“Praying Beyond Politics: Becoming the Bridge in a Divided Nation”

Election Prayer Strategy 2025 https://www.nhop.ca/2025/04/16/praying-beyond-politics-becoming-the-bridge-in-a-divided-nation/ In this election season, as tensions rise and words fly from every direction, today's encouragement and prayer come from Psalm 109, where David, facing unjust accusations, doesn't defend himself—he becomes prayer. This mirrors Jesus' teaching in Matthew 6, calling us to a lifestyle of intimacy with the Father, not just moments of intercession. In the...

Transcript

My name is Paul Primus. I'm calling from Victoria, British Columbia. And today I want to encourage you. I want to lead us out in prayer from Psalm 109. This is one of the Psalms of David. It starts out very similar to something that we would have seen Jesus dealing with. It says, "For uh be silent, God of my praise, for wicked and deceitful mouths are open against me, speaking against me with lying tongues. They encircle me with words of hate and attack me without cause in return for my love. They accuse me, but I give myself to prayer. So they reward me evil for good and hatred for my love. Now you might be saying, "What does this have to do with prayer? I

thought we were talking about how to pray for our government, how to pray for the election coming up." I know whenever these types of things happens, the prayer movement tends to see an upswing in activity. And I don't think that's a bad thing. But I think there's a deeper reality that we need to live as live in as believers and as followers, disciples of Christ. And it really comes off of the heels of how Jesus taught us to pray from Matthew chapter 6. He said, "When you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your father who is in secret." And he was really instilling a lif style of prayer. Now, what is prayer? I know I don't have time on this

platform to to go into all the nuances of that, but from Psalm 109, we see something that isn't immediately obvious in this verse four. It says, "In return for my love, they accuse me." It says in classical or contemporary translations, "But I give myself to prayer." The footnote is, and when you take out all the added words, it says, "But I am prayer." Now, think about that. David is saying, "This is what's happening. This is the swirl. This is the negativity. This is the fear. This is what everybody else is saying. There's accusations flying towards himself, towards me. I know, I don't know about you, but when when I am getting attacked, even I don't get attacked like this, but when I when

I get attacked, right away my hackles go up and I want to start fighting. Well, David's response and Jesus' response mirrored this exactly. We I I read this the other day in out of Jesus before Pilate and in instead of responding and defending, he says, "But I am a house of prayer. My disposition is prayer. I want to I live my life connected to my father. And because because I'm connected to my father, my very life emanates the kingdom of God. It doesn't mean that he did everything perfect. It doesn't mean that we'll do everything perfect. doesn't mean we'll make every right decision. Doesn't mean we'll see the whole picture. But when we become a house of prayer, as David said here, as

as Jesus himself lived out, I believe what happens is we see the fulfillment of the the prophecies given towards us as a church is that the rivers of the King of Kings would flow from the throne and it would permeate the world that we live in. So, Father, today I pray that we would be a people that are not just given to prayer as an activity, but may we be people of prayer. That when we think about what prayer is rather than trying to define it in actions, we think of it more in this is who I am. I stay connected to my father and the kingdom of heaven flows through me. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Thank you for joining me today on this for the National House of Prayer. [Music]