Day 45: 100 day prayer challenge for President Barack Obama

Honesty.

Dear God, we pray that President Barack Obama is always honest with his nation.  Some criticize the President for being blunt or pessimistic.  Father, we pray that President Obama always tells us the truth as clearly and as accurately as it can be told, without hyperbole, exaggeration or sugar coating.  Lord, we care less about the emotional impact the truth will have on its listeners, than having a leader whom we can trust will always tell us the truth.  In recent years we have not been so fortunate.

Lord, we have had Presidents who made promises they could not deliver.  We have had Presidents who said, "Read my lips, no new taxes!"  Admittedly, Father, we don't want taxes, but we want lies even less.  May President Obama never make us a promise because it is politically expedient to do so, especially when he doesn't know whether he can fulfill that promise.

God, we have had Presidents wag their fingers in our faces and tell us plainly that they, "have not had sex with that woman,"  when it fact they had.  Father, we don't want to be led by adulterers, nor do we want our Presidents to lie to us either.  May President Obama always admit, repent and take responsibility for his faults, and so lead us by example.

Father, we have had Presidents rush our nation into war without good cause.  They based their reasons on false and incomplete information, which they cherry-picked from biased, out-daed and unreliable sources. They have taken us to war without planning its outcome and they have declared victory and "Mission Accomplished" years before the conflict had ended.  This has sullied the good name of our nation before the world, our allies, our enemies, and worse still, You.

Lord, may President Obama take us into war only as a last resort, only in self defense of the lives of its citizens, and never for economic or political reasons.  If he ever takes us to war Lord, we pray that he thoroughly investigate the reasons for war, the facts supporting these reasons, and the sources of the facts.  May he plan not only the war itself, but the victory, the exit strategy and the costs.  Then, may he tell the American people the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth with respect to the war he will lead us into.