spiritual apathy and moral decadence we are seeing today?

Righteousness fundamentally is attained when individuals, families and churches turn to Christ and live daily in submission to His will. This has an accumulative impact on our community, state and entire nation. Thus a nation's leadership reflects the righteousness or unrighteousness of the people.

The political leadership chosen today certainly will affect the fate of our nation, but we each individually have the decision regarding the fate of our soul. I urge you all to accept or reaffirm your personal decision to follow Christ today and experience God's great hope and peace as a citizen of heaven!

I emphasize again and again the most important decision that we all should make in this life; that we will love and serve Jesus this day and every day forever. As we make this most important decision we will be doing our part to make our country a righteous nation!

Be encouraged today,

Stephen & Brooksyne Weber

Daily prayer (John Piper has written a prayer most pertinent for our election): Father in heaven, as we approach our national election, I pray that your people will vote, and that they will vote with a sense of thankfulness for a democratic system that at least partially holds in check the folly and evil in all our hearts so that power which corrupts so readily is not given to one group or person too easily. I pray that we would know and live the meaning of being in the world, but not of it, doing politics as though not doing them, being on the earth, yet having our lives hidden with Christ in God, rendering to Caesar the things that are Caesars, and to God the things that are God’s; that we would discern what truths and values should advance by being made law and which should advance only by the leavening of honest influence; that your people would see what love and justice and far-seeing wisdom demand in regard to the issues of education, business and industry, health care, marriage and family, abortion, welfare, energy, government and taxes, military, terrorism, international relations, and every challenge that we will face in the years to come; and above all, that we will treasure Jesus Christ, and tell everyone of his sovereignty and supremacy over all nations, and that long after America is a footnote to the future world, he will reign with his people from every tribe and tongue and nation. Keep us faithful to Christ’s all important Word, and may we turn to it every day for light in these dark times. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

This prayer is from  "A Prayer For The Election"