Got your favorite food? Plan on indulging in the new year?

All God’s gifts are to be received from God with thanks. But the lust of the flesh lurks around the corner.

That’s how the cover reads on a recent Economist magazine. At the end of a dark tunnel stands erect an injection needle surrounded by brilliant lighting, poised like a Saturn rocket ready for launching.

In this critical time of the USA national election and uncertain outcome, let us plead before the Lord for his mercy and grace. See below special prayers for your own land and nation based totally on the words of Scripture, as composed by Matthew Henry 300 years ago, but just as relevant today.

Too often the church and its leadership treat prayer as a matter of secondary concern. Not so Luke in his gospel. He repeatedly introduces prayer in places where it is not mentioned in Mark and Matthew. Note these eight distinctive passages on prayer in Luke:

What a strange prayer, you might say. Who ever thinks about their dying, much less praying about it?