250 Prayers for 250 Years
My book, Prayers from Sea to Shining Sea, releases today on Veterans Day
November 11, 2025
There’s something profoundly fitting about releasing a book of prayers on Veterans Day. Not because prayers and patriotism always walk hand-in-hand (they don’t, and shouldn’t be forced to) but because both require a particular kind of courage that we’ve largely forgotten how to name.
The veteran knows what it means to lay down comfort for duty, to choose sacrifice over safety, to stand in the gap for people who will never know their name. The intercessor knows a parallel courage: to stand before God on behalf of a nation that may never acknowledge the prayer, to hold in tension both love and lament, to believe that unseen warfare matters as much as the seen.
Today, on Veterans Day 2025, Prayers from Sea to Shining Sea enters the world. It’s a book I never planned to write, emerging instead from an idea a dear friend didn’t have the time to create and a restlessness I couldn’t shake—a sense that America’s 250th birthday deserved more than commentary, more than celebration, more than the performative patriotism that requires no personal cost. It deserved intercession.
The Uncomfortable Territory of Patriotic Prayer
I’ll confess: I’ve spent years uncomfortable with the fusion of faith and nationalism. I’ve watched too many prayers become political weapons, too much patriotism baptized without confession, too many flags waved while the prophetic voice stayed silent. The easy path would have been to avoid this entirely; to let America’s Semiquincentennial pass without spiritual reflection, to keep my prayers private and my patriotism cautious.
But that restlessness wouldn’t relent.
Because here’s the tension I couldn’t escape: if I truly believe prayer matters, if I genuinely trust that God hears and responds to intercession, then my silence about my country isn’t neutrality; it’s neglect. Not the kind of patriotism that wraps itself in the flag and declares itself righteous, but the kind that wrestles with God over a nation the way Abraham wrestled over Sodom, the way Moses interceded for Israel, the way Nehemiah wept over Jerusalem’s walls.
The prayers in this book emerge from that wrestling.
Two Hundred and Fifty Prayers for Two Hundred and Fifty Years
The structure became clear early on: 250 prayers for 250 years. But what does a nation need prayed over it? Not just affirmation of its greatness; though there is greatness to acknowledge. Not just condemnation of its failures; though there are failures that demand confession.
A nation needs prayers that see it whole.
So these 250 prayers traverse the full landscape of American life: all fifty states and six territories, each with its own character, its own wounds, its own glory. Prayers for the communities where we actually live; cities and suburbs, rural crossroads and tourist towns, the forgotten places and the celebrated ones. Prayers for the people who make up the fabric of daily life; teachers and farmers, healthcare workers and first responders, artists and tech leaders, children and seniors, those thriving and those barely hanging on.
Prayers for the values we claim to hold but struggle to embody: courage and justice, humility and hope, sacrifice and hospitality. Prayers for our national symbols and institutions, not with blind reverence but with honest reckoning. Prayers themed around the natural wonders that humble us, the parks and monuments that mark our history, the wilderness that reminds us we’re not in control.
And prayers for spiritual renewal; because if America needs anything, it’s awakening. Not the manufactured kind that generates headlines and merchandise, but the costly kind that begins with tears before triumph, with confession before celebration, with brokenness acknowledged before healing can begin.
The Veteran’s Courage, The Intercessor’s Call
On Veterans Day, we honor those who served. We recognize that their service wasn’t abstract—it was embodied, costly, often invisible to those who benefited most from it. They stood watch while others slept. They carried burdens we’ll never fully understand. They made choices that still echo in their bodies and dreams.
Intercession carries its own parallels to military service, though the comparison risks overreach. The intercessor doesn’t face bullets or endure the trauma of combat. But there is a standing watch, a carrying of burdens, a choice to bear in prayer what others won’t acknowledge in conversation.
