Almighty God,
bless our nation
and make it true
to the ideas of freedom and justice
and brotherhood for all who make it great.
Guard us from war,
from fire and wind,
from compromise, fear, confusion.
Be close to our president and our statesmen;
give them vision and courage,
as they ponder decisions affecting peace
and the future of the world.
Make me more deeply aware of my heritage;
realizing not only my rights
but also my duties
and responsibilities as a citizen.
Make this great land
and all its people
know clearly Your will,
that they may fulfill
the destiny ordained for us
in the
salvation
of the nations,
and the restoring of all things in Christ.
Amen
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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.
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.
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
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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We cannot deny it. Our nation is in trouble and we are facing peril. You can turn on your television or scroll through your Facebook newsfeed right now and see that there is so much violence, corruption, fear and hatred in the hearts of those around us. We are contending with issues that are causing the very foundation of our country to crumble.
In the face of all of this, it’s important that we pray not only for the healing of nation, but also for our president and all those in government leadership who are positions to make change happen. 1 Timothy 2:1-3 says that we are to pray, intercede and give thanks for kings and all people in authority. This is God’s command to every believer today. Praying for godly leaders is productive towards God’s plan and purpose for our nation. The Bible says the heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord. He can turn it however he wants, so prayers are important.
Use these eight prayers to pray for our nation an leaders. Pray it in faith, believing and remembering God watches over, loves and protects all:
Heavenly Father, today I pray for our nation. I ask that You would give our President wisdom beyond his own understanding and the courage to choose 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.
Heavenly Father, I bring the needs of our government before You and ask You to bless our nation through godly leaders. I magnify the Name of Jesus and declare that He is Lord over this nation. Amen.
Heavenly Father, we pray that our president and leaders will honor You and respect You as the One and only True God. We ask that You give us government leaders who will pray for Your Will and guidance. Lord, we ask that You pour out Your Spirit on this nation to help each of us discern good from evil, not as the eyes of man but through spiritual eyes. Lord, we ask that You humble our hearts so that we will be a nation filled with gratitude and thankfulness. In Jesus Almighty Name, Amen.
Heavenly Father, I pray according to 1 Timothy 2:1-3 which says, “I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior.” Amen.
Heavenly Father, I pray, in the Name of the Lord Jesus, for our president, the vice president, all the Cabinet and the chief justice and associate justices of the Supreme Court to receive the wisdom of God, to act in obedience to that wisdom and for the power of God to flow in their lives. Amen.
Heavenly Father, I pray for the members of the Senate and the House of Representatives to find Your peace and direction, and for these men and women to act and lead according to Your Word. A house divided against itself cannot stand, therefore, I pray for them to be unified in righteousness for the sake of the nation. Amen.
Heavenly Father, I pray for Your protection to cover all our law enforcement officers and the men and women of the military. I ask for godly counsel and wisdom for judges across this land. In the Name of Jesus, I pray that You and Your kingdom of righteousness be manifested in the hearts of all those who are in authority in any way. Amen.
Heavenly Father, please protect our nation, our military and our leaders. Turn our nation’s hearts towards you Holy Father, that we may put You first and obey Your commandants. That we may not be lukewarm in our lifestyles but stand courageously and confidently in Your most holy and precious Word. We pray that we may acknowledge You always in our daily lives and glorify You with all that we do. Amen.
With all the things that are going on in our country today, it’s easy to lose trust and hope, even doubt that things in our country will change. It’s clear that the world is broken right now – full of spiritual apathy, selfishness, sexual assault, religious extremism, violence and terrorism, and the list goes on.
It can be also be tempting to believe that America has reached a point of no return. While these factors cause despair, we are reminded in Scripture that with God, nothing is impossible. No problem is too great for Him. Seasons of distress and uncertainty and hardship call for faithful, fervent prayer by God’s people and remind us of our responsibility to humble ourselves before Almighty God. We cannot expect healing to come to our nation apart from obedience to God through His Holy Word. We also know from Scripture that when light stands in the darkness, light always wins.
Jesus said, “I am the Light of the world; He who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12). We also know from Joel 2:25 that God can restore what is broken and change it into something amazing. All we need is faith. There is no need for you to feel like there is anything in your life that God can’t handle. He is omnipotent, omnipresent and active in all areas of our lives.
We may live in dark times, but we have hope, because light always wins. At our lowest points, God is our hope and at our weakest points, God is our strength and will heal us.
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I don’t know about you but I have a hard time watching or listening to the news. In fact, I don’t.
The state of our nation is disturbing, discouraging, and to be honest, baffling.
It’s clear there is a fight going on for the soul of our nation. It’s possible you and I don’t share the same home country but we do share this: Friends, we are at war.
This isn’t a war fought with guns and air strikes. Wars of this kind are won on our knees.
Let me ask you, Do you have a war time strategy?
Or are you spending more time watching the news, complaining about it and cluck-clucking in bewilderment than actually engaging in the battle?
I’m guilty of it.
