Father in Heaven,
We praise you because you are always good. Always sovereign. Always loving.
We praise you because the government is on your shoulders. You are King of kings and Lord of lords.
We are citizens of your kingdom. Our first and final allegiance is to you, not man or country or earthly powers.
Remind us of your great and everlasting rule, and let us remember it in the ruling and stewarding you’ve given us to do.
We praise you also for blessing us to live in a blessed land. Let us not dwell forever on the faults of our country, though many there are. Let us be grateful for the riches, the opportunities, the freedoms, the peace that is ours. None of these things are full and equal—they are not all the way sanctified, all the way restored, but they are the seeds of blessings. Thank you for granting us these unmerited gifts. Let us seek their fulfillment in you. Let us become ourselves restorers, builders, peacemakers, life-givers in our world and in our nation.
We pray for our leaders and, if we have them, our “enemies”. We pray that all enemies, in our prayers and then in the daily doing of life, would be viewed as neighbors and as future friends. Peopled endowed with your image. People to be loved.
We pray for President Donald Trump.
Give him the strength and wisdom to do the work he has been called to do.
We pray that he would be merciful and that mercy would be shown to him. That he would be gracious and given grace—from you and from us.
Where forgiveness is necessary, now and in the future, grant us the power to forgive. Let us be a humble people, eager to listen and to serve, ready to go the extra mile and give our cloaks away.
Let us think the best of him.
Let us hope the best for him.
Let us speak truth to him and fill him with truth.
Let us continually pray for him, not only when we want to, not only in our best moments, but all the time, even when his works and words are rotten.
When necessary, give rebukers and correctors the proper wisdom, grace, and words. May the President be an open vessel for truth-tellers and grace-givers.
No heart is too hard for you to soften. No mind too dull for you to sharpen. No morality too strayed for you to rescue. No position too high for you to reach. No relationship too spoiled for you to reconcile.
We pray for things we cannot imagine happening. Your will is greater than our imagination.
We pray for impossible things to be inevitable.
We pray for your Spirit to enter the impenetrable.
We pray against all temptations and wickedness for the President and the government he oversees. We pray against temptations and wickedness in our own lives as well. Let us not be hypocrites. Let us not pray for love but harbor hate.
We pray for the fruits of the Spirit in the President, his staff, and in the people of our country—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness. Also mercy, generosity, humility, wisdom, compassion.
Give the Church courage to stand with the President when he is right and nonviolently oppose him when he wrong. Strengthen the Church’s witness not on behalf of a political movement, but on behalf of the Kingdom.
Let us in the Church never put our trust or hope in earthly powers, but solely in you, God.
In the next four years, as in all years, protect the stranger, the refugee and the immigrant, the poor and the confused, the prisoner and the police, the pastors and the prophets. Protect humans around the world, not only in our country.
Make us more united—not in our party affiliation or even our American-ness, but in our humanity.
Do miracles.
Help us grasp the good and do it.
Love people and serve them.
Acknowledge injustice and correct it.
Know the Truth and speak it.
Yours is the Kingdom and the glory.
Amen.
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