On this Inauguration Day, I thought I would share this prayer from Peter Marshall. First prayed in 1947, this prayer from the late Chaplain of the U.S. Senate has been prayed over the years for multiple Presidents. Today, we pray it for our new President during the transition of power.
We Pray, Lord Jesus, for our President. We are deeply concerned that he may know the will of God, and that he may have the spiritual courage and grace to follow it.
Deliver him, we pray, from all selfish considerations.
Lift him above the claims of politics.
Fill him with the Spirit of God that shall make him fearless to seek, to know, to do the right.
Save him from the friends who, in the name of politics or even friendship, would persuade him from that holy path.
Strengthen and empower his advisers. Bring them, too, to their knees in prayer. May their example and their influence spread, that we, in these United States, may yet have a government of men adn women who know Thee, the Almighty God, as their Friend, and who place Thy will first in their lives as well as in their prayers.
Hear and answer, we pray Thee, forgiving us all our unworthiness; cleansing us from every ignoble thought and unworthy ambition that we may be renewed in spirit and mind and heart, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.