As you know, God tells us to pray for our leaders. I pray for President Trump everyday. He needs it and I need to do it. Sometimes I use the Lord’s Prayer as a backdrop. It helps me cover more bases and stay on track.
Regardless of whether or not your opinion of Mr. Trump’s presidency matches mine, you might find here some useful hints for how to pray for him if you choose to. While my view of his performance is obvious, it’s not my intention to judge him here, but to pray for him. The Lord tells us not to judge (i.e. condemn) but to judge correctly (i.e. use discernment).
Without some degree of discernment we can’t very well pray for anyone about what they need or how they need to change. I don’t want my prayers to be so vague that even God doesn’t know what I’m talking about, so I name some concerns about President Trump that I believe he cares about as much or more than I do. If I’m wrong, I figure he can adjust his response accordingly.
If you need precedence for this kind of praying, thumb through the Bible’s books of poetry and the prophets. Thumb through those books and you’ll notice there are many other ways the poets and prophets prayed for the leaders of nations, including harsh pronouncements on judgment on them. That isn’t my intention here, as I offer just “One Way To Pray For President Trump.” If this doesn’t suit you, don’t simply fail to pray for him, find a prayer that does.
[If you want to know more specifics about the profound disparity between my worldview and that of the president, you might check out any number of articles I’ve written about him and his policies. Look especially scroll through the category called “Doing Justly.” From these you’ll notice how much restraint I used in detailing my view of our president’s many flaws in this prayer.]
You’ll notice that my emphasis here is not on my flaws and failures––or yours for that matter. When I make the Lord’s Prayer personal, which I often do, my focus is on the gargantuan gap between the way I am and the way I want to be. But for now, I invite you to join me in bringing our president to the throne of grace.
Our Father in heaven
Our country’s highest office is the White House, but you, Father, are in an even higher place place––heaven. From there you see all and know all, including what our president needs in order to do the job for which he was elected. You see his flaws, and from your highest vantage point, please Father, bend Mr. Trump’s mind and heart toward yours. He obviously can’t see what you see, so broaden his peripheral vision to be able take in a larger portion of socioeconomic demographic of our citizenry than just his own.
Hallowed be your name
Appropriate to your dignity and supremacy may President Trump respect you. Help him to treat you with singular and hallowed veneration. Honestly, he often seems to respect no one but himself, so please put the fear of God in his heart, of the sort that initiates wisdom.
Your kingdom come
Lord, we need you to reign here in our wayward country led by our wayward president. May he begin to act as though there is a power higher than his own. And may your high power invade every cell of his being. You rule well, Father. You’re the King and we want you to rule in the White House along with every other house in America.
Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven
Heaven is the place where your perfect will is done perfectly all the time, yet much of what we see in the White House is clearly not your will. His lifestyle, prejudice, narcissism, and injustice are not reflective of your will. We pray for your will to be done in Donald Trump’s life. Work your will in and through the man we’ve elected to the highest office in the land, indeed in the world. If there’s no other way than to exert your will apart from his conscious cooperation, please do.
Give us today our daily bread
Many of our citizens and the citizens of the world are inadequately fed each day, please help our president to do whatever he has the power to do to lead our country into a more equitable distribution of wealth. Give him compassion to care more deeply about poor, here and abroad, and the wisdom to address it.
And forgive us our debts
Even though he doesn’t ask you for forgiveness, humble President Trump and reveal to him his flaws. In the meantime, we ask you to forgive him for how he has sinned against women, people of color, suffering souls from other countries, and pretty much anyone who disagrees with him. I don’t want to list all his sins, any more than I am able to list all of mine, but forgive him, Father. (And me too.)
As we also have forgiven our debtors
Help us to forgive our president for trespassing on our lives in ways that have done us harm. And help him forgive those who have harmed him in word and in deed. Heal his soul wounds that I assume go all the way back to his childhood. Transform his penchant for vindictiveness to forgiveness.
And lead us not into temptation,
Lead President Trump in the opposite direction of the sinful lures that seem so desirable to him. Since the love of money is the root of many kinds of evil, Mr. Trump’s massive wealth has put him in a Solomon-like category of privilege and the many temptations that go along with it. Lead him away from those, Lord, and help him to live a generous life that is pleasing to you.
But deliver us from the evil one.
Open President Trump’s eyes to the bonds of wickedness in his life. I can’t imagine but that some of what comes out of his mouth and shows up in some of his priorities and policies is ignited and sustained by the evil one. Deliver him, Lord.
For yours is the kingdom
You alone have the right to rule the planet as you see fit. Every crown, deserved or not, will someday fall at your feet when we all bend to bow before you. I hope and pray that Mr. Trump will bend low in worship today before it’s too late.
