Dear God, I was in a culture war situation yesterday, so I thought it would be important for me to come back and look at the Holy Post Podcast Episode 532: How Would Jesus Fight the Culture War? I did a prayer journal on it last November, and I want to go back and be reminded of the things I learned then and see if there maybe isn’t something else you want to teach me this morning.

I just read through a lot of the prayer journal I did, and the thing you pointed out to me that I might have glossed over before is praying for those who concern me. Who worry me. Who I think are causing damage, maybe even in your name.

So Father, Jesus, Holy Spirit, I pray for the people who are on my heart this morning. I pray for their peace. I pray that they might find their peace in you. I pray that you will raise up voices in their lives that are from you that they can hear. That will speak with your authority to them. I pray that they might see the limits you placed on us as your ambassadors in the world: prayer, service, persuasion, and suffering. I pray that you will inspire them to take you into the world in a spirit of love. I pray that the fruits of your Holy Spirit will flow through them and out of them. I pray that you will create soil in their hearts that will help them to give your Spirit space to flourish. And lest I be self-righteous about this, I pray each of these things for myself too. I need your peace. I need to hear your voice through people around me. I need people who are from you to speak with authority into my life. I need to devote myself to prayer, service persuasion and suffering. I need to weed out the soil of my heart and give room for your Holy Spirit to grow your fruit in me. Jesus, thank you for your power and your example. Father, thank you for your ultimate love. And Holy Spirit, thank you for being with me now.

I pray all of this submitted to your authority in my life,

Amen