Recent tragedies across the United States and around the world have left many devastated and hopeless. Each day, we are reminded of the importance of prayer in both good and bad times. They need not be long or eloquent. Our prayers simply must be heartfelt.
Billy Graham has prayed publicly countless times before Crusades and at national and international prayer events. And as Franklin Graham has said on his Decision America Tour, our only hope is to call on God in prayer for healing and revival.
As you face the unknown of the future, cry out to God for His help. These five prayers from Billy Graham and Franklin Graham can get you started:
Billy Graham in Sacramento, California – 1983
… Our Father and our God, we pray that in this period of crisis in our world that the Holy Spirit will use it to remind us of our need of Thee and our relationship with Thee and we pray that tonight if our relationship is not right that we’ll make it right through Jesus Christ our Lord who came to die on the cross because He loved us. For we ask it in His Name. Amen.
Billy Graham’s Inaugural Prayer – 1997
Lord … remind us today that You have shown us what is good in what You require of us; to do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with our God. We ask that as a people, we may humble ourselves before You and seek Your will for our lives and for this great nation. Help us in our nation to work as never before to strengthen our families and to give our children hope and a moral foundation for the future. So may our desire be to serve You, and in so doing, serve one another. This we pray in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Billy Graham in New York – 1957
Our Father and our God, we pray that … we all might be conscious that Thine eye is upon us. If God can see the sparrow fall, if He has the hairs of our head numbered, we know that He watches us, that He loves us, that He cares for us, and we’re told in Thy Word that He cares for us so much that He sent His only begotten Son to the cross to die that we might find forgiveness of our sins. We pray … that Thy Holy Spirit will draw all men unto the Savior, for we ask it in His Name. Amen.
Franklin Graham on the National Day of Prayer – 2010
Lord, we are thankful for the abundant blessings You have bestowed on America. Our forefathers looked to You as protector, provider and the promise of hope. But we have wandered far from that firm foundation. May we repent for turning our backs on Your faithfulness. We pray that this great nation will be restored by Your forgiveness. From bondage, You grant freedom. Through Your own sacrifice, You offer salvation. From the state of despair, You offer peace. From the bounties of heaven, You have blessed—not because of our goodness—but by Your grace. You have given us freedom to worship You in spirit and in truth as Your holy Word instructs. May our lives honor You in word and deed. May our nation acknowledge that all good things come from the Father above. Amen.
Franklin Graham on the National Day of Prayer – 2010
President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed that our nation should set apart a day for national prayer to confess our sins and transgressions in sorrow, ‘Yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon … announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord.’ We have vainly imagined in the deceitfulness of our own hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. … We have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God who made us! It behooves us then … to confess our national sins and to pray for clemency and forgiveness. Help us to pray earnestly for our president and leaders who govern—that they will humble themselves and seek Your guidance so that everything we do will shine the light of Your glory in a darkened world. May our prayers as a people and a nation be heard and blessed for such a time as this. We make this plea in faith, believing in the mighty name of Jesus our Lord.
