Number 95:  February 19, 2007

In honor of President’s Day here are two quotes from famous presidents born in February. These are from the presidential prayer team web site.  

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…

George Washington, circular to the states, June 8, 1783

We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God.

We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!

It behooves us, then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.

Abraham Lincoln, March 30, 1863

Being president, or king, or emperor, or governor, or manager of anything is hard work, especially if you really care about what you are involved in. God informs us that praying for those in authority is a vital key to helping them do their jobs to the benefit of all.

I Timothy 2:1 and 2:

I exhort therefore, that, first of all supplications, prayers, intercessions, prayers, and giving of thanks, be made for all men;

For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.

Some presidents are harder to pray for than others, but God doesn’t say pray for only those you like. In fact, the one’s who are harder to pray for probably need more prayers.