•  PRAYER BEFORE THE SENATE OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA

    BY

    DR. GARY G. DULL, PASTOR OF THE FAITH BAPTIST CHURCH OF ALTOONA, PA

    OCTOBER 24, 2007

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    Our Heavenly Father, We come before you in praise and thanksgiving for the Great and Mighty God you are.  We thank you for creating this majestic universe and everything that is part of its vast existence.  We thank you for creating the human race after your own image and for providing redemption from sin through the shed blood of Jesus Christ your Son.  We thank you for your wonderful love, grace, and mercy upon each of us and for the fact that you care for even the smallest details of our lives.

     

    We want to thank you for the way you have providentially worked to bring together our great Nation and Commonwealth.  We thank you for the vision you placed in the minds of our forefathers and for the sacrifices many have made down through the years to see that vision come into fruition.

     

    We thank you for this great body, the Senate of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.  We thank you for each individual, no matter what their political party affiliation may be, who has dedicated his or her time and talent toward making Pennsylvania a better place to live, work, and play.  We thank you particularly for those who daily seek your wisdom in making the important decisions of the Commonwealth.  And, we thank you for granting that wisdom when it is sought out by your children.

     

    Today, I come to you in prayer for this great and honorable body of individuals.  I pray that you will cover each member with your hand of protection from all or any who would seek to destroy or corrupt them morally, ethically, legally, or spiritually. I pray that you will grant to them the insight to make proper moral, ethical, legal and fiscal decisions that will honor you and benefit the citizens of the Commonwealth.  I pray that you will grant to them the guidance they need to enact laws that will protect Pennsylvania from violating your laws of truth and justice.  I pray that you will grant to them the boldness to stand on the principles that made America the greatest Nation on Earth and that made Pennsylvania truly The Key Stone State of the Union.  I pray that they will continue to see the need of recognizing you in the public spaces of the community.  I pray that they will have the conviction to protect and support the sanctity of human life and the values of the traditional family.  I pray, that your Holy Spirit daily will remind them, that one day they will stand before you to give an account of all their decisions that affected the people of this Commonwealth.  I earnestly pray that each of them will have the determination to uphold the “Great Law of Pennsylvania” proclaimed on April 25, 1682 as the first legislative act of the Commonwealth which says, “Whereas the glory of Almighty God and the good of mankind is the reason and the end of government, and therefore government itself is a venerable ordinance of God.  There shall be established laws as shall best preserve true Christian and civil liberty, in opposition to all unchristian, licentious, and unjust practices, whereby God may have his due, and Caesar his due, and the people their due, from tyranny and oppression.”  And, I pray that this Senate will daily seek to function in the spirit and attitude of the authors of the Constitution of the Commonwealth as they wrote in the Preamble in 1776, “We, the people of Pennsylvania, grateful to Almighty God for the blessings of civil and religious liberty, and humbly invoking His guidance, do ordain and establish this Constitution…”

     

    Father,  please grant I pray, that today, and each day of their lives, all of the members of this Senate and their staff will be under the shield of your mighty spiritual armor in order to be able to stand against the evil of the day and therefore be able to order their own lives according to true righteousness that will bring peace to them and their associates.  May your blessing upon their lives be evident and appreciated from moment to moment as they serve this great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

     

    These things I pray in the Name of Jesus Christ the Lord.  Amen!