Fifty Days of Prayer for the National Election 2012 – Day 42

Day 42 October 29
Focus: A Decisive Outcome This Election
Despite the meticulous planning, careful strategies, polling, advertising and get-out-the-vote efforts, the election could produce the sort of messy outcome that defies expectation and prognostication. Polls show such a tight race between President Obama and Mitt Romney heading into this final week that the two sides are playing out any number of wild possibilities. The approach of Hurricane Sandy reminds us just how out of our control democracy can be. Psalm 2 states, “Why do the nations conspire and the people plot in vain? The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them.”
The storm has forced both candidates to scrap campaign stops, and, with eight days until Election Day, it will require Mr. Obama to balance the role of president in an emergency and the role of candidate. That could benefit or hurt him, depending on how voters view his performance. The storm distracts the efforts of both camps to advance a closing argument. Early voting will most likely grind to a halt in some places along the Eastern Seaboard, while power failures could last much of the week and conceivably until Election Day in some places.
Meteorology is only one wild card facing the campaigns in the final week. On Election Day, the winner may not be known right away; results in one or more states may be close enough to merit recounts. In Ohio, which could decide the election, so many provisional ballots may be cast — and by law are not counted right away — that it may be mid-November before a winner is declared.
Of all the messy outcomes, one that is possible is a candidate’s winning the presidency through the Electoral College despite losing the popular vote, as Mr. Bush did in 2000. If it happens again, it might be in the opposite way, with the Republican, Mr. Romney, in range of a popular plurality and the Democrat, Mr. Obama, with an apparently easier route to an Electoral College victory.
Prayer:
No one from the east or the west or from the desert can exalt a man. But it is God who judges: He brings one down, He exalts another. (Psalm 75:6-7)
He brings low, He also exalts. (1 Samuel 2: 7)
Almighty God,
You alone rule and judge what is right in our world. Even though our systems strive to lift up and exalt individuals, You are our Judge, choosing those whom You will lift up and bringing down those whom You will debase.
We ask You, O God, to lift up the person You desire to serve our nation as President in the years to come. We pray for a godly and wise President who will honor You in all things, and we pray that the schemes of men will be defeated as we look to You for the person of Your choosing this year. Grant us, O God, not the person we deserve, but a man who will lead this nation toward righteous thinking and righteous action, eager to do Your will. For it is You Who blesses the righteous man, O Lord, You surround him with favor as with a shield. (Psalm 5: 12) Surround him with such favor that there is no dispute as to the outcome of this election.
Yet not as I will, but as You will. Matthew 26:29
Sovereign God, Your plans are perfect and Your ways are right and just. You put Your plans in place, and we see the beauty of all You have designed. We trust in Your perfect will, even when it does not make sense to us.
Bring about Your perfect will in our nation through these elections. Bring about Your perfect will through the impending storm that will hit the east coast this week. You will accomplish what You intend; give us faith and understanding to relinquish our wills to Yours, just as Your Son Jesus did when He surrendered His life for our sin. We thank You for Your goodness, and for Your kindness to us and our nation. Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people. We pray for political leaders at the national, state, and local level who will rule over us in righteousness and in the fear of the Lord. May they be men and women who serve You, LORD, with fear and rejoice with trembling.

Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?” (Genesis 18: 25)

You are the Arbiter of all outcomes. You foil the plans of the nations; You thwart the purposes of the peoples. (Ps. 33: 10) The plans of the LORD stand firm forever, the purposes of His heart through all generations. (Ps. 33: 11)
We ask You, LORD and Judge, to decisively decide this dispute facing our nation. (Judges 11: 27) May those who oppose You be broken. Most High, thunder from heaven; judge the ends of the earth. Give strength to Your king and exalt the horn of Your anointed. (1 Sam. 2: 10) Hear from heaven and act! Judge Your servants. (2 Chron. 6: 23) With the Lord our God there is no injustice or partiality or bribery. (2 Chron. 19: 7) We can only plead with our Judge for mercy. (Job 9: 15)
You demand an answer to Your questions:
“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding, Who set its measurements? Who stretched the line on it? On what were its bases sunk? Who laid its cornerstone?” ( Job 38: 4-6) “Were you the first man to be born, or were you brought forth before the hills?” (Job 15:7) “Who is this that obscures my plans with words without knowledge? (Job 38: 2)
We proclaim: You set for the sea its boundary so that the water would not transgress Your command, when You marked out the foundations of the earth; (Proverbs 8:29) You make poor and rich; You bring low, You also exalt. You raise the poor from the dust, You lift the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with nobles, and inherit a seat of honor; for the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s, and You set the world on them. (1 Samuel 2:7-8) Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails! (Prov. 19: 21)
We exercise throne authority in our prevailing prayer. It is not presumptuous to act on Your Word. We do not tremble before Satan, but we confront him from the throne. We do not to cower in the dust before him. We pray against Satan’s strongholds, and ask You to force his retreat, and release his captives. We pray against disputes, confusion, fraud, accusations, and angry charges. No one can deliver out of Your hand. When You act, who can reverse it?” (Isaiah 43: 13) For no matter how many promises You have made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through Him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God. (2 Cor. 1: 20)
May we be reconciled to each other, and may Your love be the healing balm that makes this country great once again. We pray for unity in our nation. We know that You are our only hope for national reform. We ask You to unite us as one nation under God again, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
“After a week on perplexing problems . . . it does so rest my soul to come into the house of the Lord and to sing and mean it, ‘Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty’ . . . (my) great joy and glory that, in occupying an exalted position in the nation, I am enabled, to preach the practical moralities of the Bible to my fellow-countrymen and to hold up Christ as the hope and Savior of the world.” (Theodore Roosevelt – 26th President)
That all men have a natural and indefeasible right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their conscience… (Tennessee Constitution, Art. XI.III)