How do we pray for our country and its leaders, current and future? Does our vote really matter? And for whom do we vote? Can we or our prayers help turn the tide of our nation? If you’re seeking answers for any of these questions, here’s a prayer that might help!
Lord God, we desperately need your wisdom. You have given us a great country, founded on principles and truths from Your Word. We need men and women who will honor You, trust You, and lead us once again back to You. We pray for servant leaders who love the things You love and who care more about others than themselves.
Give us leaders with discerning hearts, bold faith, and wise minds that model Your character. Teach them—and us—not just what is good, but what is best. Guide them in the way our country should go. Give them purity in their intentions, and godliness in their convictions. Energize their spirits and bodies physically and spiritually, and keep them emotionally secure in the knowledge of who You are—and whose they are. Help them to be bighearted and sincere, energetic in goodness, and courteous in their manners.
Raise up leaders with the greatest potential of godly leadership, those who can ease confusion, expose illusion, and heal delusion. You alone hold the power to turn the hearts of leaders, but You listen and use our prayers to move them into right action. Help us to be faithful to care and to pursue Your heart in prayer.
SEE ALSO: A Prayer for Peace Within
Help our leaders to be quick to admit failure, but ready to rebound in persistent resilience. Encourage them to choose wisely, and when they don’t know what to do, help them keep their eyes on You. Let them take a firm stand on issues that truly matter to You, regardless of the consequences or approval ratings. Make them God-pleasers, not puppets; leaders filled with conviction, not corruption.
As a nation, God, help us to desire righteousness more than rights, and to mirror sacrifice more than selfishness. You know us well, and You understand our flaws. Turn those weaknesses into strengths; bathe us with Your grace and mercy, though none of us deserve it. Fill us with the boldness to choose the kind of freedom that will benefit all, rather than a few. Open our eyes to see others as You do—with godly potential and value. But help us, too, to recognize our own pride in trying to elevate ourselves and others above You and Your purpose for our lives.
We need, You, God. Oh, how we need You! You have exercised nothing but faithfulness and fairness in Your treatment of our country, even when we’ve turned our back on You and forgotten Your goodness to us. Your discipline at times is hard, but You are just. Your purpose is always to draw us close to You, to bless us, and to make us a great nation who honors You. You are a good, good, Father—and Your love for us has a proven track record.
Forgive us for wanting our own way and making our own paths—often the ones paved with least resistance. Forgive us for fence-walking, or for ignoring completely the truths that can so easily set us free. Deliver us from mindless quarrels and destinations that lead us nowhere, but away from You. Free us from divisiveness, and melt our hardened hearts to love, not hate, and to heal, not debate.
SEE ALSO: A Prayer for When Things Seem Hopeless & Chaotic
Our history has cried for king-like leaders who will solve our problems and meet our needs. But there is only one King, and that is You, Lord. We have blindly sought answers from others to life’s unresolved questions through the years, but You are the only wise Counselor. We have longed for peace, but You are the only Peacemaker, and the only Prince of Peace. We’ve clung to our weapons of warfare, not as measures of defense, but as strongholds of selfish pride. We look at outward appearances; You see the heart. With You, nothing formed against us can prosper. Without You, we are nothing.
Make us a great nation, yes. But more than that, make us good, Lord, with a heartbeat that wants every person of every creed and color to know Your love, Your goodness, and Your worth. Make us wise as serpents, but gentle as doves. Turn our fears to faith, as we look to You and You alone for the future of our country. Give us God-confidence that no matter what happens, we will believe You are not only in control, but that You know exactly what is needed to accomplish Your purpose. Help us not to second-guess Your moves, but to move at Your command, always without hesitation.
We look to You and to You, only, Lord. Help us make wise decisions that move our country in the right direction. Help us to do our part in praying and in staying with what we know is right according to the truth of Your Word. Teach us to make our actions count and our words matter, and line them both up to Your sense of rightness, not ours. Guide us with Your eye; grip us with Your strong arm; teach us what we need to know to make our lives—and our nation—count for you. We pray for our leaders, but we ask You to make us both leaders and followers: leading in the way of Truth, and following those who honor You.
In the precious and powerful name of Jesus,
Amen
SEE ALSO: Prayers for Strength
Rebecca Barlow Jordan is an inspirational author, speaker, and passionate follower of Jesus who loves to encourage others heart to heart. She has written 11 books and over 1700 other articles, greeting cards, and other inspirational pieces. Her daily devotional Daily in Your Presence is available for delivery through Crosswalk.com. You can find out more about Rebecca at www.rebeccabarlowjordan.com.
