Additional National Prayer Needs
Pray for our Military
Fewer than 1,000 American troops now remain in Afghanistan after the closure of the Bagram Air Base, suggesting the completion of withdrawal could come two months ahead of President Biden’s September 11 deadline. There has been no official announcement of the end of the 20-year U.S. mission. More than 600 troops remain to protect the U.S. Embassy and there are plans for a withdrawal of the U.S. security force for the international airport at Kabul.
The general who fired a Space Force commander for trying to rid the military of Marxism was himself castigated by a military judge in an unprecedented order for intentionally violating the constitutional rights of a serviceman.
Pray for the safety of the military and other American personnel remaining in Afghanistan.
Pray for AMERICA’S FREEDOMS
Alan Dershowitz, a former Harvard law professor and legal analyst, believes that America is experiencing a new dangerous wave of McCarthyism. He wrote, “The people who burned the books in Nazi Germany were students. The people who advocated communism in Lenin and Stalin’s Russia were students. The Millennials today are at the forefront of censorship. They think they have the truth and they don’t’ need dissent, they don’t need due process. Why bother with dissenting views, or free speech if they know what the truth is?“
“We are getting close to situations where non-government officials… Twitter, Facebook, YouTube are determining what we can hear, what we can say. You know the First Amendment has two aspects: the right of the free speaker to speak, but the right of the audience to listen.”
Pray for governing officials as First Amendment rights and freedoms are under scrutiny.
Pray for AMERICA’S FOREIGN RELATIONS
About 150 students are missing after armed men raided a boarding school in Nigeria. Police said they were pursuing the kidnappers alongside military personnel. In a separate incident, babies and nurses have been kidnapped from a hospital by gunmen in Nigeria. The nation’s worsening lawlessness is creating fear among people from all walks of life.
Iran has been restricting UN nuclear inspectors’ access to its main uranium enrichment plant, citing security concerns after what it says was an attack on the site by Israel in April. The stand-off comes as tensions with Iran increase and direct talks between Iran and the U.S. on reviving the Iran nuclear deal have adjourned without a date set for their resumption.
Pray for the U.S. State Department and diplomats as they interact with those who are dealing with lawless regimes and others that threaten peace and stability.
Pray For AMERICA’S HEALTH AND WELL-BEING
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention believes the Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson vaccines to be effective against the Delta variant, and officials do not anticipate another major wave of infectious and hospitalizations.
According to the CDC, the COVID-19 Delta variant is gaining ground among the unvaccinated. The agency reported that infections from the Delta strain contributed to a 10% rise in daily COVID-19 cases to around 2,600 last month. This is still a drop from peak levels in the U.S. in January.
Pray for health officials as mandatory inoculations are considered in various sectors and institutions.
Pray for AMERICA’S RELATIONSHIP WITH ISRAEL
Israel’s parliament remained deadlocked this week over a temporary law that bars citizenship for Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza who are married to Israelis, the latest issue to challenge the new fragile coalition government.
Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid’s said his landmark visit to the United Arab Emirates was just the beginning of the path to wider peace in the Middle East. He said Israel would continue to reach out to Arab states still wary of nationalist ties.
Pray for Israel’s new coalition government and the actions it takes to protect its people.
Pray for AMERICA’S ECONOMY
The American Automobile Association has projected gasoline prices to remain high in the coming months amid rising demand and restrained supply due to the energy policies of the president’s administration. According to their latest estimates, the average price of gas at the pump could remain above $3 per gallon across the U.S. for the summer.
Although a shortage of willing workers is hampering hiring, the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell more than expected in the last week of June. Layoffs reached a 21-year low in June, reflecting the recovery of the labor market from the pandemic.
Pray for U.S. financial and labor officials as they seek to maintain stability for America’s economy and monitor inflation.
Pray for Goodness in America
A BBQ restauranteur in South Carolina “moonlights” as an auto mechanic, fixing up old cars headed for the junk pile, and donating the used autos to the needy in his community. “I do what I can, and I give back what I can because the community supports me and my restaurant,” he said. With donations and funds from his own pocket, he has repaired and donated more than 30 cars. He has almost 50 people in his community on a waitlist for a refurbished vehicle and he hopes donations never stop.
Give thanks for Americans in communities who are engaged in work to benefit others less fortunate than themselves.
Pray for America’s Media
The second quarter of 2021 saw CNN and MSNBC lose viewers as experts suggest the two networks cannot recover from a “serious credibility problem” they created in covering candidate and President Biden. “Audiences are sensing that CNN and MSNBC have become too shrill for measured reporting,” said DePauw University professor and media critic Jeffrey McCall. Cornell Law School professor and media critic William Jacobson said that CNN and MSNBC were “one-trick ponies” and that trick had been “bashing“ President Trump.
Pray for news and media outlets to strive for factual and accurate reporting.
Pray for America’s Education
The National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers’ union, is debating whether to demand mandating COVID-19 vaccines for all students and staff returning to school in person this fall, a polarizing move that would apply to 3 million teachers and classrooms.
Federal lawsuits have been filed in a number of regions that say Anti-racism and Critical Race Theory in schools violate the Constitution. Students, parents, and teachers challenge whether schools are authorized to compel participation in exercises that separate students by race to teach about equality, equity, and political activism.
Pray for educators, teachers, parents, and students as decisions about the right to decide about students’ activities and their vaccination are debated.
Pray for America’s Technology
In a joint advisory, U.S. and British authorities said that an arm of Russia’s military spy agency has been using VPNs (virtual private networks) and Tor (a privacy-focused network) to conduct “widespread, distributed, and anonymized brute force access attempts against hundreds of government and private sector targets.” They did not identify any of the hacking targets by name, saying only that they were mainly in the United States and Europe and included government offices, political parties, energy companies, law firms, and media organizations.
Pray for U.S. cybersecurity and communications officials as they seek to prevent the misuse of technology to disseminate misinformation and hacking into public or private American networks.
Pray for Needs Across the States
Oklahoma recently became the 39th state to expand Medicaid benefits using increased financial incentives offered through the federal government. The health coverage incentive was part of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan.
A judge in Minnesota directed the city of Minneapolis to hire more police officers after residents banded together and sued the city a year ago. The mayor and city council were ordered to “take any and all necessary action to ensure that they fund a police force.”
Pray for state and local officials dealing with policies regarding law enforcement and financial aid.
Pray for America’s Faith Community
”James, the brother of Jesus, told us how to persevere through tough times. We would be fools not to take his instruction seriously.
James says whenever you are surprised by trials of many kinds, adjust your perspective, reframe your trial as pure joy, so you can see it as a source of joy. Because, he says, you know that when you stop to think abut it, when you pause long enough to catch your breath and see beyond your circumstances, the testing of your faith proves its authenticity, exposing your confidence in God. [James 1:2-4]
So when circumstances deteriorate, artificial and what-is-in-it-for me faith will also deteriorate. There is joy in discovering that, even though you wouldn’t sign up for what’s happening, you grow your perspective.” – Pastor Andy Stanley, North Point Community Church, Alpharetta, Georgia
