5 Ways to Pray for the Incoming Trump Administration
On Monday, Donald Trump will take the oath of office as America’s 47th president. Christians are commanded to pray for governing officials, regardless of politics. So, as the country enters a new chapter of our history, here are five ways that Christians can pray biblically for the incoming administration.
1. Religious Freedom
First and foremost, we should establish the biblical basis for why Christians should pray for government leaders. Paul instructs his disciple Timothy, “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way” (1 Timothy 2:1-2).
The context of this command is a letter focused on ordering the church and preserving the gospel, issues still central to Christian practice today. Not only does this increase our confidence in the ongoing relevance of this command, but it also leads us to infer that praying for government officials is appropriate to the context of the local church and consistent with the gospel we proclaim. This is not a distracting side issue.
Apart from a general description — “supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings” — Paul does not prescribe what or how Christians should pray for rulers, but he does explain why. These prayers are so that “we” — that is, Christians — “may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.” In other words, Christians are to pray for governing officials so that the government will leave them alone to live the Christian life. This includes evangelism and discipleship, as the following verses imply (1 Timothy 2:3-4).
The incoming Trump administration is not “going to fix the problems in terms of what ails America,” said Family Research Council President Tony Perkins on “Washington Watch.” “It is not political. It’s spiritual. And so, it’s incumbent upon the church … to delve in, roll up their sleeves, and work with their neighbors and their communities.” But he added, “Where the government comes in is making sure that those people can do that in the name of Jesus, and they can live out their faith in a way that is unhindered and unrestrained by the government around them.”
The modern term that describes this situation is religious freedom. Christians should pray for governing officials so that governing officials will uphold and preserve religious freedom.
It is also worth noticing who Christians are instructed to pray for, since some Christians might be tempted to offer prayers for some leaders but not others. Some Christians might try to rationalize their prayerlessness by complaining that California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) is a petty tyrant, or that President Trump is a lying narcissist. Yet Paul urged Timothy to pray for “kings” which in its original context would have meant the famously immoral Roman emperors who persecuted the early church. And, lest we be tempted to exclude any particular rulers, Paul adds the comprehensive category, “and all who are in high positions.”
2. Economic Prosperity
Having established that Christians should pray for rulers, we can identify other biblical ways to pray for them by considering what the Bible calls upon rulers to do. Scripture recognizes that a basic concern for every governing authority is the economic prosperity of his dominion.
Of course, governing officials cannot directly create economic prosperity in most circumstances. But they do influence the factors that encourage or hinder the industrious labor of others. In Ecclesiastes 5:8-9, the preacher invites his audience to consider how economic prosperity can hardly coexist with injustice and oppression: “If you see in a province the oppression of the poor and the violation of justice and righteousness, do not be amazed at the matter, for the high official is watched by a higher, and there are yet higher ones over them. But this is gain for a land in every way: a king committed to cultivated fields.”
What point is the preacher — most likely Solomon — making? First, he acknowledges how common it is to see governing officials exploit those under their authority for their own personal gain; after all, they’re in a desperate struggle with others who are also trying to reach the top. Then he contrasts that self-interested official with one “committed to cultivated fields,” which is akin to economic prosperity in an agrarian economy. The preacher seems to have the following case in mind.
Consider a society with weak property rights, where the powerful regularly steal from the poor with impunity. Or consider a society with crushing taxation (or inflation, which is a subtle variation of the same), where the rulers skim off all the profits of the poor, leaving them with barely enough to live on. Such oppression leaves the industrious poor with no means by which to improve their land and labor, and it gives the rest of the poor no incentive to become industrious. In extreme circumstances, such as famine, such oppressive policies might even provoke those who can to flee their poverty-stricken situation in search of a better life in another land (see Ruth 1:1 or the U.S. southern border). The country’s situation becomes even worse as the industrious, intelligent, and wealthy jump ship.
What can forestall this downward spiral of oppression, misery, and flight? A ruler who is more concerned about making sure his people are secure and happy in the fruit of their labor than he is about lining his own pockets: “a king committed to cultivated fields.” While Christians don’t have a direct command to pray for such rulers, the preacher seems to invite such prayers, since such a “gain for a land in every way” is a gift that God can provide to the whole land in general.
