JUNE 18, 2020 | NCNW National Chaplain and President of Skinner Leadership Institute
O Lord of our ancestors, you alone are the God who is in heaven. You are ruler of all the kingdoms of the earth. You are Creator. Sustainer. Maker. Ruler. Provider, and Merciful Protector. You are so powerful and mighty that one can stand against you!
For all of our earthly power, resources, intellect, and innovative capacity O God, we are powerless against the many challenges now facing our nation. We are greatly overwhelmed by the deepening and growing racial divide rooted in our nation’s shameful reality that African Americans are free by law, but neither equal nor accorded the same dignity and humanity, accorded to white Americans. We bind the spirit of fear now gripping our nation, in the wake of persistent police killings of unarmed Black men, and some women. Since your strength is made perfect in our weakness, we ask you to show yourself strong on behalf of African Americans, who built, sacrificed for, and loved a nation not ready to love them back. We are reminded by your word, to not grow weary in doing well, so help us, Lord, to stay on the battlefield until the promise of justice for all becomes the practice of justice in our land.
Hear our prayer, Merciful God, as we bow before for you, asking you to rain down your healing power over America. Even as we plead for healing our land, we thank you for hordes of young people of all races refusing to accept systemic racism, poverty, and injustice as the inheritance current generations want to hand down to them. We praise you for their courage and persistent nonviolent protests against long standing inequities, causing business and government entities to entertain real change at every level. We are the people, O God, who are called by your name; so, we humble ourselves, pray, and seek your face, that you might hear from heaven, forgive our sins, and heal our land. In your mighty, and powerful name we pray, Lord God. Amen