Yours is the power
Only you can do the things for which I pray. If I had the power to change Mr. Trump into a man of integrity and good conscience, let alone into a man of God, I would do it in a heartbeat. But you can do it. Please wield your power to attract him to yourself, Lord.
And yours is the glory
Historically you have been quite harsh with some of those who, instead of acknowledging your glory have claimed it for themselves. You are the One from whom all glory comes and to whom all glory goes. No man, regardless of stature, fame, or fortune is worthy as you are worthy.
Forever and ever. Amen!
Presidents come and go, but your rule is eternal. This government, with all its imperfections, will someday fade, but you and your kingdom are forever and ever. Amen!
barney wiget 
Wow Barny, I didn’t realize that’s how we pray for people. First point out all there flaws then ask God to change the person. I believe in praying for people and asking God to intervene into there lives , but pointing out all there wrongs seem pretty jugemental . Who am I to throw the first stone. You make it clear how you fill about the president . But how can’t we hate on someone with words and then pray for them in the next breath. Just something to think about from an imperfect Christian. I do enjoy your writings and try to read them all.
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Thanks, Howard for your thoughts on this. I’ll try to address your concerns.
First, regarding “judging.” Jesus doesn’t forbid all forms of moral discrimination. He said, “Stop judging by mere appearances and make a right judgment.” (John 7:24) There is a right kind of judgment to be made, that is, the kind that objects to unrighteousness, and, then either calls it out or prays it out. Right after Jesus said “Don’t judge,” he said, “Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs.” In other words, be discerning, which must be something different than kind of judging he just prohibited.
It is not judging, but self-righteous judging and pronouncing judgment on someone, to which he objects. Self-righteous judgment means to damn, while righteous judgment means to differentiate between right and wrong for the sake of asking God to fix it.
We’re suppose to be able to make ethical decisions but not be in the business of convicting people for their perceived crimes. We can correct, but never condemn.
So, where does that fit in with prayer? If my neighbor is cheating on his wife, my prayer is that he’ll stop it. What he’s doing is wrong. I know it and God knows it. So, why would I not call it what it is and ask God to intervene? I don’t want to “stone” the man (as in punish him myself), though I might ask God to discipline him so he’ll own his sin and stop it for the sake of his marriage.
I wonder, if in our attempts to not be judgmental, we may have taken the prohibition so far that we might have lost touch with our calling to identify where God’s loving rule is absent and then do what we can to make it present.
Of course, I could be wrong in my assessment of the President Trump’s faults and failures as a man and president, but even in that event I don’t think it confuses the Lord when we pray a bit off target. He knows my heart and how I truly want Mr. Trump to be a better human and a more qualified nation leader. If he (God) has to redact some elements of my prayers and insert some others, he’s certainly entitled. I’m sure he has to do that with most or all my prayers anyway.
One last thing. I don’t “hate” the president. I do absolutely hate the way he lives and leads. I think he brings out worst in the people of our nation and is a danger to the peace (shalom) on our culture, especially to the Church. I hate his sin, but I don’t hate him, the sinner.
Thanks again for your comments. Does this clarify my position at all?
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Yeah kind of. I just don’t think it’s right to be guessing if another person is asking God for forgiveness. I am not a Trump fan , don’t get me wrong. Just not on the same page as you with pointing out his flaws on your forum., maybe one on one with God .Pray for him yes and let God intervene yes.. God said I was forgiven, period. He did not give me a list of my wrongs. Do you think if president Trump read your post he would want you to lead him to the Lord ?? Barny you great person who I look up to , just think your a little harsh on the president. There is no way I can debate you, just thought I would give a reply
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Thanks, bro, for your comments and your spirit.
By the way, Mr. Trump said he never asks God for forgiveness. I wasn’t guessing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=336lpsPLpwo
Love you.
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Barney,
I really enjoyed this message . I loved the way you used the Lord’s Prayer to show how we can use it as a guideline for prayers for people who we don’t know and aren’t sure whether they are believers as well, although the POTUS has made it part of his platform that he is a Christian, though his actions make it harder each day to believe it ? And like you, I don’t mean to judge ,so l like the way you give it to God as He is the true judge of us all. We have discussed this before, and I still think that the POTUS is probably the most prayed for president in the modern history of this country. But you give a good demonstration of how the Lord’s prayer is a good way to pray for anyone on our minds and hearts to pray for . I really liked this message and your way of using the Lord’s prayer to be specific in our prayers as it is how we are told to pray, if I remember an old message from the bible that the more specific we are in our prayers the better opportunity we give God to answer that prayer, even it isn’t answered in the way we had in mind at the time. We can be confident in God’s reply and that in the end, God’s will will be done ! Thanks for the message, I liked it and learned how to pray for those that I am not exactly sure how to pray for ? It is a good lesson in our prayers for others. Thanks, Steve.
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