“We want people praying.”

Craig Macartney
Spur Ottawa Writer

The National House of Prayer (NHOP) is partnering with The CRY and several other ministries, calling Canadian believers to increase our level of prayer for government and the nation.

“The main goal is not just for our prayer ministry to engage, but as many prayer ministries and people in the nation to engage at the same time. We want people praying,” says Chris Byberg, NHOP’s executive director. “We are working to have prayer teams in every one of the 338 ridings in the nation.”

Working with NHOP, The CRY published a five-point prayer strategy for the election. The strategy includes calling for:

1. unity in the Church
2. Canadian believers to prayerwalk their ridings, in pairs
3. fasting (believers can join in a 21 day fast that the ministries started on August 31)
4. an online solemn assembly to pray for the nation, on September 15
5. 38 churches (each representing one day of the campaign period) to host one hour of worship and prayer

As part of their call to unity, The CRY crafted a short prayer they are asking Christians across the country to join together in praying, every day of the election.

In addition, NHOP is hosting daily prayer calls and sending out daily emails with prayer points focused on the election.

“We want people pray for wisdom and clarity.” Addressing his concern with low voting and political engagement among Christians, Byberg adds, “Pray that the Church actually engages in this season. We want the Church to pay attention to the policy platforms. It is when you start to dig into these platforms that you start to see the things that are good and the things that are not so good.”

Earlier this week, NHOP included links to all the party platforms in their email, encouraging believers to read the fine print and understand the implications.

“We need to pray for Christians to pay attention and be able to discern what is righteous and unrighteous. If we really engage and look at all the platforms, we would thing, ‘Oh my gosh!’”

Yet Byberg adds that “there are some policies that are really good from a pro-life perspective. Really what I want is for people to see clearly what they are voting for.”

Byberg also stresses that scripture commands believers to pray for government leaders. “Pray that God would reach out to all the leaders, that they would have an encounter with Him. Elections are very arduous. It’s a hard job. Pray that God would sustain them and their families.”

Finally, Byberg is asking Canadians to pray that righteous candidates would be more visible and have their voices heard. There are many strong, godly candidates across the country, he says, but often they are muzzled by their parties.