Tuesday Prayer: 50

This is my 50th 'Tuesday Prayer' post. As we come towards the year of prayer quotes and ideas on this blog (broadly when we hit Week 52, though of course its taken longer than an actual year) it struck me that it is hard to pray for the things we feel we can't change, or are disconnected from.

It is no secret that the UK has a General Election coming up, and I've been hosting a series on this blog about Politics, interviewing a range of people about why they, as Christians, support various political parties. We've recently published it as a free eBook, available in PDF and iBooks format. But enough of that. This Tuesday, I wanted to offer one of my own prayers;

"King Jesus, you reign over all, and you know the hearts of all. Would you guide your people as we vote in this election, and would your Holy Spirit show us how to vote and to encourage others to do the same.

Would your priorities become ours - Father would you give us your eyes to see what must be changed, and your heart to shape our culture.

We are grateful because we know you - the one who knows what the result will be, and that ultimately love and justice win. Help us to know your loving sovereignty amidst the confusion and media frenzy of election week.

For safety, for logistical simplicity, for good dialogue and for our leaders present and future, we offer our prayers.

Amen."

This is my prayer ahead of the General Election. Would you join me in praying? Feel free to use these words, or even better, your own.

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Don't forget to check out the previous posts in the series, featuring quotes from Tom Wright, John Wimber, Richard Foster and Don Carson, the great J. C. Ryle and theologians Alister McGrath and James K. A. Smith. Since then, I've shared quotes from Justin Welby, E.M. Bounds, Vineyard Pastor Ken Wilson, C. S. Lewis,  Norwegian O'Hallesby, Paul Miller, John Piper. Recently, we've heard Matthew Henry, Charles Finney, Andrew Murray, Tim Chester, Vaughan Roberts, Oliver O'Donovan, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and John Bunyan. Then we got rather retro, with quotes from Church Fathers John Chrysostom and Tertullian, before returning to more recent thinkers with Rowan Williams, Mike Reeves and Peter Jackson and Chris Wright and Andrew Case, R. C. Sproul, and (representing a slight change of tack) the Westminster Confession. Recently we considered Karl Barth, and Donald Macleod, Mary Prokes,  J. C. Ryle (again!), Andrew Murray,  Martyn Lloyd Jones, Hudson Taylor, recently about Ffald-y-Brenin,  some of my own words, and my friend Nick Parish, Joyce Huggett. More recently I've shared a prayer of remembrance from the C of E, some of the words of Paul, an Anglican Prayer for Advent, Peter Lewis, Tim Keller, and most recently my friend Robin Ham, and the Book of Common Prayer, and 1 Timothy 2.