By Michael Ashcraft —
There’s an army of unseen, anonymous prayer warriors backing up President Trump during the COVID crisis, which possibly accounts for his popularity and success in spite of the apparent hostile mass media and entrenched intelligentsia.
“Dear Lord please heal our nation and protect our President so that he can serve a second term and lead our land,” Grandma CJ wrote on President Trump’s Facebook Prayer Team page.
CJ joined a hailstorm of enthusiastic comments in response to photos showing pastors praying for Trump. The post read simply, “I’m praying for my president. You too?”
After 13 hours, the Facebook post had gathered 1,200 thumbs-up or hearts, 203 shares and 294 comments. It wasn’t viral, but it was a strong signal of support.
The interaction suggests hordes of praying people undergirding President Trump with much more than just their votes. They’re standing up for Christian pro-life values and bending their knees in repentance, asking the Father to bring healing to a hurting nation and world.
It is hard to estimate how many people across America are actively and earnestly praying for the president – especially during the current crisis.
One survey indicates that posts often get four times the exposure you may think. In other words, Facebook users who thought a post was seen by 20 friends was actually seen by 80. If this rule applies, this innocuous call for prayer for the president may have reverberated through tens of thousands.
Another important metric is the criticism leveled by anti-Trumpers who allege Facebook “threw” the election to Trump, blaming nefarious Russian bot plots.
But the fact of the matter is that while poll after poll predicted a certain Clinton win, posts on Facebook were frequently in favor of Trump. It seemed that Christians, who are ignored by traditional media, were resorting to social media to voice their frustrations.
The upshot? What gets posted on Facebook reveals a behemoth. So it’s not far-fetched to conjecture that there are literally millions of American Christians praying for the president.
It’s no secret that the traditional media outlets hate Trump. Some outright vilify him daily, filling news columns with controversies, even to the point of making them up. Early in his presidency, it was claimed First Lady Melania didn’t want to hold his hand after a camera recorded her rebuffing his gesture of affection. Whole articles were confabulated speculating that their marriage was on the rocks. Four years later, Melania is still by his side.
There was the controversy about Trump driving his golf cart on a putting green, a gross violation in golf, we were told. But Trump did this on his own golf course. Just as the Creator of the universe can write his own rule book, so could Trump in his fiefdom.
The media opposition, second-guessing, and shrill hyperbole have achieved an unintended effect: Christians pray more, not less, for their president.
One FB user wrote: “Praying our precious Pres. Trump will not be bamboozled about when to start our economy back & running- LORD Shut the mouths & plans of the enemies that are wolves in his group that want to see America’s economy weak so they can strike & devour, i bind you satan! I loose divine comeback on all good things & righteousness to rise up OH LORD!!🇺🇸❤🇺🇸🙏🌏”
Another adds: “I cover u in the blood of Jesus Mr President please don’t lose hope God will help u and the American people to get though this (presumably referring to the Covid 19 crisis) I swear I won’t stop praying an till America gets out of this.”
Could it be that Trump’s secret weapon is the prayer of American Christians?
Based in Los Angeles, Michael Ashcraft does Christian journalism, teaches in a Christian school and works as a financial professional.
I believe this is one reason why President Trump does not appear to be aging in office. God is somehow keeping him healthy and vigorous despite the rigors of office. Compare him to any president before him including the much younger President Obama who’s hair turned turned totally grey after six months in office. He needs our prayers. All our leaders do. I pray for Governor Newsom daily even though I disagree with his politics. For wisdom, salvation and a change of heart about things like abortion. We must pray for these leaders.
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