The Idaho Prayer Project

The following article, posted with permission, is by an Idahoan who wishes to remain anonymous.

The Idaho Prayer Project provides a special opportunity to unite God’s people in prayer over Idaho. Our state government officials are making decisions about almost every aspect of our lives. What better time to cry out in unison to our Creator for His guidance? 

Please consider joining with other believers in prayer over the next few months with great expectation and hope for tomorrow as God’s people seek His will for all of Idaho. 

Seven Ways You Can Pray for Idaho

Now through Primary Election Day, May 17, 2022 

1.    Consider rewriting the sample prayer in the language/vocabulary/style of your own church denomination.

2.    Ask your church leader to develop a sermon around Biblical concepts like representative government established by Moses, biblical principles of leadership, or God’s governing plan for His people. 

3.    Ask a youth group, women’s group, or men’s group to present the 20 scriptures and the prayer to your community.  The role model of the chosen group could have a strong impact on the public.

4.    Organize a diverse group from very young to very old to present the 20 scriptures and the prayer.  Each person reads a portion overlapping their voices for the last 7 words as they transition to each new reader.

5.    Ask a music leader to select and perform music to be included at an event of the Idaho Prayer Project, probably patriotic music. 

6.    Consider providing a mini packet of materials to your group including a copy of the sample prayer for personal prayer time, a list of critical issues of concern, and a voter registration card to activate government participation in selecting servant leaders.

7.    Send out an email to other believers from your online contact list with The Idaho Prayer Project information attached.  The idea is that many believers will form a network that covers in prayer every mountain, hill, valley, prairie, and plain in Idaho. 

Sample Prayer Guide

Lord God Almighty,

We recognize your sovereignty over all creation. You have poured out Your love and generosity on Your people, families, and governments all of which You have intended for our provision. Even in troubled times, we fear not because our confidence and our strength is in You.  We are grateful for Your love and companionship during our earthly journey.  Your love for us is immeasurable!

Thank you for Idaho where we have been able to gather and worship freely for many years in this beautiful setting.  We acknowledge that You were caring for us long ago when You established our country and government based on Your truth principles. This form of government has blessed us because You have lovingly designed it especially for Your people based on Your principles, the value of human life, and freedom from regulations that would otherwise hurt our ability to prosper and to worship freely. Encourage us, Lord, to be faithful participants in Your divine plan in Idaho and America.  

As designated caretakers of this government that You have given us, help us be dutiful voters and protective stewards in the coming elections when we designate our leaders.  We seek Your guidance in choosing leaders who stand on Your core principles for our constitutional Republic. Grant us clear minds and wisdom to choose leaders who care about Your plan and people more than they care about power or position. Please prompt all of us to be ever vigilant in safeguarding the blessings of liberty not just for ourselves but also for future generations. As heirs to Your kingdom we earnestly seek unity and kinship with all believers who see the significance in participating in government with You as the supreme architect and authority. 

Give us wisdom to elect faithful guardians to our government. Open our eyes to any attempts by the adversary to chip away at our sacred freedoms that would lead us away from Your benevolent design for us.  We stand united against falsehood within our government, the suppression of freedom, corruption, or godlessness in this land. Protect our leaders who serve honorably in spite of smear tactics and devious assaults on their good character. We open our hearts to Your Spirit so that we can plainly identify and vote for faithful servant leaders.

In our limitations and humility we acknowledge Your supreme authority and ultimately rely on Your will to be done concerning the election of our leaders in Idaho and America.  We pray in the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior. We thank You in advance for Your favor. All glory, honor, and praise belong to You.

Amen.

Bible References About Government 

2 Corinthians 3:17

Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

Deuteronomy 1:13

Choose for your tribes, understanding, and experienced men, and I will appoint them as your heads.

Deuteronomy 16:18-20 

You shall appoint judges and officers in all your towns that the Lord your God is giving you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment. You shall not pervert justice. You shall not show partiality, and you shall not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and subverts the cause of the righteous. Justice, and only justice, you shall follow, that you may live and inherit the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

Exodus 18:21

Moreover, look for able men from all the people, men who fear God, who are trustworthy and hate a bribe, and place such men over the people as chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens.

Exodus 18:16 

When they have a dispute, they come to me and I decide between one person and another, and I make them know the statutes of God and his laws.

Judges 4:5 

She held court under the Palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites went up to her to have their disputes decided.” Deborah was a woman of great wisdom, revelation, and discernment.

Psalm 33:12

Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage!

Psalm 9:17 

The wicked shall return to Sheol, all the nations that forget God.

Proverbs 8:15

By me kings reign, and rulers decree what is just.

Proverbs 29:2

When the righteous increase, the people rejoice, but when the wicked rule, the people groan.

Jeremiah 29:7

But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.

Job 12:23-25

He makes nations great, and he destroys them; he enlarges nations, and leads them away. He takes away understanding from the chiefs of the people of the earth and makes them wander in a pathless waste. They grope in the dark without light, and he makes them stagger like a drunken man.

1 Timothy 2:1-3 

First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior,

Matthew 20:25-28 

But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Matthew 28:18 

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Romans 12:1-21

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. 

Revelation 1:5-6 

And from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

2 Timothy 3:1-5 

But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.

Hebrews 13:17 

Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.

2 Chronicles 7:14

If my people, who are called by my name, humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

Applying God’s Word

(A call to action)

Deuteronomy 16:18-20

“Moreover, look for able men from all the people, men who fear God, who are trustworthy and hate a bribe, and place such men over the people…”  

This is a clear command from Scripture to find good candidates for leadership and elect them.

Historically, those few who have taken the time and effort to vote in the primary are those who have selected the winners of the November general election for the last 28 years in Idaho.

What if all of God’s Church turned out to vote in the Idaho primary election motivated by spirit for God’s plan to select leaders for His people.  

In what significant ways would our Idaho government be different? 

What important influence would believers have on (1) candidates running for office?  (2) elected government leaders?  

Would an elected leader chosen by believers be more likely to listen to the people and serve them?

You must be a registered Republican by March 11th in order to vote in the May 17th primary. Read my article, ‘Why Your Vote in Idaho’s May 17th Primary Election is Vital to Keeping Idaho Red’.