WASHINGTON — Yesterday at Rededicate 250, Speaker Johnson led thousands gathered on the National Mall in a prayer of rededication, acknowledging God’s providence over the past 250 years and seeking His blessing for the next 250.
Watch Speaker Johnson’s full remarks here.
Below are Speaker Johnson’s remarks as delivered:
“Thank you so much, my friends. It is such a blessing to welcome you all here to the nation’s capital. My humble assignment here today is to bring us straight to the Lord in a prayer of rededication. Would you join me in that?
Our Heavenly Father, we thank you. Thank you so much for this great day that you’ve given us here, as we remember that your mighty hand has been upon our nation since the very beginning.
Since Christopher Columbus set sail in the New World, since the settlers at Jamestown planted the cross at Cape Henry, and since the pilgrims at Plymouth made a covenant to give you the glory, in all that time, you guided us at every pivotal moment. And when our forefathers took up the great cause of American independence, they turned to you in steadfast prayer.
On this very day, two and a half centuries ago, the Second Continental Congress gathered in Philadelphia. Facing imminent battle and almost certain death, our Founders held a decisive day of what they called ‘humiliation, fasting and prayer.’ They did that to humble themselves and to seek your guidance at the dawn of their fight for freedom.
Just weeks later, Lord, on July 4th, 1776, you gave 56 patriots the courage and the conviction to sign their names to the Declaration of Independence, forming 13 distant and disparate colonies into a new nation, which would become by your mercy and grace, the freest, most successful, most benevolent nation in the history of the world.
In those early days, you safeguarded George Washington and his ragtag army as they defeated the mightiest of empires. And you gave our fathers the wisdom and faith to establish this new nation premised on the biblical and foundational principle that all men are created equal and free before you. Through your divine providence, our Founders acknowledged and boldly proclaimed the self-evident truth that every single person is created in your image, and that we are endowed by you, our Creator, with our inalienable rights to life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Lord, we know that that Declaration, which has been recognized as our nation’s creed, has also been the inspiration for the single greatest force for peace and justice and human flourishing. It set in motion a chain of events that altered the very course of human history, and today as we seek to fulfill its true meaning, those self-evident truths still guide our nation and still call us to honor and cherish and protect the dignity of every human life.
Lord, today, our people gather once again in your name. We have humbled ourselves before you. We acknowledge that the miracle of our founding, and the countless miracles that have followed, are your doing. We remember that we owe our nation – every victory, every hero, every good deed she has brought forth – to you, Almighty God.
Amid a bloody civil war, you gave Abraham Lincoln the vision and the fortitude to ignite a ‘new birth of freedom.’ And in the turbulent years that followed you, you offered us healing and restoration, calling us even then, to the better angels of our nature.
When our allies in Europe fell prey to the dark shadow of fascism, you equipped our greatest generation with the strength to defend and liberate Western Civilization. You filled the sojourners of the civil rights movement with your spirit as they challenged their generation to live up to the promises enshrined in the Declaration. In the 20th century, you gave brave leaders like President Ronald Reagan, the courage and heart to speak boldly to the promise of God-given liberty and the emptiness of godless Soviet tyranny.
At the dawn of a new century when terrorists struck our homeland on September 11th, you gave 44 heroes on Flight 93 your divine courage to thwart that murderous attack. You drove out fear out of the hearts of rescuers and first responders who ran upstairs and into fires to help those in need. And in the years that followed, as we cleared the ashes and debris, you healed our broken hearts and you revealed again, the fierce, unbreakable spirit of the American people.
Every day since, over each of our 250 years, America has been a land of hope and liberty, a place of miracles, and the ‘light and glory’ of all nations because of you.
Now as we approach the 250th anniversary of American Independence, we face a new set of challenges in a new era. In recent years, we’ve seen sinister ideologies sow confusion and discord among our people. We’ve witnessed attacks on our history, on our heroes, and on the cherished moral and spiritual identity of this great nation. These voices insist to the young and impressionable that our story – the American story – is one of oppression and hypocrisy and failure, and that this story can only be understood through the lens of our sins. But Father, we reject that. We rebuke it in your name.
Those voices have sought to distort the self-evident truth that we know so well, and that our founders boldly proclaim in the Declaration: that our rights do not derive from the government, they come from you, our Creator and Heavenly Father.
Lord, just as we humbly sought out your guidance in past trials, we are doing it here again today. We turn to you once again to save us from these afflictions, to deliver us from the forces of evil oppression and justice and tyranny – both within our borders and beyond our shores – and Lord, never let us be separated from your mercy and your love.
We pray, Lord, that you continue to bless our President with the wisdom and prudence and strength to govern our nation in accordance with your will. We pray that you guide our lawmakers, that you walk with us and grant us the moral clarity to rise above partisan differences, and give us the wisdom and humility to serve selflessly and sacrificially.
Lord, protect our servicemembers, our law enforcement officers, our first responders, all those who risk their own lives daily as they administer justice and preserve the peace in our communities in accordance with your word.
Help all our faith leaders and pastors and priests to be faithful in their calling and successful in their ministries to shine your light of hope and salvation across our land. We pray too that you will safeguard all houses of worship, that they remain sanctuaries of prayer and peace.
Give every American parent the grace they need to raise and protect the next generation of freedom-loving children. Father, we pray for marriages across this land. That husbands and wives have the patience to love one another in all the days of their lives. Heal the wounds of broken hearts God, and the battles that we do not see.
Lord, we ask that you equip our educators with the knowledge to teach the truth, for they will shape the next generation of government and leaders. Be with our physicians and our nurses and our healthcare workers, and give comfort to the sick and to those on Heaven’s door.
We pray that you bestow upon all Americans a renewed love of country, hope for the future, and faith in your everlasting mercy and grace.
Father, we pray for mercy upon our land, mercy upon us for our mistakes. Forgive us of our sins individually and collectively and help us devote ourselves with a renewed piety and patriotism to the eternal truths of your word and to the enduring principles of the Declaration you blessed us with.
Above all Lord, grant us the courage in your favor to preserve this Republic. Instill within us, the same devotion that compelled 56 men to pledge their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to this grand experiment in self-governance. The same devotion of patriots like Patrick Henry, for whom liberty was worth any price. The same devotion of President Abraham Lincoln, who at Gettysburg charged his countrymen to rededicate themselves to the unfinished work of our fathers. Lord, today we pray that you grant us that same devotion to these United States.
Give us courage and make us worthy of all those who devoted and sacrificed their lives so that a government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the Earth, almighty God.
We ask that you hear these solemn petitions just as we in the beginning dedicated this land to your most holy name today. Here Lord, in this 250th year of American Independence, we hereby rededicate the United States of America as ‘One Nation, Under God.’
Look upon us with favor upon your country as we celebrate this momentous anniversary and let your Holy Spirit descend upon this land so that future generations will look back at this day, in this present age, and once again, see your providential hand at work. I ask this today, Lord, I pray it and I believe it, in your holy name, in Jesus’ name, Amen.”
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