10 Prayers to Pray This President’s Day

It’s President’s Day. Workers rest from their labors and schools temporarily close. This is a day of honor, a national holiday to remember the forty-five men who’ve served our country in the prestigious role of President of the United States.

Regardless of what the title POTUS evokes for you, President’s Day is a unique opportunity to reflect on history-past and anticipate our country’s future. But we don’t do this through worrying and fretting, nor do we become puffed up by national pride or confidence in man—

We do this through prayer. We do this on our knees.

We consider America, our Commander in Chief, and our earthly citizenship by casting our anxieties on God, depending on him, and thanking him for everything good we don’t deserve. We pray because:

• Only God is all-powerful, and our country is not.
• Only God’s purposes will never be thwarted, but our President’s will be.
• Only God has total control, while mere humans never did and never will.

10 Prayers to Pray This President’s Day

With this dependence on the Creator and Sustainer of the universe, we pray. We pray in solitude, with friends, and beside family or the church. We pray for our President; we pray for our country; and we pray for ourselves.

1. Father, grant our President a humble heart (Romans 13:1).

We pray he would recognize that his authority has been instituted by you, that you are ultimately his ruler and authority, that there’s no one like you in heaven or on earth. Humble our President before you, and may the work of his hands be the overflow of a humble heart.

2. May salvation come to his house (Luke 19:9).

As the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost, be pleased to save the many lost souls who live and labor in the White House! We pray for conviction of sin, repentance by faith, and a grasping hold of Jesus Christ for salvation. We pray for the boldness of Christians whom you’ve placed there for such a time as this.

3. Grant him wisdom (Psalm 90:12).

May he recognize that you are from everlasting to everlasting, and how his days are fleeting in comparison. Through a strong sense of his weakness and your infinitude, power, and strength, give him a heart of wisdom and a mind able to discern what’s best for our country.

4. Protect him from foolishness (Deuteronomy 32:6).

Father, as our nature is to act foolishly and reject wisdom, we ask that you would protect our President from this. Surround him with advisors and counselors who will speak truthfully and soundly. Advance your wise plans through his cabinet, security council, and staff; guard them from folly, we pray.

5. Equip him to exercise your justice (1 Peter 2:14).

As you send those in governing authority “to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good,” may he do so according to the standards of your ways. Only you, God, are perfectly just; but we pray for an extension of your righteous justice through our President.

6. Help us remember that our true citizenship is in heaven (Philippians 3:20).

Whether we feel anxious or prideful, worried or at ease, our desire is to root our identity in Jesus Christ and our eternity with him, not in the United States of America or in our President. Help us set our minds on things above and not neglect such a great salvation we have in Christ!

7. Humble us to submit to our governing authorities in any way not directly opposed to your will (Titus 3:1).

You are our ruler and rescuer, and we rest secure in you. May this security free us to humbly submit to our President and all the authorities operating under him insomuch as they follow your ways. Give us wisdom to know what this submission looks like as we ultimately submit to you and your Word.

8. Thank you for your common grace and every good gift (Matthew 5:45).

We know freedom, industry, jobs, healthcare, and a stable economy come at no small cost. Thank you for the men and women who’ve sacrificed to serve our President and country by protecting and leading us. Thank you for making your “sun rise on the evil and on the good, and [for sending] rain on the just and on the unjust.” You show your goodness and kindness through these good gifts, and you restrain evil through your common grace.

9. Show us how we can contribute, serve, speak, and act in a way that exalts Christ (Colossians 3:17).

We want to do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to you, Father, through him. We want to use our gifts and opportunities to better our country and ultimately honor Jesus’ name. May your Church be the hands and feet of Christ to our nation.

10. May our confidence be in your Son, not in our country or President (Philippians 3:3).

Our greatest delight, deepest satisfaction, and highest reward is to know Christ and draw near to you, Father, through him and by your Spirit. May we count everything as loss—a balanced budget, a thriving economy, peace, unity, and freedom—in order that we may gain Christ and be found in him. We want Jesus. We want to know and love him more.

We ask these things for our President and country, and for the sake of Christ our Lord. For it’s in his name we pray. Amen.

[Post Credit: Unlocking the Bible]