Christians, Prayer, and Politics!

Christians like to pray! There is no greater delight than knowing in your heart you have connected with God on behalf of someone you love and care about deeply. In fact, the greater the love and concern, the greater the intensity and frequency of our prayers.

The same is true about our prayers for our neighborhoods, our communities, and our governmental concerns. The more desperate governmental affairs appear to us, on every level, the more intensity and desperation is in our prayers. It's at this point some of our loved ones, close friends, fellow employees and even the media experience some misunderstanding and considerable misinterpretation.

The source of that misunderstanding is the nomenclature sometimes used when Christians are strongly sensing the desperation and urgency of situations like extreme family concerns, or even issues in the national and/or international arenas.

Evil things in our personal lives or in our nation are initiated by an evil force in our present in our world - Satan! He opposes God's desire to give us His blessings and favor. So, like anyone who has been hurt, wounded, offended, or potentially so by someone who has  every intention and purpose to keep those good things from us, we become aggressive in our praying. Even war like! So, when an untrained ear hears metaphoric, war like language, such as a reference during the prayer to our determination to win this battle and conquer our enemy, it is just that; a metaphor for a spiritual confrontation between sin and righteousness, good and evil. We are certainly not planning to gather an armed crowd of rowdies to physically and literally attack a person or persons, location, or situation.

No! We are simply expressing our very strong beliefs and feelings about someone's thinking, some group's mindset or some nation's apparent philosophy we find offensive and oppositional to the U.S. or to our Christian faith. Our concern is the wellbeing of our families, our friends, and our nation. Therefore our prayers may take on an assertive tone as we let God know the level of our concern, along with our confidence in Him to change and redeem that situation for His sake and our wellbeing.

This is no different than a loving Dad or a caring coach who is endeavoring to challenge their kids to rise to the ocassion and conquer what might appear to be an overwhelmingly good team, enemy, or...foe. You know, overcome adversity and win the battle.

Recently there have been some opportunities for misunderstandings about Christian praying heard by certain media types who seemed to find it necessary to apply their lack of training in prayer and it's purpose to report their extreme misinterpretations. Let me explain. Earlier in the fall, Governor Rick Perry, an avowed Christian, helped to plan and then participate in a Prayer Rally at the Houston Stadium attended by over 30,000 Christians. Some strong praying of the type I shared here occured. The New Times and Washington Post reporters of note, couldn't resist what they referred to as exposing the mean-spirited preparation for physical confrontations across the country. This has been repeated with considerable regularity since Christians of the praying kind have been entering the political arena.

Why is it that religious tolerance is so Politically Incorrect just because some folks are not Christians? It appears that in political reporting there is a satisfaction with lack of awareness of genuine Christian beliefs and an unsubstantuated mindset against all things Christian - particularly when it comes to Christians in Politics?

When people of faith, including Christians, are running for Political Office it seems it would be considered a good thing for our nation. Who knows, God may be willing to help us if we will let Him. There doesn't seem to be anyone else, in either party or no party that has what it takes to lead us out of our tangled mess.

My suggestion is keep praying Christians until we win these battles we are praying about. Continue to arm yourselves with the Truth and prayer, only God can lead us to the right leader for our nation.