As has been the case in several other years, President Trump was the invited speaker at the National Prayer Breakfast held in Washington several days ago on February 5th. Last time, as you may recall, President Trump indicated that he didn’t know if he was good enough to get into heaven or not. I actually wrote a post on the speech that he gave and mentioned that I hoped that Franklin Graham or another of the national Christian leaders would meet with the President and let him know that none of us are good enough to get into heaven. We all need Jesus to do that. In fact, John 3:16 clearly tells us that al we have to do is believe in Jesus as the Son of God and accept Him as Lord and Savior. That’s it – good deeds don’t get you in, or being a nice person. The only way to get into heaven is to accept the free gift of eternal life and believe!
Now, President Trump isn’t alone – many people that I speak with profess that they will get into heaven because they are a good person, or because they were baptized. The Scripture is clear that this is not the case.
This year, during the National Prayer Breakfast, the president once again spoke to the assembled audience. I happened to watch it live and was glad to hear the president address his remarks from a prior year. In fact, he told the attendees that last year he had been joking about whether or not he would get into heaven. He was off to a good start.
Unfortunately, not long after, the wheels came off. The President went on to say that he had done more good things since the last time and he now hoped that he would make the grade. What started out fine ended up being more of the same from his last speech. To be sure, please know that this is not a political post. But I find it a little embarrassing that a person who professes to be a Christian doesn’t know that belief in Jesus is a pre-requisite. In fact, it is the only pre-requisite.
Other presidents who have appeared at the event have spoken on topics such as their personal journey with Christ or how they came to a belief in Jesus. Many presidents have had faith in Jesus and some of them, including President Lincoln, used prayer as a form of communion with God when times got tough. How many of our leaders have been driven to their knees when the stresses of the job have become overwhelming! But I sense that isn’t the case with our current commander-in-chief.
May 7, 2026 is the National Day of Prayer. The theme this year is to “Glorify God Among the Nations, Seeking Him in All Generations.” The topic was chosen in the theme of uniting prayer in America as we celebrate our 250th anniversary. This idea is to connect events such as the National Prayer Breakfast, emphasizing God’s glory across all the generations. President Trump even announced a May event to rededicate the nation.
There will be prayer guides as well as artwork which will be connected to the event. The artwork chosen is the famous painting by Arnold Freiberg, “The Prayer at Valley Forge” symbolizing our nation’s dependence on God. So you can see that the entire celebration of our nation’s 250th anniversary is filled with references to God and collateral materials to reinforce the theme.
Our verse for tonight is the verse that has been chosen as the theme for our 250th celebration this year. The verse is from I Chronicles 16:24, a prayer of thanksgiving from King David. He tells us, speaking of God, “Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples.”
My encouragement is that our nation was founded by a diverse group of people who were, for the most part, assembled from the various corners of the earth. Our faith lives are much more important than any one person or political party. The nation was founded on the premise that we are one nation “under God” and we best never forget that. No person is larger than the whole.
My prayer this evening is that we, as believers, acknowledge that the only requirement to gain entrance into heaven is to believe in Jesus as our Lord and Savior. Furthermore, that we have a divine mandate that we are to spread the Good News and “declare His glory among the nations, and all peoples…” Have a great day in the Lord, grace and peace…