But I’ve decided as a child of God, it is my responsibility to join the fight. No, not in some political campaign or with comments and arguments on Facebook, but in prayer for our country, on my knees, with the Word of God and these war room verses spread out in front of me. Taking time in prayer for our nation and its leaders is something I CAN do.
If you are wondering how you can be in prayer for our nation, you’ve come to the right place! We will soon be observing the National Day of Prayer and I don’t know of a more critical time of prayer for the nation. Will you join me?
I invite you to play a part in praying for the nation. Let’s turn off the news and news feeds and let’s spend ten minutes a day praying these Scripture prayers for our nation.
Let’s be in prayer for the leaders of our country; let’s join our hearts and offer up prayers for the nation and its leaders. We have weapons strong enough to destroy strongholds. We’re insane crazy not to use them!!
So how about it? Let’s be a force of people praying – men and women in our bathrooms as we dress for work, on our knees in our war rooms, in our cars, at lunch breaks, whenever and wherever. Let’s charge heaven with the prayers of the faithful. Let’s be a dadgum army.
Table of contents
Below you’ll find suggested Scripture prayers for our nation.
10 War Room Prayers For Our Nation:
Below are ten suggested references, followed by my own sample prayers. Please note my prayers are not Bible translations. They are included for those who would like examples of how to pray. You can use these as intercessory prayer points for the nation.
II Chronicles 7:14
Lord, I come to You with this prayer for our land. You promise that when your people pray, humble themselves, and seek You, You will hear and answer. You even promise healing in the land. Lord, our land needs healing and I believe it starts with me. I humble myself before You right here, right now. I’m seeking Your face. I ask You to grant me a repentant spirit so I may be an instrument that ushers in Your blessing for this nation.
Psalms 33:12
Lord, Your blessing has been upon this nation and I thank You for your kind mercies! But Your Word says the blessed nation is the one whose God is the Lord and our nation has turned from You. God, on behalf of myself and my people, I confess our disregard of You. Bring Your people to repentance and let this nation once again be one who calls You “Lord.”
Proverbs 14:34
Righteousness exalts a nation, Lord. Not flagrant personalities and foul speech. Not the boastful pride of man or “progressive” lifestyles or quick talking politicians who present themselves as the solution for the world. Righteousness, Lord, righteousness is what we need. Oh Lord, let Your righteousness rain down on us and spring up from within every home and community in our land!
Proverbs 9:10
Many of the things I hear coming out of the mouths of those in the media make me shudder, Lord. Fear of You is sorely lacking and I humble myself before You to beseech Your mercies on behalf of a people who don’t fear or acknowledge You. Forgive us, God! Strike a fear in the heart of Your people! Show us the seriousness of our sin and the holiness of Your majesty. Let us see and understand You as God… King… Sovereign One… Ruler of heaven and earth. And let us be wise!
Matthew 16:18
Lord, You promise that the gates of hell will not overcome Your church. You have a people and You have a plan that will not fail. No matter what, Your purposes will prevail. You are in Your church and indwell Your people. In this we take great hope. Strengthen Your people, Lord! Strengthen Your church in this country! Let us rise to the battle cry and faithfully stand firm! Stir up our passions and desires for purity, holiness, and intimacy with You. Let us walk in the unquenchable fire of Your Spirit.
II Corinthians 6:17
God, call Your people to come out and be separate. All across this land, call Your people to set aside wordly wisdom, pride and appearances, materialism, the need for approval, idolatry of all sorts. Lead us out and lead us up. We are a holy nation, a royal priesthood, set apart for worthy purposes. Stir in each and every heart to come out and be different!
Isaiah 6:1
Oh Lord, we need to see You as You truly are, not as what others say You are. Let Your people see You high and lifted up! Let us see You as holy. Let us understand Your nature, character, and sovereignty. Let us know Your word. Sweep across this land and reveal Yourself like never before. Let us know You, God!
Isaiah 60:1
Cause each of Your children to shine brightly in this dark land, Lord. Let each light take it’s place on a lampstand and draw others to You. May those without Christ see our good works and glorify You. We pray that many will come to know You and confess You as Lord.
Daniel 2:21
Lord, we believe in Your sovereignty. We know You are the One who sets up rulers and kings. The buck stops with You. We pray for our leaders and future leaders…and those who elect them… to have wisdom, knowledge, and discernment, for these things come from You.
Matthew 6:10
We pray for Your Kingdom to come, Your will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. We know Your will is for righteousness, salvation, and truth. We pray for these things to define our lives, our marriages, our homes, our communities, and our nation. We ask for Your church to be vessels that usher in Your Kingdom and fulfill Your will. Grant us, Your servants, success as we seek to glorify Your name.
There you have it, 10 war time Scriptures to pray for the nation and to pray for our leaders. I encourage you to stop right now, take ten minutes, and write out the Scriptures above. Let’s offer a prayer for country, leaders, and God’s mercy, and let’s start today. Armed with promises to trust God for, we CAN make a difference through the power of prayer!
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