What if … President Trump were to use his platform to call for a national day of prayer and fasting to petition God to forgive America its trespasses in exchange for our commitment to Him to return as a nation to abidance with what is good and right in His eyes?
The next question would then be: would your average American patriot think such an endeavor to be significant enough to set their chores and meals aside for a day and join President Trump in prayer?
And if we did the above en masse, would it be unreasonable to expect that God might be inclined to want to bless us — i.e., by showering this nation with His grace, love, and mercy? And, if he did, what might that look like?
Two examples of prior Presidents who did precisely this in response to critical junctures that confronted them are provided by Jonathan Cahn in his book, The Harbinger II, that President Trump — and his supporters who hope to help him Make America Great Again — should seriously consider.
On April 30, 1863, following a series of military defeats, Abraham Lincoln led the nation on a day of prayer and fasting by declaring, in part, the following:
“It behooves us, then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness ….”
Within mere days of that national act of contrition, it can be credibly argued that the providential hand of God miraculously provided Lincoln with two separate seminal victories that effectively reversed the tides of the Civil War in Lincoln’s favor.
On May 1st — the day following Lincoln’s day of prayer — General Grant defeated the rebel forces at Port Gibson, which enabled him to subsequently emerge victorious a little over two months later at a place called Vicksburg — a strategically decisive victory that effectively divided the enemy’s armed forces and supply lines in two.
And, on May 2nd, General Lee’s most capable officer —Stonewall Jackson — was mistakenly killed by friendly fire in the battle of Chancellorsville. Importantly for Lincoln, Jackson’s death is believed to have contributed significantly to Lee’s subsequent defeat a little more than two months later at Gettysburg.
Notably, the battle of Gettysburg ended on July 3, 1863, and Vicksburg fell to the North on the following day, July 4th; two pivotal victories that came only two months after Lincoln’s day of prayer, but that ultimately enabled Lincoln to achieve his righteous goal of eliminating American slavery while also allowing the country to move past the conflict as a still-united nation eventually.
Then, a little over a century later, another man seeking to become President came on the scene at a critical time in our nation’s history, and, like Lincoln, he also called upon God to help America rechart its course away from what had become a disaster.
In 1980, due to the feckless policies of a Democrat President, America found itself in what that President described as a seemingly incurable state of “malaise” — a state of national despair attributable to cultural divisions arising among us, a faltering economy, runaway inflation, a shortage of oil leading to long lines at the gas pump and Americans being held hostage by an Iranian regime that President Carter was seemingly unable to cope with.
Then, in the summer before the elections slated for later that year, Christian patriots united on the mall in Washington, D.C., to pray for our nation — a plea to the spiritual realm that was soon carried forward by the candidate seeking to displace Carter.
On the night before election day, Ronald Reagan gave a speech in which he proclaimed on behalf of the nation, in pertinent part, the following:
“It is not bombs and rockets but belief and resolve; it is humility before God that is ultimately the source of America’s strength as a nation.”
And he closed that speech with the following words of commitment:
“And let us resolve they will say of our day and our generation that we did keep faith with our God, that we did act worthy of ourselves; that we did protect and pass on lovingly, that shining city on a hill.”
The next day, Ronald Reagan was swept into office by a landslide, and, almost immediately, America secured the return of its hostages being held by the Iranian Ayatollah; its economy was placed on the path of recovery, inflation was brought under control, and the long gas lines disappeared. And all that happened long before Reagan was later used by God to bring about the fall of the Iron Curtain.
Which, of course, should put us in mind of our country’s current state of affairs … and President Trump.
As was the case in those earlier times, our nation today is once again dangerously divided; the economy is in the tank, inflation and gas prices are out of control, our borders are being invaded, and our enemies are mocking us at every turn due to the feckless policies of an incompetent President. But today, we must also add to this mix the current Administration’s encouragement and even legalization of the multi-pronged debauchery being promoted by certain nefarious factions within our society. It is nothing short of evil in its purest form that screams for God’s attention — cultural cancers that none should ever expect God to accept, much less lend His blessings to.
By the same token, however, neither should President Trump nor those who support him ever expect to reverse the course of this godless cultural juggernaut without God’s help!
Which returns us to the question: will President Trump be willing to publicly demonstrate the humility required to seek that help for the sake of our nation?
To answer this question correctly, were they alive today, his predecessors — Presidents Lincoln and Reagan — might suggest he would do well to carefully consider the following summary of God’s assurance to us all:
And as President Reagan demonstrated 43 years ago, there is no need for President Trump to be in the White House for him to do this. He needs only to appoint the day and encourage those patriots who want to see America be Made Great Again to join with him.
What say you, President Trump?
Will you be willing to call for a day of prayer and fasting sometime between now and the elections of 2024?
Many of us very much hope so … and, even now, are praying you will be led to do it while the opportunity remains.
Cliff Nichols is the author of A Barrister’s Tales, the curator of The American Landscape and the drafter of The Declaration of Liberty.