Preparing Our Hearts for Easter ~ A Season of Hope
Proverbs 21:1
“In the Lord’s hand the king’s heart is a stream of water that He channels toward all who please Him.”
Dear Heavenly Father, we as a nation have set aside this day to honor the Presidents who have served our country; some in times of great trial, devastating wars, and strife; others in more peaceful periods of great transition and building as a nation. We acknowledge that You are sovereign and each one was in that position to be used in a particular way to shape our nation.
In the spirit of the Lenten season, as we prepare our hearts for Easter with humility and prayer, we humbly come before you today to plead on behalf of America and our President. We know that a nation divided against itself cannot stand; our nation needs You more than ever to give us unity and a sense of brotherhood that our foes from within or without would want to demolish.
We pray for the spirit that was in great presidents like George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Calvin Coolidge, James Madison, and Ronald Reagan, among many others, would indwell our President so that he also would see clearly that “right makes might,”* and that it is only when we are on God’s side that our nation will be unified, prosperous, and lawful. In the name of Your Son we pray. Amen.
“Direct my thought, words and work, wash away my sins in the immaculate Blood of the Lamb, and purge my heart by Thy Holy Spirit…Daily frame me more and more into the likeness of Thy Son Jesus Christ.” – George Washington, 1st President of the United States
“We have staked the whole future of American civilization not on the power of government, far from it. We have staked the whole of our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government, upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves according to the commandments of God. The future and success of America is not in this Constitution, but in the laws of God upon which this Constitution is founded.”– James Madison, 4th President of the United States
“Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God’s side, for God is always right.” *”Let us have faith that right makes might; and in that faith let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.”— Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States
“The strength of our country is the strength of its religious convictions. The foundations of our society and our government rest so much on the teachings of the Bible that it would be difficult to support them if faith in these teachings would cease to be practically universal in our country.”- Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the United States
“If we trust in Him, keep His word, and live our lives for His pleasure, He’ll give us the power we need – power to fight the good fight, to finish the race, and to keep the faith.” – Ronald Reagan, 40th President of the United States