Taking Tucker Carlson's Challenge One Year Later

A while back, I wrote a post called “Taking Tucker Carlson’s Challenge,” in which I challenged myself and others to spend 10 minutes a day in prayer for our nation. The idea—instigated by Tucker Carlson’s Heritage Foundation speech that likely spurred his firing from Fox News—was that many of us moan and groan about the state of our nation, but never cry out to the only One who can truly help us out of this mess.

A year has passed since that post, so I wanted to circle back with a few reflections on the challenge.

Did I pray for our nation every day for 10 minutes as I pledged? I certainly tried.

Was it always earnest and fervent? Well, no, in fact sometimes, I was more just going through the motions.

Was I always on my knees? Sometimes, yes, but other times I prayed while walking, lying down, sitting, or even standing.

Was it worth the effort? Absolutely! And here are a couple reasons why.

The first is that I saw God answer prayer specifically. Some of the things I asked for seemed like really big asks, yet to my astonishment, I got some really big answers, including surprise passage of legislative bills and court cases—things that you may have even seen in the news and were stunned by yourself.

Those surprise answers led to a second benefit, which was the increase of my faith. When you pray about big, overwhelming issues over which you have absolutely no control, and then you see God answer, your faith grows. It grows because you realize that God heard you. It grows because you realize the circumstances in this world are beyond your control … but not beyond God’s. And it grows because you know you have a Friend at Court you can turn to even when it seems like the world around you is crumbling in pieces.

So am I going to continue carving out time to pray for our nation? Definitely. It may not be for the same specific amount of time, but I do want to continue the habit if only because it is one of the few things I can genuinely do to seek to right this crazy world.

And if you didn’t take this challenge with me last year, I challenge you to try it this year!

Not sure what to pray for? Why not seek the Lord for some of the same things I have this last year:

Pray for our nation, that it would wake up and realize its need to turn back to God.

Pray for our president and his cabinet—even if you don’t like him, his party, or his policies.

Pray for the presidential candidates running in the next election—that they would follow God and seek after truth and righteousness.

Pray for those in the halls of Congress—and not only the elected officials, but the staffers, lobbyists, and bureaucrats that work alongside them.

Pray for the Supreme Court and other lower legal chambers—that they would uphold our Constitutional rights and would be unanimous in doing so.

Pray for your State Legislature—that those who are seeking to follow truth and righteousness would “be wise as serpents and harmless as doves” (Matt. 10:16) and that those who are seeking to do evil would be thwarted in their efforts and be thrown into confusion (Exodus 14:24-25).

Pray for your mayor, city council, and school boards—that they would do what is good and right for our local communities.

And finally, pray for those at the most basic levels of society: our families, churches, communities, and teachers. No one can tell what positive societal ramifications will happen if these fundamental entities are in healthy, working condition.

“One of the purposes for which God instituted prayer may have been to bear witness that the course of events is not governed like a state but created like a work of art to which every being makes its contribution and (in prayer) a conscious contribution, and in which every being is both an end and a means.” - C.S. Lewis, Letters to Malcolm

—

Image Credit: Freerange, Public Domain