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How To (and How Not To) Pray for Our Country and Leaders

A few days ago, I was chatting with one of my pastors and he asked if I had seen the prayer that happened during the riots at the U.S. Capitol building. It had been posted online by reporter Luke Mogelson from The New Yorker, who followed a group of rioters into the Senate chamber.

The prayer started after one of the rioters yelled, “Jesus Christ, we invoke your name, Amen!” Then, Jacob Anthony Chansley (you may know him as the Qanon Shaman or guy with the furry horned hat) gathered some rioters within the Senate Chamber and recited a prayer.

But this was not just some spiritual, ethereal prayer to an obscure deity or to “the universe”. This was in fact a prayer to none other than the God of the Judeo-Christian faith. And not only that, this prayer was wrapped with a nice and neat bow as it was closed with a mighty, “We love you and we thank you, in Christ’s holy name we pray! Amen!”

You can watch the video here (the prayer starts at 8:05), and there is a full transcript below.

“Thank you Heavenly Father for gracing us with this opportunity to stand up for our God-given unalienable rights. Thank you Heavenly Father for being the inspiration needed to these police officers to allow us into the building, to allow us to exercise our rights, to allow us to send a message to all the tyrants, the communists, and the globalists that this is our nation not theirs, that we will not allow the America — the American way, of the United States of America — to go down.

Thank you divine, omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent creator God for filing this chamber with your white light and love, your white light of harmony. Thank you for filling this chamber with patriots that love you and that love Christ. Thank you divine, omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent creator God for blessing each and every one of us here and now.

Thank you divine creator God for surrounding among us, with the divine omnipresent white light of love and protection, peace and harmony. Thank you for allowing the United States of America to be reborn. Thank you for allowing us to get rid of the communists, the globalists, and the traitors within our government. We love you and we thank you, in Christ’s holy name we pray! Amen!”


When I later discussed the video the pastor said that it sounded like a prayer that any average church goer would recite. Just today when I was praying with one of my church staffers, I ended my prayer with that exact sentence as Chansely! If you took these people out of the Senate Chamber and placed them in an arena with dimmed lights and some stage smoke, you could think they were in a Hillsong Concert.

Although we cannot fully discern their spiritual health or salvation, we can conclude from this prayer that these men are churched people. But they apparently need a lesson in prayer.

Prayer is and will always remain somewhat of a mystery for me. Not just in how it works, but also in how we as human beings — mere mortals — can come before the God of the Heavens and earth. If you really stop to think about it, it is astounding how such broken, wounded, and sinful people can come before the Righteous One. And that is why the Gospel of Jesus Christ is so beautiful.

The Gospel gives us access to Almighty God. In Hebrews 10:19–22, the writer says,

“Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have boldness to enter the sanctuary through the blood of Jesus — he has inaugurated for us a new and living way through the curtain (that is, through his flesh) — and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed in pure water.”

We end our prayers with, “in Jesus’ name we pray, Amen”, because it is in and through Jesus Christ that we have access to God and can draw near to His throne in prayer with “a true heart in full assurance of faith.”

These insurrectionists also ended their prayer in Jesus’ name. They, too, attempted to draw near the throne of God. But did God hear this prayer at all? Will God answer their prayers? Did God receive glory from this prayer? Did God delight in this prayer at all?

I ask these questions because I believe we can better understand how to pray by understanding the heart of God. It’s a tall order, but by His grace, He’s given us His Word to reveal to us His very heart.


1. Praying for Those in Authority

In 1 Timothy 2:1–2, the Apostle Paul exhorts Timothy to pray “for kings and all those who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity.” But the very act of rioting and breaking into the Capitol building and then thanking God for this “blessing” goes against God’s desire for authority to be respected and prayed for.

In fact, it is incredible to see this opposite of this verse come to life, as those who presumably did not pray for those in authority, have now ended up leading lives contrary to what is tranquil and quiet and removed of all godliness and dignity.

2. Praying for God’s Way

Furthermore, God does not desire for us to follow “the American way” that the rioters asked for in their prayer. Remember Jesus’ words in John 14:6: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” God is quite clear that His interest is not in the “American way” of living to be upheld, but rather for His way, the way of Yahweh, to be upheld.

Why? Because the “American way” will not and cannot change the heart of man — only the Gospel of Jesus Christ can do that. The “American way” will not and cannot give us access to God — only the way of Christ can do that. The “American way” cannot bring life to others — only the breath of God can do that.

3. Praying for Unity

God desires his people to have Christ-like love that will guide our speech and prayers. 1 Corinthians 13, which is often used in weddings, speaks much about how God views love. But read in context, this chapter goes deeper as the Apostle Paul describes this love in regard to spiritual gifts being used in the church for the sake of oneness and unity. Paul is quite clear that when we do not have a unity-seeking love driving our words and actions, then, we are “a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.”

Quite frankly, I have a hard time believing that any individual or group that so desires to break into a government building has the heart to seek unity. I can confidently say that despite coming to our shared Heavenly Father in the name of Jesus, the words spoken in the “Prayer of Insurrection” may have just sounded like a poorly played drum solo to the ears of our God.

On the flip-side to all of this, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have begun their administration. And I personally will do and also ask you, the reader, to do exactly what I did for President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence: Pray for them.

I will pray for President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris because God calls on His people to pray for those in authority. I will be praying for their success in leading America well, with equality and pursuit of justice.

I will pray for the way of Christ to shine bright and above all other ways — whether American, cultural, or religious — for only the way of Christ can bring salvation to man.

Lastly, I will pray for our nation, with a heart seeking unity, because for the past four years we have seen too much division and hate bubble up in our country. Specifically, I will be praying for unity among fellow saints and for the Gospel of Jesus Christ to help us transcend over all other identity markers, so that we may be one as God is One, and ultimately so that the world may know the love of Christ (John 17:26).