Popular Prayers
Prayer
We thank you for your church, founded upon your Word,
That challenges us to do more than sing and pray,
But go out and work as though the very answer to our prayers depended on us and not upon you.
Help us to realize that humanity was created to shine like the stars and live on through all eternity.
Keep us, we pray, in perfect peace.
Help us to walk together, pray together, sing together, and live together
Until that day when all God's children - Black, White, Red, Brown and Yellow -
Will rejoice in one common band of humanity in the reign of our Lord and of our God,
We pray, Amen.
- Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
A Prayer For The Nation, March 4, 1801
Almighty God, Who has given us this good land for our heritage;
We humbly beseech Thee that we may always prove ourselves a people mindful of Thy favor and glad to do Thy will.
Bless our land with honorable ministry, sound learning, and pure manners.
Save us from violence, discord, and confusion, from pride and arrogance, and from every evil way.
Defend our liberties, and fashion into one united people, the multitude brought hither out of many kindreds and tongues.
Endow with Thy spirit of wisdom those whom in Thy name we entrust the authority of government,
That there may be justice and peace at home, and that through obedience to Thy law,
We may show forth Thy praise among the nations of the earth.
In time of prosperity fill our hearts with thankfulness,
And in the day of trouble, suffer not our trust in Thee to fail;
All of which we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
- President Thomas Jefferson
A Table Blessing
God is great and God is Good,
And we thank God for our food;
By God's hand we must be fed,
Give us Lord, our daily bread.
Amen.
A Prayer In Dark Times, D-Day, June 6, 1944
Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor,
a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity...
Lead them straight and true; give strength to their arms, stoutness to their hearts, steadfastness in their faith.
They will need Thy blessings. Their road will be long and hard. For the enemy is strong. He may hurl back our forces.
Success may not come with rushing speed, but we shall return again and again;
And we know by Thy grace, and by the righteousness of our cause, our sons will triumph...
Embrace these, Father, and receive them, Thy heroic servants, into Thy kingdom.
And for us at home--fathers, mothers, children, wives, sisters, and brothers of brave men overseas,
Whose thoughts and prayers are ever with them--help us, Almighty God, to rededicate ourselves
In renewed faith in Thee in this hour of great sacrifice...
Give us strength, too--strength in our daily tasks, to redouble the contributions
We make in the physical and the material support of our armed forces.
With Thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy.
Help us to conquer the apostles of greed and racial arrogances.
Lead us to the saving of our country, and with our sister nations into a world unity
That will spell a sure peace--a peace invulnerable to the schemings of unworthy men.
And a peace that will let all men live in freedom, reaping the just rewards of their honest toil.
Amen.
- President Franklin D. Roosevelt