The Prayer of a Founding Father

Feb 9, 2010 | 0 comments

Presidents’ Day has become a holiday known more as a day for great sales at local stores and car dealerships than for honoring the history of America’s leaders.

Forget about the sales. Forget about getting a day off from work. The purpose of Presidents’ Day is to honor and celebrate the history and the blessing of our country’s leadership. Men like George Washington and Abraham Lincoln; men who fought for the freedoms we bear today.

The example of George Washington’s leadership is one of commitment to prayer and humbling oneself in seeking God’s wisdom and grace for guidance.

Here is an entry found in Washington’s prayer journal:

“O eternal and everlasting God,…increase my faith in the sweet promises of the gospel; give me repentance from dead works; pardon my wanderings, and direct my thoughts unto thyself, the God of my salvation, teach me how to live in thy fear, labor in thy service, and ever to run in the ways of thy commandments; make me always watchful over my heart, that neither the terrors of conscience, the loathing of holy duties, the love of sin, nor an unwillingness to depart this life, may cast me into a spiritual slumber, but daily frame me more and more into the likeness of thy son Jesus Christ, that living in thy fear, and dying in thy favor, I may in thy appointed time attain the resurrection of the just into eternal life bless my family, friends and kindred.”

As we seek to take a Day2Pray on this holiday and be in prayer for those in authority, please reflect on these words of Washington as we prepare our heart to meet with God.

Next: Prayer for our President, Governor and Congress

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Day2Pray is simply an encouragement to intentionally set aside time to pray, wherever you are, for our state, our nation and the leaders elected to serve us.

  • To sign up for a time slot(s) and intentionally set aside time to pray, click here.
  • For prayer lists, click here.
  • For information on a Prayer Conference Call on the 15th, click here.