Obama delivers major speech on personal faith

It is so interesting that so many people in the US believe that President Obama isn’t a Christian, but a Muslim. I wonder where those beliefs come from? In an age of so much information, there is also a ton of mis-information as well. Here is what the President said this week at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington D.C. You can see the full article By Dan Gilgoff, CNN Belief Blog Co-Editor, in the link below.

President Barack Obama gave an unusually personal speech about his religious faith on Thursday, saying that “it is the biblical injunction to serve the least of these that keeps me going and keeps me from being overwhelmed,” in address to a prayer breakfast in Washington.

The speech, delivered at the National Prayer Breakfast, comes on the heels of public opinion surveys that show only a minority of Americans know that Obama is a Christian and that a growing number believe he’s a Muslim.

“My Christian faith has been sustaining for me over the last couple of years and even more so when Michelle and I hear our faith questioned from time to time,” the president said Thursday, referring to his wife. “We are reminded that ultimately what matters is not what other people say about us but that we are true to our conscience and true to our God.”

“When I wake in the morning, I wait on the Lord, I ask him to give me the strength to do right by our country and our people,” Obama said later. “And when I go to bed at night, I wait on the Lord and I ask him to forgive me my sins and to look after my family and to make me an instrument of the Lord.”

On Thursday, Obama spoke at length about his prayer life, saying his prayers fall into three categories: for those who are struggling, for personal humility, and to be closer to God.

“Faith reminds me that in spite of being one very imperfect man I can still help whoever I can, however I can, wherever I can for as long as I can,” Obama said of the first kind of prayer, “and that somehow God will buttress these efforts.”

“The second recurring theme in my prayer is a prayer for humility,” Obama said later. “God answered the prayer early on by having me marry Michelle.”

“The challenge is to balance this uncertainty and humility with a need to fight for deeply held convictions,” he continued. “I pray for this wisdom very day. I pray for God to show me and all us the limits of our understanding.”

With regard to his third kind of prayer, Obama said the recurring theme “is that I might walk closer to God and make that walk my first and most important walk.”

I wonder what might happen if ALL of us in the world would pray this third kind of prayer “that I might walk closer to God and make that walk my first and most important walk?” I know that there are so many times, even as a pastor, that I focus on so many other “walks” in my life than the most important walk of a personal relationship with Jesus. Funny how even an article on CNN might bring us back to the main “walk” in life. Reminds me of Psalm 148–that everything in creation speaks to how amazing and majestic God truly is!

Psalm 148

Praise the Name of the LORD

¹ Praise the LORD!Praise the LORD from the heavens;
praise him in the heights!
²Praise him, all his angels;
praise him, all his hosts!³Praise him, sun and moon,
praise him, all you shining stars!
⁴Praise him, you highest heavens,
and you waters above the heavens!

⁵ Let them praise the name of the LORD!
For he commanded and they were created.
⁶And he established them forever and ever;
he gave a decree, and it shall not pass away.

⁷Praise the LORD from the earth,
you great sea creatures and all deeps,
⁸ fire and hail, snow and mist,
stormy wind fulfilling his word!

⁹ Mountains and all hills,
fruit trees and all cedars!
¹⁰ Beasts and all livestock,
creeping things and flying birds!

¹¹Kings of the earth and all peoples,
princes and all rulers of the earth!
¹²Young men and maidens together,
old men and children!

¹³ Let them praise the name of the LORD,
for his name alone is exalted;
his majesty is above earth and heaven.
¹⁴He has raised up a horn for his people,
praise for all his saints,
for the people of Israel who are near to him.
Praise the LORD!

What are your thoughts?

Obama delivers major speech on personal faith  CNN Belief Blog – CNN.com Blogs.