National Day of Prayer

Today is the 58th annual National Day of Prayer, and our small county had about 120 (according to the organizer - thanks, Jon!) participate on the courthouse steps. The organizer assigned me the topic of praying for/about the media (other assigned topics include families, government, business, Church, etc.) I was encouraged to write out the prayer (400-600 words), in order to stay brief and on point. I'd like to share it with you:

King of the ages, we thank you for the media that have served our nation since its beginning. We thank you for the combination of free speech, free press, and free markets in our country. These are big responsibilities for us! There are so many sources of information & entertainment that we’ve suppressed a hunger for wisdom & truth. We joke that we can’t believe everything we see on TV, the Internet, or in the paper, but we just stick to our preferred sources of information and avoid the work of learning truth.

Jesus, you are the Truth. You are real life. The Scriptures you produced are able to make us wise for salvation. The Spirit you give us is the Spirit of wisdom and revelation. May your will be done in studios, press rooms, publishing houses, video conferences and on personal computers across this nation. Please gift your Church with creative & wise people who can model for us how to use all forms of media to spread the gospel and to promote righteousness. If the medium truly is neutral, then the people who are producing the stories, the images, and the music are certainly not. Please send missionaries to infiltrate all forms of media, to call the lead worshipers of our culture’s gods out of idolatry. Journalists, editors, producers, musicians, advertising execs, actors, directors, musicians, and webmasters all need Jesus.

Ruler of all nations, America’s media is particularly powerful for penetrating other parts of the world. Email, blogs, satellite TV, and radio can cross national borders into countries where people are prevented from hearing about Jesus, from learning anything that is forbidden by government or religion – where injustices are hidden under lies. Please use our nation’s media (and economy) to peel back imposed ignorance from entire nations. Expose injustices around the world against which we should pray and take action.

Giver of every good and perfect gift, thank you for the rise of Web 2.0, the online social networks, competitive sources for news, and the accountability that could potentially come from all this. As these things make more and more Americans dispensers of information, many fortunes and jobs are won and lost. Please do not let the Church neglect the tremendous opportunities to seek your kingdom by means of the changing media. But since we cannot serve two masters, convict us of our times of serving the medium; refresh us with joy and wisdom for the tremendous opportunities.