"Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective." James 5:16
In the year 1813, a Shawnee Indian named Tecumseh died in a battle in which the future president William Henry Harrison was leading. Tecumseh's older brother, Tenskwatawa became very angry with William Harrison. Just a few years earlier, Mr. Harrison had given the order to have Tenskwatawa's village attacked and burned. So Tenskwatawa cursed William Harrison. He spoke a great curse, saying that William Harrison would become president, and that he would die while in office.
The curse spoke more though. He also proclaimed that every president who was elected to office in a zero year would also die in office.
William Henry Harrison died just one month after he became the president of the United States. Presidents Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley and Kennedy were all assassinated- and elected in zero years. Presidents Harding, Roosevelt, and Harrison died of natural causes in office- elected in zero years. This curse was very real and very effective.
Until 1980. Ronald Reagan was elected president and Christians had enough of Tenskwatawa's curse. And they did what every Christian should be doing anyway- they prayed for the safety of their President. Their prayers were successful. 69 days into his presidency, President Reagan was shot in the lung. The bullet stopped just one inch shy of his heart- and furthermore, the bullets used in the shooting had been a special kind of exploding bullet. They should have exploded upon impact, and all six bullets failed to explode. President Reagan recovered and led a very successful presidency. The zero-year curse was broken because the Christians prayed.
I tell all this today to remind myself and others why it is that we still pray for our president each and every week. While the zero-year curse is broken and has no effect anymore, how many people are there in the world speaking hateful words about our president? How many different groups of people do you suppose would like nothing more than to see our president killed? I suspect far too many. So we will continue to pray. Safety for the President of the United States is a worthy thing to be praying for day in and day out. God hears the prayers of His children, and I believe that the more of us who are praying for the safety of President Obama, the safer he will be. God loves all His children- and He hears every single one of our prayers. God also loves President Obama, and wants us to pray for his safety. He wants us to pray for the well-being of the man who has given up so much to take the leadership of this troubled nation.
Whether you consider yourself a "fan" or not, it is our duty as members of the Army of God to pray for our leaders- and so we will continue. As we enter into our second year of Warfare Wednesday, we will continue to pray for the safety and success of President Barack Obama, as well as his wife Michelle, and his children Sasha and Malia. God loves them so much, so we will continue to pray. Prayer can make all the difference in the world.
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