Prayers For Our Nation

George Washington's prayer for the Nation from the closing paragraph of a letter to the Governors of the 13 states on the occasion of his retirement from command of the Continental Army and public life, June 8 1783.

I now make it my earnest prayer, that God would have you, and the State over which you preside, in his holy protection, that he would incline the hearts of the Citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to Government, to entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another, for their fellow Citizens of the United States at large, and particularly for their brethren who have served in the Field, and finally, that he would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all, to do Justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that Charity, humility and pacific temper of mind, which were the Characteristicks of the Divine Author of our blessed Religion, and without an humble imitation of whose example in these things, we can never hope to be a happy Nation. 

R.C. Sproul

Our Father and our God, indeed You are our God, and Your sovereignty extends over all things. That as God, Your relevance and Your dominion can never be restricted merely to the realm of the spiritual or the religious, but that Your sovereignty extends over all creation, over every aspect of our life and of our culture, over our government, over our church, over our schools, over our health, over our wealth, over our thinking, our planning, and our crying. And so we, as Your people, are pleading with You to have mercy upon us, to give us leaders who have a regard for You, who will regard Your name as holy, and who will understand that in whatever office they hold, they are to be Your servants, for You have ordained them. And we ask that You would bring new life to Your church and that we may begin our repentance at our own house and in our own churches as we plead with You to have mercy upon us as a nation, as a people, as a culture that the light of Christ may be rekindled with great glory and intense brightness in our land, and that there would be a revival of a knowledge of Thee without which our land will mourn and our people will perish. And we ask these things in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Prayer delivered January 23, 1996 by the Rev. Joe Wright to the Kansas House:

Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and seek your direction and guidance. We know your Word says, "Woe to those who call evil good," but that's exactly what we've done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and inverted our values.
We confess that we have ridiculed the absolute truth of your Word and called it moral pluralism.

We have worshipped other gods and called it multi-culturalism.
We have endorsed perversion and called it an alternative lifestyle.
We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery.
We have neglected the needy and called it self-preservation.
We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.
We have killed our unborn and called it choice.
We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable.
We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building esteem.
We have abused power and called it political savvy.
We have coveted our neighbors' possessions and called it ambition.
We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression.
We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our fore-fathers and called it enlightenment.

Search us O God and know our hearts today; try us and see if there be some wicked way in us; cleanse us from every sin and set us free.
Guide and bless these men and women who have been sent here by the people of Kansas, and who have been ordained by you, to govern this great state. Grant them your wisdom to rule and may their decisions direct us to the center of your will.

I ask it in the name of your son, the living savior, Jesus Christ.

Prayer before the Arizona Senate, March 20, 2024, Pastor Steve Spratlin

Our Gracious Father in heaven, we humbly bow our hearts and declare that your name is Holy.  You are known as Yahweh and Jehovah and Jesus.  You are known by many titles… Creator, Sustainer, Redeemer, Defender, Judge, and King.  You sovereignly establish all nations and states and raise up their leaders.  And by your power, you have brought down nations and leaders who cease to honor you. 

You led pilgrims here for religious and civil liberty.  You chose men to declare independence from a tyrannical king who oppressed his own people.  You anointed men to frame the Constitution which declares that our government is We the People.  You gave us a constitutional republic, where everyone is created equal with its rights given by You, and representatives elected to do the will of the citizens, not corporations or cartels.  You established us to be a free people with self-rule, not mob rule.   

Thank you that we live in the greatest nation on the earth with prosperity and privileges like no other.  You say, “From everyone who has been given much, much will be required”.  Lord, your standard of living for your nation has always been righteousness, virtue, morality and social responsibility.  And that is what you require of us in this land. 

But when your nation quits following your statutes, ordinances and commands and does what is right in its own eyes and ceases to love its neighbors, especially its own countrymen…You judge it with many calamities.  Not just it’s economy, environment and education, foreign invaders and epidemics, but you also remove the wisdom of it’s judges and rulers.  When your nations turn away from righteousness, you seek to bring it back to You with loving discipline.

Lord, you have proven yourself to be a loving God who is perfect in grace and mercy.  You give your wayward nation and its leaders ample opportunity to come back to you, so that you can heal the broken hearted and return blessings to the land and its posterity.   

Today we stand on your unfailing promise, that if we return to You, our first love, that you will return to us, forgive us, and heal our land.  We ask for your forgiveness us of our trespasses; especially the political ones where decisions and actions have violated your holy Word. 

We ask that you raise up men and women of our great state who revere you, who love truth and transparency, and who hate dishonest gain and greed.  Share your wisdom with our lawmakers to repeal laws that violate your image and that usurp the rights of the citizens of this country and state.  And that they would only pass laws that honor you.  That our representative leaders walk in righteousness.  That the Holy Spirit would cause leaders who are immoral, unethical and irresponsible to repent or resign from office.  And if they do not, we ask for you to remove and replace them with God-fearing men and women.  Protect our leaders from the influence of anti-Constitutional agendas, and return to them a spirit of Patriotism for love of God and Country. 

I ask today that you would bless this governing body, as it obeys you.  May these Senators and their fellow public servants not be manipulated by the fear of man.  But that you give them physical fortitude and mental aptitude to overcome evil with good.  May this body seek the help of you to guide them as they serve.

We ask that Arizona become the greatest state in the Union because it’s leaders are models of liberty, morality, integrity, and accountability.  And since this is an election year, we ask that our Politician’s hearts would not just be thinking about the next election, but that they would be true Patriots who think about the next generation. 

Thank you Lord for these men and women who had the courage to run for office, to represent us.  For their dedicated public service to this wonderful state and their passionate care for the people in their districts.  May they consider their oath of office as a personal vow to you as they have pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor to defend the constitution. 

May God bless America and Arizona by His grace and for His glory.  Amen! 

https://www.cru.org/us/en/train-and-grow/spiritual-growth/prayer/pray-for-country.html

https://www.cru.org/us/en/train-and-grow/spiritual-growth/prayer/pray-for-government-leadership.html