A Prayer for our President

Father, thank you for the humble confidence you have given me to come directly to your throne through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ!  I come to you at this early hour, and in the wake of last nights election results, to ask your richest blessings on President Barack Obama, his family, his staff, his cabinet, and others who advise him.

I thank you for living in a nation where, even in the current environment of hostility, the transfer of power comes at the ballot box and not at the end of a gun barrel.  And I thank you that last night in your infinite wisdom, you directed events and ultimately anointed this man to lead our country for another four years.  I bring him to you because we who are your followers are commanded to do so, but I thank you for the grateful heart you have given me to obey that command.

I pray, first of all, for the President personally.  I ask that you continue to bless him with good health, and with the wisdom and knowledge necessary to lead this great country.  I pray for his continued abilities as a husband and father.  I thank you that, with whatever disagreements I may have with him, I can point my two sons toward the White House and our President and say to them "this is how a real husband and father treats his family."  I can direct my daughter's gaze toward our President as an example of the kind of caring, family-centered man for whom she needs to wait.  Thank you for his example, and I pray that you would multiply that example throughout our nation in a way that heals the family brokenness that permeates our land.

I pray for his wife Michelle, and for their two daughters, who must live in a house of glass, and who must hear their husband/father criticized and ripped apart on a daily basis.  Give them strength to endure, and to be a blessing to him.  I pray that you would protect this entire family from harm, from sickness, and from hostility.  May they grow in love toward each other over these next four years in a way that will prove your presence in their lives.

I pray for wisdom as he begins a second term in the midst of a troubled country. I ask you to grant a spirit of cooperation between the President and our Congress, and that you would give them the collective wisdom to solve our economic problems.  In the midst of this, I pray for the courage to, when necessary, even look at the country that elected him and to speak prophetically about our greed--individual, corporate, and government--which has brought about much of the misery that we now experience.  I thank you for a President that wants to serve his country, not worship it, and ask that this same boldness would be directed at us in a way that challenges us to be a better people

I pray that you grant him wisdom as he seeks to relate to other nations.  Give him strength and resolve as he deals with the enemies of human rights and freedom around the world, and grant him prudence as he leads a nation that, too often, has sought to bring "peace" by flexing the muscles of our military.  I ask these things with the recognition that I am not in the "situation room" and therefore am largely ignorant of the complexities of what transpires in that room.  But I do realize that your own wisdom is needed in so many of these situations, and I ask you to grant that wisdom to President Obama.

I also ask that you give him moral courage that would cause him to sometimes be found in opposition to his own party.  Where abortion is concerned, I thank you for the way he has focused the attention of many "pro-life" people on the plight in which so many women find themselves, and I ask you to give us the collective wisdom to minister effectively in the midst of such moral complexity.  At the same time, more than 1.5 million human beings created in your image and likeness are murdered every year with the blessing of this President's administration.  Over the next four years, this issue will play a major role in everything from foreign aid to Executive orders to the abortifacient mandate to the appointment of Supreme Court justices.  In those moments, I ask you to change his heart by shattering it as his eyes are opened to the carnage caused by our current culture of death.  Likewise, his earnest and sincere desire for "fairness" and "equality" have clouded a clear and God-honoring view of marriage and the family.  I ask that you give him changed convictions, and accompanying moral courage to stand rightly on these issues.  Make him a prophet to his own party and to our entire nation on these issues.

Finally, I pray that over these next four years, you would draw President Obama closer to you.  I ask that in the midst of long hours and unspeakable stress that you would give him rest.  I also ask that you would burden your people to pray for him daily.  When we are tempted to criticize, help us to pray instead.  When we are tempted to show disrespect and withhold honor from this man to whom you have commanded we show honor, bring us to repentance.  When he makes a decision that we believe honors you, may we publicly applaud him regardless of party affiliation.

I bring all of this to you, knowing that it is you who make entire Kingdoms to rise and fall.  It is you who holds the hearts of kings in your hand and give them direction.  It is you who directs the affairs of men and nations.  And it is in you and you alone that all of us, including our President, find our ultimate hope.  Such hope is undeserved by people such as we, and so I thank you for giving it in your grace, and pray that you would give more in the months to come.  I ask this in the name of Jesus Christ, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, before whom all of us, including our President, will one day stand, Amen.