An Inauguration Prayer

Evangelical leader Al Mohler has written a prayer for Pres. Obama.  You may find it here.

Opening Prayer

Heavenly Father, King of the Universe; Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God; Holy Spirit, Master of Glory and Giver of Life, may your name be sanctified.  Cause your name to be honored, cherished, and loved.   

Heavenly Father, I lift up prayer for this land that I have come to love and cherish.  All that we have is yours and from you.  We praise you, O Lord, for the various blessings and gifts you have given to us by your generous mercy.  We thank you, first of all, for the freedom that we enjoy to pursue the good life that your word commands, apart from the tyranny of pagan governments.  We thank you for the abundance of food and earthly pleasures that make our life pleasant and calm.  We thank you for the technology that abounds—the computers, the televisions, the cars, the planes, the ships, the refrigerators, the telephones, the cellular phones, the roads, the bridges, the electronic lights, the medicines, and everything else—all these things come from your hand and would not be possible without your granting wisdom and power to mankind.  All praise to you, Heavenly Father for lavishing these things upon us.  We thank you also for the government that you have set over us.  We praise you for the checks-and-balances which are in place to limit the powers used by depraved men and women.  We praise you that our government is one of conscience, one that is motivated by justice, one that is motivated by the fierce desire for peace.  This too is from you, Heavenly Father.  All praise be to you, Lord God of goodness, beauty, wisdom, purity, virtue, and power.  We also praise you, Lord, for the armed forces of this country.  They bear the sword of earthly justice, and guard the air, land, and sea so that unjust and evil tyranny will not force its will upon us.  Father, the armed forces remind us of the angels that guard your holiness in heaven.  Your hand is upon them, and through them, to do good. 

But Lord, if we are honest, we know that all is not well in our land.  On the one hand, there is evil that seeks to destroy us from the outside—terrorists, malicious and brutal in their ways, seek to bring harm on us.  But on the other hand, Lord, we are all too aware of the rot and decay that is going on inside our own civilization.  We see it in the sexual perversion celebrated by our mainstream culture; we see it in the gratuitous violence we see on screen and in real life; we see it in the banality and triviality that seems to pervade our entertainment—and above all, we see it in the aggressive pagan secularism that strives to silence your word in all areas of life.  Lord, perhaps the evil from the outside is but a sign of judgment that has already come.  Perhaps the terrorism is an act of judgment, lashing out at our secularism and addiction to evil.  Father, please have mercy on us.  Lord, bring us as a nation to repentance.  Proclaim before us all, in every American heart and mind, the glorious and redeeming lordship of your Son, Jesus the Messiah.  Bring upon our hearts the great reality of your supremacy over all the powers of evil, sin, and death.  Lord, show yourself strong; capture our imaginations, our hearts, our thoughts, and our bodies.  Enslave us to the Lord Jesus Christ and give us true freedom.  Lord, bring a deep and powerful reviving work in all the Gospel-preaching churches of this land that the Gospel might not be silenced in our civilization.  Heavenly Father, bring your Holy Spirit to bear in every realm of life in this land.  Bring about obedience to your holy word in every family, in every house, in every school, in every business, and in every sector of government.  Nothing is beyond you. 

Heavenly Father, as we think deeply on the issues that relate to our land, help us to think and speak as Christians who are committed first of all to our Lord Jesus and only after that to our country.  Our country is not Lord.  Jesus is.  We confess before you: Jesus Christ is Lord of the United States of America.  We commit our thoughts to you.  We devote our thoughts to you.  We resolve to think your word; we resolve to desire your will; we resolve to pursue your glory; we resolve to work for the sanctification of your name in every way.  We pray these things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.