Prayers
- Matthew
6:9-13
"This,
then, is how you should pray: "
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come, your will be
done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven
our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us
from the evil one.
- Prayer
for the Nation by Billy Graham
Our Father and God, we praise You for Your
goodness to our nation, giving us blessings far
beyond what we deserve. Yet we know all is not
right with America. We deeply need a moral and
spiritual renewal to help us meet the many
problems we face. Convict us of sin. Help us to
turn to You in repentance and faith. Set our feet
on the path of Your righteousness and peace.
We pray today for our nation's leaders. Give them
the wisdom to know what is right, and the courage
to do it.
You have said, "Blessed is the nation whose
God is the Lord." May this be a new era for
America, as we humble ourselves and acknowledge
You alone as our Savior and Lord.
This we pray in Your holy name, Amen
- Reprinted
from a prayer book used by George Washington
Morning Prayer
Almighty
God, and most merciful father, who didst command
the children of Israel to offer daily sacrifice
to thee, that thereby they might glorify and
praise thee for thy protection both night and
day; receive , O Lord, my morning sacrifice which
I now offer up to thee; I yield thee humble and
hearty thanks that thou has preserved me from the
dangers of the night past, and brought me to the
light of this day, and the comforts thereof, a
day which is consecrated to thine own service and
for thine own honor. Let my heart, therefore,
Gracious God, be so affected with the glory and
majesty of it, that I may not do mine own works,
but wait on thee, and discharge those weighty
duties thou requirest of me; and since thou art a
God of pure eyes, and wilt be sanctified in all
who draw near unto thee, who doest not regard the
sacrifice of fools, nor hear sinners who tread in
the courts, pardon, I beseech thee, my sins,
remove them from thy presence, as far as the east
is from the west, and accept of me for the merits
of thy son Jesus Christ, that when I come into
thy temple, and compass thine alter, my prayers
may come before thee as incense; and as thou
wouldst hear me calling upon thee in my prayers,
so give me grace to hear thee calling on me in
thy word, that it may be wisdom, righteousness,
reconciliation and peace to the saving of my soul
in the day of the Lord Jesus. Grant that I may
hear it with reverence, receive it with meekness,
mingle it with faith, and that it may accomplish
in me, gracious God, the good work for which thou
has sent it. Bless my family, kindred, friends
and country, be our God & guide this day and
for ever for his sake, who lay down in the Grave
and arose again for us, Jesus Christ our Lord,
Amen.
- Reprinted
from a prayer book used by George Washington
Evening Prayer
O most
Glorious God, in Jesus Christ my merciful and
loving father, I acknowledge and confess my
guilt, in the weak and imperfect performance of
the duties of this day. I have called on thee for
pardon and forgiveness of sins, but so coldly and
carelessly, that my prayers are become my sin and
stand in need of pardon. I have heard thy holy
word, but with such deadness of spirit that I
have been an unprofitable and forgetful hearer,
so that, O Lord, thou I have done thy work, yet
it hath been so negligently that I may rather
expect a curse than a blessing from thee. But, O
God, who art rich in mercy and plenteous in
redemption, mark not, I beseech thee, what I have
done amiss; remember that I am but dust, and
remit my transgressions, negligences &
ignorances, and cover them all with the absolute
obedience of thy dear Son, that those sacrifices
which I have offered may be accepted by thee, in
and for the sacrifice of Jesus Christ offered
upon the cross for me; for his sake, ease me of
the burden of my sins, and give me grace that by
the call of the Gospel I may rise from the
slumber of sin into newness of life. Let me live
according to those holy rules which thou has this
day prescribed in thy holy word; make me to know
what is acceptable in thy sight, and therein to
delight, open the eyes of my understanding, and
help me thoroughly to examine myself concerning
my knowledge, faith and repentance, increase my
faith, and direct me to the true object Jesus
Christ the way, the truth and the life, bless O
Lord, all the people of this land, from the
highest to the lowest, particularly those whom
thou hast appointed to rule over us in church
& state. Continue thy goodness to me this
night. These weak petitions I humbly implore thee
to accept and answer for the sake of thy Dear Son
Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
- Ephesians
3:14-19
For
this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom
his whole family in heaven and earth derives its
name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he
may strengthen you with power though his Spirit
in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in
your hearts through faith. And I pray that you,
being rooted and established in love, may have
power, together with all the saints, to grasp how
wide and long and high and deep is the love of
Christ, and to know this love that surpasses
knowledge-- that you may be filled to the measure
of all the fullness of God.(NIV)
- Colossians
1:9-11
For
this reason, since the day we heard about you, we
have not stopped praying for you and asking God
to fill you with the knowledge of his will
through all spiritual wisdom and understanding.
