Charles Barnes wrote out this prayer and lifted up our nation to God on the National Day of Prayer, May 5, 2022, at the church building of Fuente de Restauracion in downtown Idaho Falls:

“On this National Day of Prayer we acknowledge that You, Jesus, are King, King of the nations, and King of this nation.  We acknowledge that today we are one nation under God and we seek Your liberty and Your justice for all.  May this nation at this time seek You and Your salvation, for You alone can provide true salvation.

I praise You for Your work establishing and keeping this nation throughout its relatively short history.  Thank you for the covenants that our founders made with you, that dedicated this nation to Your glory.  Thank you for the faith of the founders of this nation who knew You and sought Your will as they worked to form a government, looking to the laws revealed in Your Word as the basis for the US constitution. 

Thank You that at many times of crisis in the history of this nation, You intervened to save it from dissolution or subjugation.

Thank You for Your mercy and patience with us when we as a nation have forgotten our covenants with you and fallen at the feet of idols and false gods.

Thank You for the times that You have revived Your church in this nation, times when your people cried out to You and sought You earnestly in prayer.

Thank You for the godly men and women You raised up in this nation throughout its history, to stand in the gap in prayer, to proclaim Your Word, to be Your under-shepherds, to take on national leadership roles. And Lord I thank You for the thousands of men and women and families in this nation that You have raised up and empowered to go into all the world, proclaiming that You are king, proclaiming the gospel, discipling the nations.

On this day in the year 2022 we ask You to again have mercy upon our nation, for the many ways we have turned away from You, for seeking our own will rather than Yours, for leaders who blaspheme Your name, for us as believers when we have ignored our divine and holy calling, and failed to pass on to new generations the faith of our forefathers. Forgive us for the ways our politicians and judges are ignoring or perverting our own constitution, replacing our fundamental law with a form of Marxism.  Forgive us for throwing You out of public schools and welcoming philosophies that deny Your truth, replacing it with secular humanism and other philosophies contrary to your Word. Forgive us for the ways we have allowed death to reign in our nation.

Lord, You so loved the world, the people of this world, including the people of this nation, that You gave you Son that they might have life, eternal life, abundant life.  We ask that you pour out Your Spirit of life on this nation. 

[Jesus, we’ve already prayed for the churches of our city and now we echo those prayers for the churches of our nation.] Pour out your Spirit on the churches of America, to be cleansed from apathy, from ignorance, from luke-warmness, from impotence, from worldliness.  Teach us and empower us to walk in holiness, in truth, in love, in faith, to walk in the Spirit and put to death the deeds of the flesh.  May we know the fellowship of Your sufferings and the power of Your resurrection.  May we declare the praises of Him who called us out of darkness into Your marvelous light. May we abide in You, the true vine, and allow Your life and work in and through us to bring an abundant harvest.

Pour out Your Spirit on the families of America.  Turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers.  Infuse marriages in this nation with Your sacrificial love, with patience and humility, with peace and joy that comes from You, and where needed, with reconciliation, with restoration, with wholeness.  Restore the sacredness of the marriage covenant, forgive us for taking it so lightly.  May Your presence in our families heal and restore honor and strength.  Protect us from the dangerous ideology of critical race theory; keep it out of our schools.  Protect our youth from confusion over their sexuality and accepting ideas that do harm.

Pour out Your Spirit on the youth of America.  Deliver them from the evils of our age. Deliver them from the destructive narratives pushed by elements in our nation, on social and national media, the entertainment industry, in schools and even by some businesses.  Deliver our youth from the immorality of our culture.  Deliver them from the temptations of our culture.  Stop the violence we see in schools in this nation.  Empower parents to oppose immoral and harmful teachings in our schools. Raise up many young people in this nation to become like David, having hearts that seek after you, and having courage to face and defeat the Goliaths of our day. Pour out your Spirit on parents who home school their children, to raise up a generation ready to overcome the evils of our day.  Pour out Your Spirit on teachers in both private and public schools.

Pour out Your Spirit on the immigrants and refugees that have come to this nation, from many countries of the world. You know their hearts and their needs.  May they find refuge in You, may they find new life in You, may they find Your salvation.  May they find the freedom and opportunity they seek.  May they be a blessing to this nation by your grace and through the work of Your Spirit.  But stop the human trafficking across our borders, stop the gangs that bring drugs, stop the people who exhort or take advantage of legitimate immigrants, stop the terrorists that seek to harm this nation. 

Pour out Your Spirit on the judges in the courts throughout the nation, that they may decide cases with justice and fairness.  May they be immune to political pressure, and not show partiality, prejudice or personal bias.  May they look to You for wisdom and discernment.

Pour out Your Spirit on the men and women in the prisons and jails of America.  Grant freedom to those who were wrongly convicted.  Release those who were imprisoned solely for political reasons. Thank you for the revivals and conversions we hear about in some of our prisons and jails.  Keep these men and women who have put their trust in You in Your word and use them as Your witnesses.  We pray for the jail and prison ministries in this nation, to have Your blessing and power.

Pour out your Spirit on members of Congress.  You oppose the proud and You know the members of Congress who are arrogant, deceived, or cooperating with enemies of this nation.  Turn their hearts to You, may Your Holy Spirit convict them and lead them to the cross. You also know the men and women in Congress fighting for truth and righteousness – encourage them, protect them and their families, give them wisdom to pull down every stronghold and every argument raised up against the knowledge of God.

