Additional National Prayer Needs
Pray for our Military
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered his staff to quickly develop an “action plan” for improving how the Pentagon limits and responds to civilian casualties caused by American airstrikes. He called the protection of civilians vital to U.S. military success and a “moral imperative.”
The U.S. Navy will make efforts to salvage an F-35C Lightning II fighter jet that crashed in the South China Sea after it had a “landing mishap” on the deck of the USS Carl Vinson in a flight operation. There are reports that China might claim salvage rights to the stealth fighter by calling it an environmental hazard. U.S. recovery vessels are two weeks away from the crash site and retrieval could take four months.
Pray for U.S. officials as efforts are made to salvage the crashed stealth fighter jet before China claims it.
Pray for AMERICA’S FREEDOMS
Legislation being drafted by Representative Dan Crenshaw of Texas is intended to block censorship of conservative voices by large technology companies. He stated one way to get them to stop censoring is by repealing Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act and opening them up to fines and lawsuits.
Pray for legislators seeking to hold companies accountable to the First Amendment freedom of speech.
Pray for AMERICA’S FOREIGN RELATIONS
The head of NATO has called on Europeans to diversify their energy supplies, as Britain warned it was “highly likely” that Russia, a major supplier of natural gas, could soon invade Ukraine. The U.S. has threatened to halt the opening of a key pipeline that would send Russian gas to Western Europe, known as Nord Stream 2, even though the Senate voted down a resolution to sanction the pipeline ahead of any invasion as a preemptive measure.
The UN Secretary General told the Security Council last week that Afghanistan is “hanging by a thread,” with millions suffering extreme hunger, education, and social services on the brink of collapse, and a lack of liquidity limiting the capacity to reach people in need.
Pray for the president and Congress regarding the responsibilities the U.S. has within NATO as it relates to Russia and Ukraine, and for any responsibility toward the civilians of Afghanistan.
Pray for AMERICA’S HEALTH AND WELL-BEING
States across the nation are scaling back their contact tracing efforts, focusing on vulnerable communities and relying more on Americans to alert close contacts themselves after testing positive for COVID. Many officials view contact tracing as a relatively inefficient use of resources.
Rochelle Walensky, the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said the U.S. needs to rethink its approach to tackling COVID-19 by rebuilding the nation’s public health system. “I really think many people have thought this is the CDC’s responsibility, to fix public health [and] the pandemic,” she said. “The CDC alone can’t fix this. Businesses have to help; the government has to help; school systems have to help. This is too big for the CDC alone.”
Pray for federal health officials as they address the needs of the nation’s public health systems, and for local officials working on reforms.
Pray for AMERICA’S RELATIONSHIP WITH ISRAEL
The Palestinian Authority (PA) has not removed educational materials that teach children anti-Semitism and incite violence, according to a report from an Israeli education watchdog. A year ago, the PA agreed to work to address the issue in Palestinian textbooks after an EU-funded study found the education materials glorify terrorists, delegitimize Israel, and reject peace.
A U.S. Air Force cyber squadron recently lent its expertise in cloud defense to improve the skills of international partners including Israel, conducting a cyber exercise in a cloud-based simulation where operators had to protect the medical data of fictional citizens from malicious cyber attacks.
Pray for the children of both Israel and the Palestinian communities to learn to value and respect one another.
Pray for AMERICA’S ECONOMY
The U.S. economy grew rapidly in the fourth quarter of last year, advancing at a 6.9 percent annual rate, capping the strongest year of growth in nearly four decades, as the country rebounded from the pandemic.
Realtors are reporting that the past year was “fantastic” for home sales despite low inventory and high prices. Motivated buyers overcame those challenges to make 2021 the busiest year for home sales in the study’s 14-year history.
Give thanks for every form of good news on America’s economy. Continue praying for governing officials who are addressing inflationary pressures and supply chain shortages.
Pray for Justice in America
A three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals of the State of Oregon upheld a ruling that a Christian bakery unlawfully discriminated by refusing to make a cake for the wedding of a lesbian couple. However, the judges reversed the order that required the bakery owners to pay $135,000 in damages saying the “damages portion of the case does not reflect the neutrality toward religion required by the Free Exercise Clause. We, therefore, set aside the damages portion of the order and remand for further proceedings related to remedy.”
Pray for judges as they hear and rule on cases regarding religious freedoms.
Pray for America’s Media
As the Olympic games begin in Beijing, journalists from the U.S. and other foreign news outlets are “facing unprecedented hurdles covering China” as the government there steps up “excessive intimidation” efforts, including harassment, detainment, or being called in for questioning by police. A survey of 127 journalists stated, “As the number of journalists forced out by the Chinese state grows due to excessive intimidation or outright expulsions, covering China is increasingly becoming an exercise in remote reporting.”
Pray for the safety and protection of the representatives of America’s media who are covering the Olympic games.
Pray for America’s Education
A California schoolteacher claims she is being “bullied, slandered and abused” after being accused of using “transphobic” language for voicing concern during a board meeting about the presence of books that celebrate medical gender transition in school libraries. She argued the books are inappropriate for kindergarten through sixth-grade students.
The Virginia Mathematics Pathways Initiative, an equity-focused educational program that would have eliminated all accelerated math courses before the 11th grade, was removed from the Virginia Department of Education’s website after Governor Glen Youngkin issued an executive order to, among other things, “restore excellence in education by ending the use of divisive concepts, including Critical Race Theory, in public education.”
Pray for God to protect the minds of schoolchildren from divisive curriculum material that is being promoted by many school boards and teachers.
Pray for America’s Technology
After receiving more than 150 responses from businesses on the matter, a report from the Commerce Department shows that businesses that produce and use semiconductors are experiencing a drop in the supply of chips, leaving their inventories to often only five days’ worth. “The semiconductor supply chain remains fragile,” the report says. “Demand continues to far outstrip supply.”
Pray for American industrial groups who are working to establish semiconductor plants in states across the nation.
Pray for Needs Across the States
A newly proposed law in South Carolina would make it illegal to ask for a person’s vaccine status. Under the “Don’t Ask” bill, such an ask would be considered a misdemeanor crime.
A Pennsylvania legislator wants counties to be able to enact a one percent sales tax that local municipalities can use to shore up pension obligations, maintain core services or put to other uses. The tax would be enacted through a voter referendum or county board ordinance and would be collected with state sales tax and redistributed back to the counties.
Pray for state legislators and officials who have been strained under COVID restrictions and financial shortfalls during business lockdowns.
Pray for America’s Faith Community
“I think there’s something that the last year has revealed that we all should have always known that we avoided – that we live in a world of uncertainty and we live in a world that is not secure. Then everything that has happened in our world happens and then people are like, ‘Wait, what do I hold onto that actually is permanent? What do I hold onto that is actually eternal? … The Lord, He breathes into us when we read His scriptures, so my hope is that at the end of this – even actually during it – that people realize that ‘I’m looking at the chaos in the world differently. I’m looking at the chaos in my life differently. I’m looking at God not as this distant tyrant but as a Father who knows my name, who loves me.‘ That’s my prayer from all of this.“ – Fr. Mike Schmitz, Director of Youth and Young Adult Ministries, Diocese of Duluth, Minnesota, January 2022
