I was honored to be asked to pray at the PA House of Representatives to open the session on Wednesday June 10, 2009. I was reminded by my friend Carl Dingus that my prayer is part of history, in that word for word is recorded in the House minutes. Years from now, who knows, historians my read this and be able to conclude that our nation was in a moral slide. here is the prayer, at the end i will tell you the reaction.....
Prayer for the House of Rep – June 10, 2009
Our gracious Heavenly Father, we come before You today because we have nowhere else to go. For You are the true and living God. You are the Maker of Heaven and Earth. You are the sustainer of man and all that we are or ever will be. You are the only real HOPE for our nation and our commonwealth. We come before You in this grand hall, before the important and the powerful, in complete humility and brokenness because Your holiness consumes our failings, reveals our iniquities and lays bare all of our unrighteousness.
We come to ask Your forgiveness and seek Your help and guidance. We know Your Word says, "Woe to those who call evil good," but that's exactly what we've done. We have ignored Your spiritual compass and have tried to guide our paths with our own values, desires and indulgences.
§ We confess that we have mocked the absolute truth of Your Word and called it relativism.
§ We have worshipped other gods, failing to acknowledge You alone and called it multi-culturalism.
§ We have exploited the poor and naïve; and called it the lottery.
§ We have made excuses for the law breaker and called it tolerance.
§ We have demeaned the law keepers and called it politically correct.
§ We have neglected our neighbor and called it self-preservation.
§ We have rewarded laziness, irresponsibility and called it welfare.
§ We have killed our unborn and called it a choice.
§ We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable.
§ We have neglected to discipline our children and called it releasing their creativity.
§ We have abused power, been party to back room dealing and even hoped for our colleagues down fall and called it political savvy.
§ We have squandered our resources and paid back favors with taxpayer’s funds and called it a stimulus.
§ We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression.
Search us O God and know our hearts today; try us and see if there be some wicked way in us; cleanse us from every sin and set us free.
Guide and bless these men and women, who have been sent here by the people of Pennsylvania, and who Your Holy Word calls, ordained ministers of peace, to govern this great commonwealth.
Grant them your wisdom to rule and may their decisions direct us to the center of your will. May they choose today to be servants of You, Almighty God, and then prosper their steps for their obedience. May we live in reverent fear of your greatness in comparison to our insignificance.
I ask it, in the name of your son, our living savior and Master, Jesus the Christ. Amen.
Directly after I was finished, a State rep came to the Speaker of House and protested my prayer, saying it was offensive. They called my State Rep to the desk and admonished him for my prayer....all I could hear was "He had no right to say that...." I have not had a chance to discuss with him the back lash. Interesting is it not that in a day and age when more vulgarity and profane things are spewed out. And controversial things are said about all kinds of people. That when a pastor prays and beseeches God's forgiveness for our very known and obvious sins, I am told that "I had no right" to say such things.
Just so there is full disclosure: When asked to pray, I was unsure what kind of prayers are said in a political setting. I googled - "House of Representative Prayers" -- I was astonished on how many came up. As I perused the plethora of samples I was stuck and moved by Pastor Joe Wright of Kansas, who prayed in 1996 a power convicting prayer. I modeled my prayer after his and used portions of it.