Our Father in Heaven, we thank you that you are the Sovereign Lord of the Universe. That no bird falls from the sky without your knowledge. That no man rises to power without your permission. We thank you that the king’s heart is in your hand, and you can turn it however you wish.

We pray for our president elect. First, we pray for his repentance and enlightenment. We pray for an awareness that he will be held accountable for all citizens of this nation, including the smallest, youngest and weakest of those citizens, the unborn children created in your image.

Your word tells us “there is no authority except that which God has established.” We ask that you would accomplish your sovereign purpose, using him as your instrument. Our desire is that he would be used willingly. But if not, use him unwillingly, as you did Pharaoh, whose values were utterly opposed to yours, but who was no more than clay in your hands.

Teach our new president humility, as you did King Nebuchadnezzar. Warn him that you judge rulers who disregard the lives of children, as you did Pharaoh and Herod. We pray for him and his wife and daughter and pray that the awesome responsibilities of the presidency would cause him to turn to you, not because it’s fashionable but out of a heartfelt need to know you and to draw upon your wisdom.

Remind us, Father, that the kingdom of God does not rise and fall with the elections and appointments of men. The church of Jesus Christ is not just one more special interest group dependent on an inside track with the White House. We are the people of God, with unrestricted access to the throne of God.

Yours is the power, and ours is the privilege to call you Father—Abba, Papa, Daddy. As infinitely powerful as you are, we marvel that you know what it is like to be small and dependent, for you were carried as the preborn child of a Galilean teenager two thousand years ago.

Sometimes we feel as helpless as the little ones we stand up for. And so we should, because you call us to be like little children, wholly dependent upon you, for apart from you we can do nothing. Perhaps there is disguised blessing in the fact that we have so little power now in Washington DC. We are just children, dependent upon our Father, and no one else.

Lord, we know it is bad news that abortion will remain legal in this country for years to come. But we thank you for the good news that we are free to educate and persuade and offer alternatives to anyone who will listen. Help us to find those people in our unique spheres of influence. And help us to be used as your servants to help save children and women form the horrors of abortion, one person at a time.

We confess that we are sometimes weary of living in a world where right is called wrong and wrong is called right. Where the evil one, the murderer and liar from the beginning, has rearranged the price tags. We tire of living in that one remote corner of the universe where foolish men dare to live in rebellion against the Sovereign Lord of the Cosmos, and against his Anointed One, Jesus Christ. We long for that other world, the world for which we were made, the home that our Lord promised he would go and prepare for us.

While we remain pilgrims and strangers and aliens in this world, Lord, we thank you for the assurance of your Word that your kingdom is coming, and all wrongs will be made right. You will wipe away the tears from every eye, and there will be no more death, nor crying, nor pain, for the old order will have passed away, and all things will become new. Come quickly, Lord Jesus.

Meanwhile, give us your perspective. Remind us that your time here is short. That this is a brief window of opportunity to serve you. Help us to know how we and our families can better share the gospel of Christ. And better intervene for the least of your brethren. And more effectively speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves.

We ask these things confident that you hear us, believing that you will act in response to our cries. For we ask them in the powerful and eternal name of the one before whom every knee shall bow and every tongue confess—the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.