Author: John Page 136 of 166

Jeremiah 33:3 “Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.”

We should pray for our nation and its leaders because our Lord is a marvelous God who stands ready to amaze us.  We are directed to call unto Him so that He can answer us in His great and mighty ways that we cannot even fathom until He acts.  The moment we give up on praying is the moment we give up on the power of prayer and give up on our amazing God.

The Lord has done great and mighty things by miraculously allowing this nation to succeed in its bid for independence.  He has done great and mighty things by miraculously forming this nation upon a Christian foundation.  He has done great and mighty things time and again by miraculously enabling this nation to be a “Shining City on a Hill” as it puts its underlying Christian principles into action on the world stage.

We know not what the Lord stands ready to do in this land today if we are faithful to pray for our nation and its leaders.  We know not how He will shew Himself great and mighty.  We know not what situations He will alter or what individuals He will transform.  Sadly, we will never know unless we are faithful to call unto Him.

PLEASE CALL UNTO THE LORD DAILY AND FERVENTLY REGARDING OUR NATION AND ITS LEADERS.  Then, stand back and be ready to be amazed.

I Kings 3:9 “Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad: for who is able to judge this thy so great a people?”

Leaders face challenges that we can only imagine.  These challenges are made all the more daunting when they trust in their own wisdom to solve them.  Solomon recognized his insufficiency, and his willingness to turn to the Lord for wisdom and discernment “pleased the Lord.”  Through his humility, God allowed Solomon to “judge this thy so great a people.”  Senate Chaplain Peter Marshall recognized this same important truth and prayed:

“We need Thy strength, Thy guidance, Thy wisdom. There are problems far greater than any wisdom of man can solve.  What shall our leaders do in such an hour?  May Thy wisdom and Thy power come upon the President of these United States, the Senators and Congressmen, to whom have been entrusted leadership.  May the responsibility lie heavily on their hearts, until they are ready to acknowledge their helplessness and turn to Thee.  Give to them the honesty, the courage, and the moral integrity to confess that they don’t know what to do.  Only then can they lead us as a nation beyond human wisdom to Thee, who alone hast the answer.”

Until our leaders recognize their need for full reliance on the Lord, we must pray in their stead as Marshall recommends.  Our problems are far greater than they can solve.  Our problems are far greater than we can solve.  Until our nation – its leaders and its citizens – comes to the point where we recognize our helplessness, we will flail about in our own insufficient wisdom.  Yet, once we humbly rely upon the Lord, we can be led “as a nation beyond human wisdom.”

PLEASE PRAY FOR OUR LEADERS TO ACKNOWLEDGE THEIR HELPLESSNESS AND TURN FULLY TO THE LORD.  God alone has the answer for the problems of today and tomorrow, and our leaders only need to humbly ask to receive it.

Proverbs 21:1 “The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will.”

The king’s heart is worth our prayer because it is in the Lord’s hand.  As the Lord wills, so goes the heart of even those who are rich and powerful.  The Chaplain of the Senate in the 1940s, Peter Marshall, recognized that our prayers should focus on the godliness of our most powerful leaders:

“We pray, Lord Jesus, for our President.  We are deeply concerned that he may know the will of God, and that he may have the spiritual courage and grace to follow it.  Deliver him, we pray, from all selfish consideration.  Lift him above the claims of politics.  Fill him with the Spirit of God that shall make him fearless to seek, to know, to do the right.  Save him from the friends who, in the name of politics or even friendship, would persuade him from that holy path.  Strengthen and empower his advisors.  Bring them, too, to their knees in prayer.  May their example and influence spread, that we, in these United States, may yet have a government of men who know Thee, the Almighty God, as their Friend, and who place Thy will first in their lives as well as in their prayers.”

Marshall’s prayer provides a wonderful reminder of the things we should pray about for our most powerful leaders.  We should pray for their salvation, their knowledge of the will of God, and their determination to follow that same will.  We should pray for our leaders to embody selflessness, higher purpose, courage, and discernment.  We should pray the same for those around them.  Only as the king’s heart turns whithersoever God wills it through our intercessory prayers can we expect to return to an America governed by Christian leaders who recognize the Lord’s preeminence in all our affairs.

