Praying For The President – Learning The Art Of Compromise

A few weeks ago, while attending a worship service, I had a series of visions that featured our President. At the end of the visions, God asked me to pray for him. I’ve had problems praying for him because I don’t know what specific areas I should be praying into. One night, while talking with my wife after dinner, I stumbled onto the answer I’d been looking for. I’d like to share something I think we can all pray about specifically to help him.

To those of you who are ardent supporters of President Obama, please understand one thing: I have no desire to demonize the President, cast him in a bad light, or invite further criticism of him. He’s suffered enough criticism already. I don’t wish to add to it. While I did not vote for him, I need God’s purposes for his presidency to succeed.  I want to point out one thing that I believe he would be wise to change about how he performs his duties as President. I believe that if we pray into this one issue and changes are made accordingly—his presidency will go much smoother from here out.

The power of the federal government was divided by our founding fathers for a very specific purpose. They distrusted forms of government that gave too much power to one person. In order to create a system that made it hard to abuse power, they created three separate bodies to enact laws. These three are the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the Presidency (the Supreme Court does not have the power to legislate). None of these three can pass legislation without the cooperation of the other two.

Historically, the most successful presidents are the ones who have been able to work with the House and Senate in negotiating legislation through compromise. While spiritual people shun the idea of compromise—the political process absolutely requires it. (This may be why so many of us loathe the political process.) Passing laws cannot be done when you have people with opposing views unless everyone is willing to compromise. The political process demands that everyone must give a little ground and forfeit their stand on someone else’s issue, in order to get something they want in return. In politics, no one gets everything they want.  This is the essence of politics. And herein lies the problem our President is wrestling with.

The political impasse we’re living with is the result of people taking rigid stands on their ideologies and refusing to compromise. While you may cheer on your man or woman for standing their ground and refusing to compromise—as long as neither party is willing to compromise, nothing is going to change and nothing will get done.

I believe we must pray for the President and for members of Congress in this specific area – that their eyes and hearts would be opened and that they would come together at the negotiating table and hammer out a compromise we can all live with. Everyone will have to give in to something they don’t like. No one will get everything they want. But that’s the price we must pay to move the political process forward. Let a spirit of cooperation overshadow Washington and let our leaders move forward with a common desire to do what is in the best interest of everyone – not what is in the best interest of a few. Let’s pray that they would have wisdom and understanding on how to proceed in a way that allows the best outcome for everyone involved.

Thank you for your time.