A Prayer for National Day

O Lord our God,

You made all humanity and called Abraham from all other nations to worship and to obey you, precisely so that, through Abraham and his family, all the nations of the earth are to be blessed.

We thank You for Abraham’s descendant, our Lord Jesus Christ, the full and final expression and fulfilment of Your blessing to the nations of the earth.

We thank You also this day, for this particular nation that we live in, Singapore.

We thank You for your grace, protection, and provision throughout the 50 years of Singapore’s existence as an independent nation.

We thank You especially for the many who have given of themselves to build this nation.

We Singaporean Christians confess that we have often failed to acknowledge your sovereignty over our national affairs, ascribing our growth and successes solely to our human ingenuity and efforts.

We Singaporean Christians confess that we have not always fulfilled our calling and responsibilities as citizens, retreating behind the walls of our church buildings and Christian subculture.

We Singaporean Christians confess that we have sometimes identified our national interests, or the present government’s interests, with Your concerns, and in so doing gagged Your voice, and forfeited our prophetic role to our nation.

For these sins, we repent. Lord have mercy.

Lord, we pray that as Singapore celebrates her Golden Jubilee, the nation will truly grow — in the spirit of Jubilee — to be a more just and equal society, where love and righteousness can be found and celebrated, where the poor and the vulnerable are remembered and helped.

We pray that Singapore will be good stewards of what You have entrusted to us — wealth, influence, and knowledge — so that in our time of plenty our nation may help other nations and other nationalities who live among us, as we were helped by friendly nations in our time of need.

We pray for Singapore’s political and civic leaders to guide our country towards this.

As the church in Singapore, we ask for Your Spirit to empower us to be salt and light towards these ends, exposing the idols of our age without fear, and offering the good news of Your Son Jesus Christ with our words and deeds — until Your perfect kingdom comes in its fullness.

For this we pray in the Name of Your Son and our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.