And we pray this in order that you may live a
life worthy of the Lord and may please him in
every way: bearing fruit in every good work,
growing in the knowledge of God...(NIV)
- George
Washington's 1789 Thanksgiving Proclamation
Whereas it is the duty of all nations to
acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to
obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits,
and humbly to implore His protection and favor;
and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by
their joint committee, requested me to
"recommend to the people of the United
States a day of publicthanksgiving and prayer, to
be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts
the many and signal favors of Almighty God,
especially by affording them an opportunity
peaceably to establish a form of government for
their safety and happiness:
Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign
Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be
devoted by the people of these States to the
service of that great and glorious Being who is
the beneficent author of all the good that was,
that is, or that will be; that we may then all
unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and
humble thanks for His kind care and protection of
the people of this country previous to their
becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold
mercies and the favorable interpositions of His
providence in the course and conclusion of the
late war; for the great degree of tranquility,
union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed;
for the peaceable and rational manner in which we
have been enable to establish constitutions of
government for our safety and happiness, and
particularly the national one now lately
instituted for the civil and religious liberty
with which we are blessed, and the means we have
of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and,
in general, for all the great and various favors
which He has been pleased to confer upon us.
And also that we may then unite in most humbly
offering our prayers and supplications to the
great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him
to pardon our national and other
transgressions; to enable us all, whether in
public or private stations, to perform our
several and relative duties properly and
punctually; to render our National Government a
blessing to all the people by constantly being a
Government of wise, just, and constitutional
laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and
obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and
nations (especially such as have shown kindness
to us), and to bless them with good governments,
peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and
practice of true religion and virtue, and the
increase of science among them and us; and,
generally to grant unto all mankind such a
degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows
to be best.
Given under my hand, at the city of New York,
the 3d day of October, A.D. 1789.
President George Washington
- By
the President of the United States of America
Abraham Lincoln_A Thanksgiving Proclamation 1863
The year that is drawing towards its close, has
been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields
and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are
so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget
the source from which they come, others have been
added, which are of so extraordinary a nature,
that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften
even the heart which is habitually insensible to
the ever watchful providence of Almighty God.
In the midst of a civil war of unequaled
magnitude and severity, which has sometimes
seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke
their aggression, peace has been preserved with
all nations, order has been maintained, the laws
have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has
prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of
military conflict; while that theatre has been
greatly contracted by the advancing armies and
navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth
and of strength from the fields of peaceful
industry to the national defence, have not
arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the
axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements,
and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the
precious metals, have yielded even more
abundantly than heretofore. Population has
steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste
that has been made in the camp, the siege and the
battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the
consiousness of augmented strength and vigor, is
permitted to expect continuance of years with
large increase of freedom.
No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal
hand worked out these great things. They are the
gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while
dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath
nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to
me fit and proper that they should be solemnly,
reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with
one heart and one voice by the whole American
People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens
in every part of the United States, and also
those who are at sea and those who are sojourning
in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the
last Thursday of November next, as a day of
Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father
who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to
them that while offering up the ascriptions
justly due to Him for such singular deliverances
and blessings, they do also, with humble
penitence for our national perverseness and
disobedience, commend to His tender care all
those who have become widows, orphans, mourners
or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in
which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently
implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to
heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it
as soon as may be consistent with the Divine
purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony,
tranquillity and Union.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand
and caused the Seal of the United States to be
affixed.
Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of
October, in the year of our Lord one thousand
eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the
Independence of the Unites States the
Eighty-eighth.
By the President: Abraham Lincoln
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