Vice President JD Vance closed his Rededicate 250 video message on Sunday with a request that stood apart from almost everything else said on the National Mall today. He did not ask Americans to pray for victory. He asked them to pray for the people leading the country to be honest enough to find the right road and brave enough to take it.
“I always ask people to pray for wisdom and for courage for their leadership. Pray for wisdom that we know the path God wants us to walk. Pray for courage that we have the ability to walk that path.”
The setting was “Rededicate 250: A National Jubilee of Prayer, Praise and Thanksgiving,” a daylong event held on May 17, 2026, marking the lead-up to America’s 250th birthday. Tens of thousands gathered on the Mall for worship, Scripture, and prayer. Vance spoke by video toward the end of the program.
There is something quietly important about a sitting Vice President admitting on camera that the people in power need two things from God they cannot manufacture on their own. Wisdom to see. Courage to act. Most leaders only ask for the second one because the first one is uncomfortable. It means admitting they might be on the wrong road right now.
Scripture has paired those two requests for thousands of years. Joshua 1:9 puts them in the same verse. “Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.”
Joshua needed wisdom to know which way to cross the Jordan. He needed courage to actually do it. Knowing without doing is paralysis. Doing without knowing is disaster.
A nation that stops praying for the people in charge is a nation that has decided it does not believe God can change them.
What do you pray for when you pray for the country’s leaders?
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