Pray the Vote
The outcome of a too-close-to-call primary race for U.S. Senate candidate in Pennsylvania hinges on a “significant number” of unscanned mail-in ballots. According to Lancaster County officials, an estimated two-thirds of 21,000 mail-in ballots could not be scanned due to a printing error.
A woman walking her dog along a Los Angeles sidewalk made a surprising discovery: “I turned the corner and I just saw this box of envelopes, and it was a USPS box,” she told reporters. “I picked some of the envelopes up and I saw they were ballots.” The 104 unopened mail-in ballots are now with the Los Angeles County Registrar’s Office and the Post Office is investigating the find.
Pray for U.S. election officials as the convenience of mail-in ballots exposes those ballots to fraud or mishandling.
Additional National Prayer Needs
Pray for our Military
Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Michael Gidley, defended the military branch’s decision to scrap nine fairly new warships over the next fiscal year. “I refuse to put an additional dollar against a system that would not be able to track a high-end submarine in today’s environment,” he said referring to the vessels which are anti-submarine ships.
The USS Port Royal went through the Taiwan Strait just days after China concluded a live-fire war game simulating an invasion of Taiwan. This came a little over a week after China’s aircraft carrier group performed military drills near the U.S. Navy base at Sasebo, Japan.
Pray for national security and military officials as they supply information to assist America’s leaders in making decisions.
Pray for AMERICA’S FREEDOMS
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that California’s ban on the sale of semiautomatic weapons to adults under 21 is unconstitutional, a move gun rights advocates hope will facilitate similar rulings in other courts. “America would not exist without the heroism of the young adults who fought and died in our revolutionary army,” Judge Ryan Nelson wrote in the 2-1 ruling. “Today we reaffirm that our Constitution still protects the right that enabled their sacrifice: the right of young adults to keep and bear arms.”
Pray for judges in courts across America who are consistently called upon to rule on Bill of Rights matters.
Pray for AMERICA’S FOREIGN RELATIONS
The Chinese state media reported that China’s military encircled Taiwan from the east and west last week, cutting the island off from American and Japanese forces during a large-scale war game. Their actions were seen as “real force” drills that involved aerial, naval, and ballistic measures.
According to the director of national intelligence, Avril Haines, Iran is attempting to avenge the 2020 assassination of Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani. “A fair amount of their motivation in this scenario we assess to be in relation to Soleimani as part of their sort of efforts for revenge, and is a particularly challenging area, I think, to deter them from action in this space,” she said, noting that she could go into further detail in a classified setting.
Pray for wisdom for U.S. decision-makers regarding actions toward the nations that oppose America.
Pray for AMERICA’S HEALTH AND WELL-BEING
Drug overdose deaths in the U.S. hit record highs in 2021 due to an increase in trafficked synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, much of which is brought from Mexico across the southwest U.S. border. The death rate is nearly 15 percent above what it was compared to 2020.
More than four in 10 hospitals have experienced staffing shortages that limit their ability to discharge patients because of a lack of post-acute care. Staffing shortages have been felt across the industry and are noticed by patients. Those in the spectrum of post-acute care are the hardest hit facilities.
Pray for U.S. health professionals as the varied and multiple consequences of the coronavirus pandemic continue to be felt.
Pray for AMERICA’S RELATIONSHIP WITH ISRAEL
Israel approved the construction of more than 4,000 new homes for Jews in the West Bank. The new projects are in different stages of permitting and development.
Medical officials claim it is impossible to determine if Israeli or Palestinian forces are responsible for the death of an American Al Jazeera reporter who was reporting on a raid by Israeli forces in the city of Jenin where she was killed. The White House has called for a thorough investigation to determine the circumstances of her death.
Pray the leaders of Israel and the U.S. as the relationship between the two nations evolves.
Pray for AMERICA’S ECONOMY
Airfare rose 18.6 percent from March to April according to data from the Labor Department. It was the largest month-over-month increase for plane tickets on record. Airlines cite rising fuel costs and a surge in demand for summer flights as the driving forces behind the fare hikes.
Mortgage rates are increasing at the fastest pace in 40 years, which may put homeownership out of reach for many Americans. This could also deprive consumers of potentially billions of dollars in spending power as home re-financing fades.
Pray for the economic and housing officials evaluating the widespread impact of inflation. Pray for Americans on fixed incomes who are struggling to balance their household budgets.
Pray for Justice in America
The Texas Supreme Court issued a ruling allowing Child Protective Services to resume investigating cases in which children suffering from gender dysphoria risk being sterilized from the use of experimental puberty blockers or given cross-sex hormones and encouraged to undergo body mutilating surgeries. A doctor and parents of a gender-confused child wrote the Department of Family and Protective Services describing the experimental procedures as “child abuse.”
Pray for governing officials as they address the issue of transgenderism and how it is being dealt with for children.
Pray for Goodness in America
Shortly after driving the school bus from the school loaded down with 40 children, the driver noticed smoke coming from the hood of the bus. She quickly pulled to the side of the road and quickly helped all 40 children safely evacuate. The bus was soon fully engulfed in flames and totally destroyed. Many posted expressions of gratitude on social media: “Thank God for his protection” and “God was watching out for the driver and students!”
Give thanks for those who swiftly, bravely, and calmly take action in the midst of crisis.
Pray for America’s Media
Legislators have requested that Meta, Twitter, YouTube, and TikTok preserve and archive posts related to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that could be potential evidence of war crimes or human rights violations. The social media companies were asked to establish a mechanism with human rights-specific organizations to share that content and create a way for content depicting possible war crimes to be flagged by the platforms’ users.
Pray for members of Congress who seek to catalog war crimes via social media.
Pray for America’s Education
School districts across the country are preparing to raise school lunch prices for next year in anticipation of federal lunch programs expiring this summer and in response to inflation. It is the latest hit to school budgets that have endured staffing challenges, teacher resignations, and other obstacles since the pandemic.
According to the Religious Freedom Index, sixty-three percent of Americans believe parents should have the final say in what their children learn in public schools as the national debate over the role of parents in public education and the material taught to students continues.
Pray for parents to be informed and involved as the values of educators may not align with their beliefs.
Pray for America’s Technology
The U.S. is planning to increase penalties for companies that violate the regulatory export limits of products that compromise national security. “Preventing sensitive U.S. technologies and goods from being used for malign purposes by those who would do us harm has never been more important, never been more central, to the national security threats we face,” said Andrew Axelrod, assistant secretary for export enforcement at the Bureau of Industry and Security, a Department of Commerce agency.
Pray for the secretary and personnel of the Commerce Department as they seek to protect American-generated technology.
Pray for Needs Across the States
Colorado and Nebraska are poised for a dispute over water rights. The extreme drought in the Southwest has caused concern about Nebraska’s plans to build a canal in Colorado to divert water from the South Platte River.
West Virginia will receive an additional $17 million in federal funding for abandoned coal mine cleanup. Senators Manchin and Capito announced this as part of President Biden’s $1 trillion infrastructure deal.
Pray for state leaders as they deal with issues that impact state environments.
Pray for America’s Faith Community
“Satan always hates Christian fellowship; it is his policy to keep Christians apart. Anything which can divide saints from another he delights in. He attaches far more importance to godly intercourse than we do. Since union is strength, he does his best to promote separation.” – Charles Haddon Spurgeon, October 29, 1865