Regardless of our alignment with our leaders, we should pray for them as Peter Marshall prayed.  In fact, the less we align with them and the more we think they are following an errant path, the more we should pray for them.  For those we oppose, we must recognize that a change of their heart is as simple for the Lord as a flick of the wrist.

PLEASE PRAY THAT OUR LEADERS WOULD GET SAVED AND FAITHFULLY FOLLOW THE WILL OF GOD.   Our prayers, to the Lord that holds the leader’s heart in His hand, may return our nation to a government of men who know the Lord and who faithfully follow Him.  Such an end is certainly worth our time in prayer.

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Psalm 35:27-28 “Let them shout for joy, and be glad, that favor my righteous cause: yea, let them say continually, Let the LORD be magnified, which hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servant.  And my tongue shall speak of thy righteousness and of thy praise all the day long.”

In addition to Duché’s prayer on September 7^th, 1774, the First Continental Congress spent time on that day reading the 35^th Psalm.  John Adams wrote the following to his wife about the impact of prayer and Bible reading as the First Continental Congress began its important role in colonial governance:  “I never saw a greater Effect upon an Audience.  It seemed as if Heaven had ordained that Psalm to be read on that Morning.”  Regarding the time of prayer and Bible reading, he went on to write: “it has had an excellent Effect upon every Body here.”

The impact of prayer on those responsible for governing can be magnificent.  While we may be a long way from true prayer and Bible reading in our present-day national assembly, it need not be the case among Christian citizens that we fail to do so on their behalf.  Those who govern need a God-given “excellent Effect” upon their important role.  It is the only way that their actions representing us will “let the LORD be magnified.”  PLEASE PRAY THAT AMERICAN CHRISTIAN CITIZENS WOULD PROVIDE INTERCESSORY PRAYER FOR OUR LEADERS UNTIL THEY RECOGNIZE THEIR NEED TO PRAY THEMSELVES.  We need excellence in our government, and must pray that God will give it to us.

Psalm 35:1-2 “Plead my cause, O LORD, with them that strive with me: fight against them that fight against me.  Take hold of shield and buckler, and stand up for mine help.”

As the First Continental Congress began its two-month meeting on September 5^th, 1774, the members immediately recognized that they needed prayer to accomplish their important task.  As the day opened on the morning of September 7^th, Jacob Duché prayed the following:

“O Lord our Heavenly Father, high and mighty King of kings, and Lord of lords, who dost from thy throne behold all the dwellers on earth and reignest with power supreme and uncontrolled over all the Kingdoms, Empires and Governments; look down in mercy, we beseech Thee, on these our American States, who have fled to Thee from the rod of the oppressor and thrown themselves on Thy gracious protection, desiring to be henceforth dependent only on Thee. To Thee have they appealed for the righteousness of their cause; to Thee do they now look up for that countenance and support, which Thou alone canst give. Take them, therefore, Heavenly Father, under Thy nurturing care; give them wisdom in Council and valor in the field; defeat the malicious designs of our cruel adversaries; convince them of the unrighteousness of their Cause and if they persist in their sanguinary purposes, of own unerring justice, sounding in their hearts, constrain them to drop the weapons of war from their unnerved hands in the day of battle!

Be Thou present, O God of wisdom, and direct the councils of this honorable assembly; enable them to settle things on the best and surest foundation. That the scene of blood may be speedily closed; that order, harmony and peace may be effectually restored, and truth and justice, religion and piety, prevail and flourish amongst the people. Preserve the health of their bodies and vigor of their minds; shower down on them and the millions they here represent, such temporal blessings as Thou seest expedient for them in this world and crown them with everlasting glory in the world to come. All this we ask in the name and through the merits of Jesus Christ, Thy Son and our Savior.”

The leaders of our first governing body humbly recognized the need for prayer as they went about their deliberations.  They prayed for personal and national protection.  They prayed for direction and wisdom.  They prayed for their own physical and mental well-being.  They prayed for their weighty responsibility representing millions of colonial citizens.  They prayed to be dependent only on Him.

They recognized the need to pray for leadership … theirs.  PLEASE PRAY FOR OUR NATION’S LEADERS TO GOVERN WITH GODLY DIRECTION AND WISDOM.  Our leaders represent millions of citizens, and like our forefathers they need God to “direct the councils of [their] honorable assembly.”  While they may not know it, they are wholly dependent on Him.