KING ASA'S PRAYER FOR OUR TIME!

I'm hesitant to evoke anything in the book of Chronicles as an example of what to do or pray today, since the book is not even a modernized rewrite of the Book of Kings. Yet, I'm reading it again now, and came to the first of the three chapters about King Asa of Judah. 1 Kings 15 for instance has a very short entry about Asa within that chapter, and bracketed by two other kings: Abijam and Jehoshaphat of Judah. The Kings and Chronicles accounts agree that Asa did not remove the worship spots at the high places. But they disagree on military conflicts that Asa got involved with. In Kings Asa has to fight on and off against Israelite kings, beginning with Baasha, throughout his long reign. But in Chronicles, specifically chapter 14 of 2 Chronicles, it is the Cushites from northeast Africa/ancient Ethiopia that march against him! As he prepares for this conflict, leading the troops against this invader, he prays a prayer. Often the Chronicler has pious kings pray before they fight a foreign foe. Asa's prayer is 2 Chron. 14:11. But as I read that last night I thought, "There it is!" There is one prayer we can cite and pray for ourselves in these times. We are to pray for God's help against the overwhelming army of evil that is now arrayed against the United States and those who believe in its original founding. I invite all to pray with Asa and the Chronicler, and to keep on praying, "There is no one like you to help the powerless against the mighty. Help us, O Lord our God, we rely on you . . . you are our God. Do not let man prevail against you." Pray this prayer through the election on November 3 and beyond. Because, as we are hearing, evil will be storming the gates of goodness and our institutions in those days. Brace yourselves and bow down at least figuratively to pray this or words along this line when evil attempts to alter the rules and the outcome of a normal presidential election. Do it!

LBC