This Non-Partisan Prayer Agenda, Taught by Jack Hayford Years Ago, Still Applies

The national midterm elections will take place in less than 90 days.

Media advertising will increasingly drive us crazy as truths and half-truths are slung back and forth between political candidates and parties. Reflecting our current culture, some are coarse and crude while others are unnecessarily belittling and bemoaning.

Discerning disciples can blunt the negative effects of these invasive indoctrinations if we will join in bold, believing and intercessory prayer over the next 12 weeks for these decisive, critical elections.

Here is a non-partisan prayer agenda Pastor Jack Hayford taught his congregation more than 25 years ago:

Our Nation’s Needs:

1. Invite the promise of 1 Timothy 2:1, 2—”Therefore I exhort first of all that you make supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings for everyone, for kings and for all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceful life in all godliness and honesty.”
2. Pray against the spirit of confusion.

Our State’s Crisis:

1. Invite the promise of Proverbs 14:34.—”Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.”
2. Pray against the dominion of self-centeredness and undiscipline.

Our City’s Turmoil:

1. Invite the promise of 2 Chronicles 7:14—”If My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray, and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
2. Pray against the spirits of anarchy, violence, bitterness and hatred. Notice that “the spirits of anarchy, violence, bitterness,and hatred” were part of our spiritual concerns for our nation more than a quarter-century ago also.

Today, let us focus our faith in these intercessory dimensions during these next months and expect God’s will to be done on earth, as it is in heaven.

Finally, a practical concern: be sure you are registered to vote.

Ordained to the ministry in 1969, Gary Curtis is a graduate of LIFE Bible College at Los Angeles (soon to become Life Pacific University at San Dimas, California). He has taken graduate courses at Trinity College in Deerfield, Illinois, and Fuller Seminary in Pasadena, California. Gary served as part of the pastoral staff of The Church on The Way, the First Foursquare Church of Van Nuys, California, for 27 years (1988-2015), the last 13 years as the vice president of Life on The Way Communications Inc., the church’s not-for-profit media outreach. Now retired, Gary and his wife have been married for 50 years and live in Southern California. They have two married daughters and five grandchildren.{eoa}