Publication date: February 2, 2016
This article is part of our larger Prayers resource meant to inspire and encourage your prayer life when you face uncertain times. Visit our most popular prayers if you are wondering how to pray or what to pray. Remember, the Holy Spirit intercedes for us and God knows your heart even if you can’t find the words to pray.
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Product Description
For God and Country – Book
“History is to the nation as memory is to the individual,” wrote Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
Have you ever met an individual who has lost their memory, maybe from the tragic disease of Alzheimers? Well, America has lost its corporate memory. Here we are the freest and most prosperous nation, with more individual liberty and freedom than any other nation in the 6,000 years of recorded human history – and we forgot how we got here!
This short volume is in a small way an effort to re-introduce the “memory” of our nation’s past, particularly with regards to the role of religion. Included are excerpts from various original charters and founding documents of each of the 13 colonies, the 50 state constitutions, significant treaties and court decisions, and past presidents’ inaugural addresses. It is hoped by refreshing our national memory, we can get a better understanding to help us with current questions and challenges.
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., continued his New York Times op-ed “Folly’s Antidote” (January 1, 2007),
“As persons deprived of memory become disoriented and lost, not knowing where they have been and where they are going, so a nation denied a conception of the past will be disabled in dealing with its present and its future.”
If we do not regain our memory, we may face what President Calvin Coolidge warned when he laid the cornerstone of the Jewish Community Center in Washington, DC., May 3, 1925:
“This biblical influence was strikingly impressive in all the New England colonies … A people raised under such leadership, given to much study and contemplation of the Scriptures … . They knew the Book. They were profoundly familiar with it … We must think the thoughts which they thought … We live in an age of science and of abounding accumulation of material things. These did not create our Declaration. Our Declaration created them. The things of the spirit come first. Unless we cling to that, all our material prosperity, overwhelming though it may appear, will turn to a barren sceptre in our grasp.”
Prayers & Presidents – Inspiring Faith from Leaders of the Past – Book
“Went to church and fasted all day.”-GEORGE WASHINGTON, Diary Entry, June 1, 1774, day British blockaded Boston’s harbor From George Washington’s orders for troops to attend divine services to Abraham Lincoln’s annual day of thanksgiving, to Harry S Truman’s annual day of prayer, America’s leaders of the past have a tradition of faith, especially in times of crises! There is a chapter on every President of the past, from George Washington through George W. Bush, with excerpts from Proclamations, Addresses to Congress, Executive Orders, Personal Correspondence and Memoirs. “Appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions…“-THOMAS JEFFERSON, Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776 “That the citizens of these States, abstaining on that day from their customary worldly occupations…acknowledge before God the manifold sins and transgressions…as individuals and as a nation, beseeching Him…through the Redeemer of the World, freely to remit all our offenses, and to incline us by His Holy Spirit to that sincere repentance and reformation.”-JOHN ADAMS, Day of Fasting declared a threatened war with France, March 23, 1798 “In the present time of public calamity and war a day may be recommended to be observed by the people of the United States as a day of…humble adoration to the Great Sovereign of the Universe, of confessing their sins and transgressions, and of strengthening their vows of repentance.“-JAMES MADISON, Day of Fasting, November 16, 1814, after British burned the Capital “In a time of war humbly and devoutly to acknowledge our dependence on Almighty God and to implore His aid and protection…I, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States of America, do hereby…exhort my fellow-citizens…to pray Almighty God that He may forgive our sins.“-WOODROW WILSON, Day of Fasting May 11, 1918, during World War I “Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization…Help us, Almighty God, to rededicate ourselves in renewed faith in Thee in this hour of great sacrifice.“-FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT, June 6, 1944, D-Day Prayer on Allied Invasion of Normandy, France “America needs God more than God needs America. If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a Nation gone under.“-RONALD REAGAN, August 23, 1984, at Ecumenical Prayer Breakfast, Dallas, Texas A great source of inspiration for any student of history, you will be uplifted and challenged by reading, “Prayers & Presidents-Inspiring Faith from Leaders of the Past.”
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Today I pray for our nation. I ask that you would give our President wisdom beyond his own understanding and the courage to chose the right path no matter how narrow the gate. I pray for all in authority over us that you would give them the grace and strength to stand against the temptation to use power as a weapon but rather to carry it reverently as one would a child. I pray for the spiritual leaders of our country that they would hear your voice and know your heart. I pray that they would lead from their knees and by that simple grace bring each one of us to our knees before your throne. Have mercy on our nation Lord, In Jesus name, Amen
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