3. Impartiality
Christians can also pray that government officials are impartial and unbiased in the way they carry out their official duties. (Put negatively, we might pray that they do not weaponize government for their own partisan agenda or create a two-tier system of justice.)
Impartiality is held out as an ideal for governing officials because it reflects God’s own character (Job 34:19, Romans 2:11). We see this, among other places, in Moses’s farewell speech to the people of Israel:
“So I took the heads of your tribes, wise and experienced men, and set them as heads over you, commanders of thousands, commanders of hundreds, commanders of fifties, commanders of tens, and officers, throughout your tribes. And I charged your judges at that time, ‘Hear the cases between your brothers, and judge righteously between a man and his brother or the alien who is with him. You shall not be partial in judgment. You shall hear the small and the great alike. You shall not be intimidated by anyone, for the judgment is God’s’” (Deuteronomy 1:15-17).
Practically, impartiality requires a governing official to faithfully discharge the duties of his or her office without playing favorites. Officials tasked with prosecuting crimes should prioritize their work based on the severity of the offenses, not based on the identity of their targets. Officials who swear to uphold the U.S. Constitution must do so even if it prevents them from achieving their policy objectives or scoring political wins.
Even if Christians don’t have a direct role in making these decisions, they can pray that officials who do wield power will do so in a just and impartial manner.
4. Judgment of Evil
A particular application of this impartiality is in the deterrence, prosecution, and sentencing of crimes. Paul describes governing authorities as God-instituted servants who “are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad.” A ruler ideally acts as “an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer” (Romans 13:3-4). In a world full of sinners, fear of punishment by the state acts as a deterrent upon many people who would otherwise commit wickedness.
This is a gift of God for the good of his people, and we should pray that it continues. Recent American history provides too many examples of people escaping the consequences of their actions due to the corrupt nepotism, political expediency, or ideological extremism of government officials. Let us pray that God will sovereignly work to reverse this trend, for our good and the good of our country.
5. Advocacy for the Voiceless
Finally, the Bible counsels governing authorities to use their power for good by defending the helpless and voiceless. Instead of wasting their strength on women and wine (Proverbs 31:3-4), rulers are instructed, “Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute. Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy” (Proverbs 31:8-9).
Even in our wealthy, technologically advanced society — and perhaps in part because of it — there are many types of people who remain politically and economically powerless, or severely disadvantaged: the destitute, the fatherless, the homeless, the chronically and mentally ill. At the very least, government officials should “defend the rights” of such people and not deprive them of justice because of their inability to return the favor.
Digging deeper, we can think of even more helpless categories. Some people have been abducted, abused, and trafficked even in America, and government officials should seek to liberate them from their captivity and fear. The most helpless category of all is the unborn — who are literally voiceless. They need strong and persistent advocates against those who would take their lives in the womb — advocates not only in the church but in government too.
Christians can pray that government officials model this sort of wise leadership by thinking carefully and wisely about the best way for society to care for and protect people who are helpless, destitute, and even voiceless. We should pray most fervently for governmental advocates for those who are abused, trafficked, and targeted for death in the womb.
Conclusion
God wants his people to pray so that they would learn to rely on him in faith, and so that he might be glorified through answering their prayers. The prayers of God’s people waft up to his heavenly throne as the fragrant aroma of incense (Psalm 141:2, Revelation 5:8). The best prayers are those offered according to God’s word, when God’s people simply repeat God’s promises back to him and urge him to fulfill them (Exodus 32:13, 2 Samuel 7:25, 1 Kings 8:25). So, when we pray according to God’s word, believing with full confidence that God will do what he has said, God is glorified, and “we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him” (1 John 5:15).
Therefore, as God’s word commands, let us pray for our public officials according to God’s word, with confidence that God will be glorified and in hope that our nation might be blessed with good leadership — both from the incoming administration and from those that will succeed it.
AUTHOR
Joshua Arnold
Joshua Arnold is a senior writer at The Washington Stand.
EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2025 Family Research Council.
The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.
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