Pour out your Spirit on the President and his family and all the members of his cabinet.  I pray for their salvation.  Clear the mind of the President and fill it with knowledge of Your will, fill it with Your word.  Break all evil influences within our executive branch of government.

Pour out your Spirit on the CEO’s, CFO’s and other executives and board members of the corporations of this nation. Shield them from pressure to do evil. May they use their influence for good. Deliver them from the temptation of riches and power. Free them from bondage to the global elites.

Pour out Your Spirit on the physicians and health care workers of America.  We have come through two years of an epidemic that has taken many lives and caused much confusion.  Thank You for every health worker who sought the best for the patients they cared for; thank You for the compassion and strength you gave them during the epidemic. Renew their strength. Provide for health care workers laid off for reasons of conscience.  Restore trust in our health care system, as the truth of the epidemic becomes clearer and health agencies and organizations take appropriate actions.  Reign in the research into biological weapons funded by this country.

Pour out Your Spirit on our policemen, sheriffs, other law enforcement personnel, firefighters and other first responders.  Keep them safe in their jobs.  Give them courage.  Comfort the families of those killed in the line of duty. May Your strong hand stop the violence in our cities.

Pour out Your Spirit on the pastors of America and their families.  Refresh them in their calling, renew their strength like eagles.  Give them the heart of Jesus, the power of Elijah and the wisdom of Solomon.  Draw them daily into your presence, near to Your throne, to behold Your glory.  Fill them with Your Spirit.

Jesus, you told us to love our enemies and pray for and those who persecute us.  We know much of your church around the world is experiencing persecution and occasionally we see or hear of it within our borders.  So I pray for both the persecuted and those doing the persecuting, for Your will to be done, for Your kingdom to come, for deliverance from evil. 

Lord, you raise up the humble and are opposed to the proud.  You remove kings and raise up kings.  So I ask that You would put in office the men and women You desire in our elections this year.  I pray for the candidates in each of the 435 seats in the House of Representative, for candidates in each of the 35 open Senate seats and candidates in state races, that Your Spirit of truth would envelop them, giving them courage to be totally honest in their campaigning, fair in speaking of their opponents, and resisting all corrupt influences.  Give them hearts that seek after Your righteousness.  We pray that the elections this year would be fair, with all attempts at fraud thwarted. 

You extend Your love and salvation to all who call upon Your name, for You so loved the world.  So I pray for a mighty work of Your Spirit in this nation turning hearts from idols to the true and living God, for it is only You who can give life, new life, abundant life.

Jesus, your word tells us to owe nothing to anyone except to love one another, but our nation is drowning in debt – national debt and personal or consumer debt.  Set us free from the bondage that results from this debt, and from the greed that causes much of it.  Give our lawmakers courage to resist the temptation to create unrealistic budgets, to use gimmicks to fund pet projects which bloat the national debt, causing inflation that will eventually lead to catastrophic collapse of the economy.  Give our lawmakers courage to be fiscally responsible and legislate in ways that create economic opportunity. I pray that You would uproot and cast down the powers that are manipulating the economy for evil. I pray that You would remove control of the Federal Reserve Bank from globalist elites, and stop the Federal Reserve, other banks and government agencies from freezing assets of citizens whom the globalists want to silence or control.

Lord, You’ve told us that Your ways are higher than our ways and Your thoughts are higher than our thoughts.  Give us eyes to see what You are doing in our nation and ears to hear Your voice.  May we discern your judgements and respond in faith and obedience.

Parts of our country are experiencing an extreme drought and more than half, including most of Idaho some level of drought.  Please send rain to Texas and Nevada, Oregon and Montana.

Your Word tells us that our battle is not against flesh and blood but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. 

Our enemy is a liar and the father of lies.  His lies are flooding our nation with disinformation, godless agendas and narratives.  Equip your church with the belt of truth and the sword of the Spirit as we encounter and digest news, media of all kinds, political ads, so called politically correct thinking, even when couched in the language of research or science.  Give us courage to stand for truth, to proclaim truth. May we speak truth, one to another.  Bring to nothing the efforts of the federal government to create a Disinformation Governance Board, which we know from history will only silence the truth.

Our enemy is the accuser and tempter, and we see so much immorality and sin in our nation.  We declare the total sufficiency of the blood of Christ for forgiveness of all who have put their trust in You.  We declare that in Christ there is no condemnation.  Cloth us with the breastplate of righteousness.  Teach us the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus that sets us free from the law of sin and death.

Our enemy is the thief who comes to kill and destroy.  Lord I cry to You to reach out and touch mothers who would kill their babies and anyone considering killing themselves.  I cry out to you to stay the hand of death and save.  I pray for the Justice Aleto writing the court’s opinion in Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, that would be a victory for life, that their leaked opinion which overturns Roe vs Wade would hold. I pray that You would give wisdom, insight, and divine guidance to Colonel Gail Curley, the investigator looking into the leak of the draft opinion of the Court on the abortion case. We pray also for the justices of the Idaho Supreme Court reviewing House Bill 366, the heatbeat law, that they would let it stand and not strike it down.

Lord, our enemy enslaves and reigns in tyranny. We see our freedoms, which we know come from Your hand, being eroded, even denied in this country.  Wake us up, keep us alert, equip us to overcome in Your name and for Your glory.  We seek freedom not to indulge our flesh, but to obey You and Your Word, and to fulfill our high calling to be a witness to the nations.  I confess that in many ways America has not been the Light on the hill, a blessing to all nations that You desire and our forefathers envisioned.  Forgive us, renew our strength to fulfill Your purposes for us in this nation.”