Praying For My President

I have a Facebook account and, after the November 4, 2008 election, I joined a group there named: 1,000,000 Christians Praying For President Obama. Though I vehemently disagree with Mr. Obama' politics I have been, and will continue to keep, doing just that. But as I sit here watching the historically significant and orderly transition of power that is unparalleled by any other nation in human history, I want to point out that in doing so I am not praying for Mr. Obama to be successful.

Let me explain.

I will pray for the racial reconciliation we all need to embrace and for Mr. Obama's unique ability to foster it. I will pray for wisdom, courage, grace and humility for Mr. Obama in what will no doubt be some gut-wrenchingly difficult decisions he will have to make -- some as soon as today. I will pray for his personal safety, his family's safety, and for the safety of those over which he is charged with acting as Commander-in-Chief. I will pray that he is true to the faith he professes in Jesus Christ and that his term as President will be marked by a powerful, vital expression of that faith. I will pray that he will honor the moral principles that descend from the truth of that faith. In that light, I pray that he will support and defend this nation and the Constitution that forged and has sustained it, by encouraging adherence to the Biblical principles that are its foundation and the basis for all that we have been endowed with by our Creator.

In that sense, I do pray for Mr. Obama's success, but not in another sense.

Mr. Obama seems to lean toward nationalization of private institutions like health care and banks. He has showed a tendency to seek socialist answers to economic problems. He has fought hard (discussed here) -- harder than any other politician I know of -- to deny the rights and dignity of human life to the most innocent and helpless among us. He has even proudly voted to deny life to infants who survive the deliberate attempt to abort them in the womb. None of these can be defended by a Biblical view of the world and so I must pray that in each of these areas, Mr. Obama's presidency will be an utter failure.

I am not optimistic about Mr. Obama's motivations or aims regarding these latter issues. From what I have seen, and from what he has said, I fear that he will pursue, and probably be successful in attaining, the worst of each of these. So for that I have one more prayer ...

I pray that I am wrong.