The intercessor sees the nation’s wounds—the divisions, the injustices, the apathy, the weariness—and refuses to look away. Instead, they bring those wounds to God, not with easy answers or partisan solutions, but with the kind of persistent pleading that believes God can do what politics cannot: transform hearts, heal divisions, revive what’s dying, restore what’s been lost.
This isn’t comfortable work. It’s not the kind of prayer that fits neatly on a bumper sticker or resolves in three minutes before a meal. It’s the prayer that wrestles through the night, that refuses to let go until blessing comes, that holds in tension God’s sovereignty and human agency, divine patience and prophetic urgency.
Why Now? Why This?
America’s 250th birthday isn’t just a milestone—it’s a mirror. It forces us to look at where we’ve been and where we’re going, what we’ve become and what we’ve lost, what we celebrate and what we must confess.
We stand at a peculiar moment: deeply divided yet desperately longing for unity, technologically connected yet relationally isolated, informationally saturated yet spiritually starved. We have more access to knowledge than any generation in history, yet we seem less capable of wisdom. We have platforms to broadcast our voices, yet we’ve forgotten how to listen.
Into this moment, I offer prayers. Not as solutions (prayer isn’t policy) but as reorientation. These 250 prayers invite us to see our states, our communities, our callings through a different lens: not the lens of political affiliation or cultural warfare, but the lens of intercession. What if we spent as much energy praying for our opponents as we do arguing with them? What if we brought our national anxieties to God with the same intensity we bring them to social media? What if patriotism looked more like intercession and less like insistence?
The Gift That Keeps Giving
I’ve been told this is “the perfect gift for the holiday season.” That feels both true and inadequate. Yes, it’s timed for Christmas shopping, for stockings and gift exchanges, for New Year’s resolutions, and for the family and small group gatherings where we search for something meaningful to share. Yes, it includes a complete 2026 reading plan that places each prayer on significant dates throughout America’s Semiquincentennial year.
But the real gift isn’t in the timing—it’s in the return. These prayers don’t expire on December 31, 2026. Long after the anniversary celebrations fade, you’ll find yourself reaching for this book when your state faces crisis, when your community needs hope, when national events leave you speechless, when your own prayers run dry.
That’s what I’ve discovered in creating these prayers: they’ve become the words I need when my own words fail. The prayer for my state that I return to during natural disasters. The prayer for healthcare workers that steadies me when the system feels broken. The prayer for revival that I pray when the church looks more like a social club than a sent-out army. The prayer for the next generation when I look at my own child and wonder what nation she’s inheriting.
An Invitation to Join
So today, on Veterans Day 2025, as we honor those who served with courage, I’m extending an invitation to serve with prayer. Not instead of action—prayer and action aren’t opposites—but as the foundation beneath action, the sustaining force within it, the power that transforms it from human striving into divine partnership. Here is the prayer marking Veterans Day:
Wounds Remembered, Honor Renewed
—A Prayer for Veterans Day
God of valor and vulnerability,
We lift up the veterans; those who served with courage,
And now walk paths of healing, memory, and sometimes silence.
Thank You for their sacrifice and strength,
For nights spent on watch,
And for hearts still carrying both pride and pain.
Bless them with peace that surpasses trauma,
With healthcare that heals more than the body,
And with a nation that listens well.
May we honor them not just in parades,
But in policies, prayers, and presence.
With deep respect, we pray,
Amen.
Prayers from Sea to Shining Sea is available today. It’s a book, yes; paper and ink, covers and spine. But it’s also an invitation: to see your nation through the lens of intercession, to love your country enough to pray honestly over it, to believe that the most patriotic thing we can do might be the thing we do on our knees.
From sea to shining sea, these prayers rise.
Will you join them?
Prayers from Sea to Shining Sea: Marking America’s 250th Birthday with Prayers for Her People, Land, and Future is available now in hardcover, paperback, and ebook. It includes all 250 prayers plus a complete 2026 reading plan placing each prayer on meaningful dates throughout America’s Semiquincentennial year.
For more information or to order, click here.
To all who have served: thank you. Your courage inspires ours.