Colossians 1:9, Ephesians 4:1 and Micah 6:8 were among the Scripture passages touched on in a prayer offered at the opening of the U.S. Senate July 9 by SBC President Clint Pressley.
“Fill us with the knowledge of your will in all wisdom and understanding, that we might walk in a manner worthy of being called your people,” Pressley prayed.
“… You have told us what is good: to do justice, to love mercy and to walk humbly with you, our God.”
Pressley, senior pastor of Hickory Grove Baptist Church in Charlotte, N.C., was invited to offer the opening prayer by Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC).
“My goal was to present a clear, gospel-saturated prayer to the One True God and to ask Him to strengthen and protect our country,” Pressley told Baptist Press after the prayer.
He prayed for God to make the nation “a righteous people — joyful in adversity, hopeful in struggle and just in our dealings” and for Americans to be “a prosperous and happy people.”
Pressley is not the first SBC officeholder to be invited to open a congressional session in prayer. J.D. Greear did so in the U.S. House in 2019 as did Ronnie Floyd in 2014, among others. Oklahoma pastor Brad Graves opened a Senate session in prayer earlier this year while he was still serving as SBC first vice president.
Pressley, in his second term as SBC president, expressed gratitude for today’s opportunity.
“The experience was a tangible reminder of how good it is to live in America. I stood and prayed in the well of the Senate today, by invitation. That is a good and remarkable thing. It was an honor.”
— Laura Erlanson is managing editor of Baptist Press.