A Prayer For Justice and Mercy

Mark Steinacher from Brantford prays:

We come before You, Lord God our Father, realizing our own weakness and frailty, our fallen nature that points our hearts and minds to self-fulfillment, rather than growth as the new people you have called us in Christ to be. We confess and admit our own powerlessness to fulfill Your calling on our lives; we ask for the wisdom that Your Holy Spirit alone can grant. Shape our minds to think as Your Son would think. May that insight guide us as we exercise our freedom to vote. Lord God, Your Word tells us that You change the course of a monarch’s heart the way You change the course of a river. As votes are cast this day, we ask that our premier will have the course of his or her heart changed. Even as we recognize that we cannot use human law to achieve what Your Holy Spirit alone works, We ask for Your intervention to steer our leadership to promote policies and legislation that reflect good and wholesome values. We ask that we may live in a society where justice is upheld. We ask for justice for victims of crime, that our laws may provide redress. We ask for justice for those whose lives have been plunged into poverty, whether by their own poor decisions or the heartless decisions of others, that they may receive the care Your holy prophets declared was right. We ask for justice for the unborn, that they may be protected from dying before they draw their first breath. We pray for justice for the common workers, that they may not be oppressed by employers ensnared by raging greed. We pray for justice for those who have been harmed by our words or actions. We pray for ourselves, not just justice, but for grace and for mercy.