Thank you, Lord, that you have placed us in a country where we have the privilege and right to participate in the process of choosing our leaders. This has not always been the case for your people, and it still is not in may places in the world, so we give you thanks that by your sovereign grace we have been given this responsibility.

We confess that we have not used this responsibility wisely. Our country has become mired in deep sins, and too much of that has been imposed by the political and cultural elites we have collectively chosen to lead us. You have told us that we are all made in the image of God, yet we have slaughtered in the vicinity of 70 million or more innocent lives in abortions.

You defined marriage as between male and female and reaffirmed this in the words of Jesus, yet we have arrogantly redefined marriage, which government has no right to touch.

You have created us male and female, yet we have promoted lies about sexuality and even sex, performing horrendous evils on the bodies of young, impressionable boys and girls, mutilating them and destroying their fertility in the name of an ideology that denies fundamental reality.

You told us to tend and protect the Garden, yet we have ignored our responsibility for environmental stewardship to the detriment of human health and in the name of profit.

And these are just a sampling of our sins and moral failures, much of which is directly related to the leaders we have chosen for ourselves.

The candidates we have before us for the presidency are deeply flawed individuals. We used to insist that character matters in a leader, yet we have party standard bearers who have been guilty of serious immorality, yet no one seems to care anymore. The parties themselves have rejected any fidelity to your teaching on core moral issues, including life, marriage and family, and sexuality. No matter who wins, apart from your intervention, the slide into evil will continue. The only question is how quickly it will happen.

In light of all this, we can only plead for your mercy upon our nation and upon your people here and around the world who depend on the United States for leadership and protection. We ask you not to give us what we deserve, but that you awaken your church to do what you have called us to do, to be the salt of the earth, the light of the world, and the leaven in the culture that your Kingdom may grow and expand and that people would see our good works, and praise you, our Father in Heaven.

Keep us from falling for the political illusion, the idea that all of our problems are fundamentally political and thus have political solutions. May we recognize instead that our core problems are spiritual and moral, and thus require spiritual solutions and deep repentance.

For the election, we ask that in your mercy the candidates who would do the most good, or in any event the least damage, be elected to office. May ballot measures enshrining abortion as a right, blasphemous as that is, be defeated, and may the results in all ballot measures reflect what is good and right in your sight.

May the election be clean, with a clear outcome. We ask that any fraudulent votes or election tampering would not be on a scale to affect the results. And we ask you to protect the country from rioting and violence as the results become known. That is a clear and present danger, and we ask for your intervention to prevent it from coming and getting out of hand.

We know that you are sovereign over the affairs of nations, that you determine their rise and fall, and that no nation lasts forever. We also know that you are good and loving, and whatever happens, it will work for the good of your people. You call us to patient endurance when facing trials, and so whatever happens, may we remain faithful to you, steadfast and unmoving in our commitment to you and to truth. May we be peacemakers and agents of reconciliation in our dangerously polarized world.

We ask all this in the name of your Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, who has been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Amen.