Election years are crucial times in the timeline of American history. Those we elect will affect what happens in our nation in the next few years, and perhaps beyond. It’s a time when we must pray for God’s guidance to elect men and women who have the best interests of our country at heart and do not support policies that go against God’s laws.

I ran across a book called If My People: A Prayer Guide for Our Nation by Jack Countryman. For each of the 40 days it provides a very meaningful prayer with which you can join your heart. Each prayer is accompanied by powerful Scriptures and a brief, well-written commentary.

​Scattered throughout the book are inspiring excerpts of speeches and writings. You will find comments about the importance of the Bible by four presidents, a prayer from Washington’s Prayer Journal, an excerpt from Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1939 State of the Union Address, a 1928 prayer from the Book of Common Prayer, comments from four famous figures on why we vote, The Gettysburg Address, a prayer by Franklin D. Roosevelt on D-Day, Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, a 1941 speech by Franklin D. Roosevelt called “The Four Freedoms,” a portion of “A Speech to the American People” by Ronald Reagan, some verses from Psalm 119, a moving prayer offered by Dwight D. Eisenhower following his Oath of Office, a “Vision for the Future” regarding racial unity, and accounts of the First, Second and Third Great Awakening.

The “I Have a Dream Speech” and the “Vision for the Future” make this book seem particularly appropriate for the election year of 2020, with the severe racial tensions we are experiencing. Though historians today like to cast our Founding Fathers as “Deists” (those who believe in knowing about God by means of reason rather than the Bible), the beautiful prayer of Washington printed in this book seems to make it clear that he knew the God of the Bible. Reading prayers that came directly from the mouths of presidents on important occasions made me realize how much things have changed. Today’s presidents usually have a minister offer a prayer at special ceremonies, rather than offering a prayer themselves. The accounts of the previous Great Awakenings remind me that we should earnestly pray for another great spiritual awakening.