Christians praying for Biden and healing in the US after election win

(Photo: Reuters)

Christian leaders took to Twitter over the weekend to ask people to pray for Joe Biden and the nation after his election win. 

Southern Baptist Convention President JD Greear invited Christians to join him in praying for Biden and the country.

"Pray for wisdom, justice, and truth. I pray for success in where he leads in what is righteous and right," he said.

Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, asked Christians to pray regardless of whether they support Biden politically or not. 

"No matter how you voted, now is the time to pray for the country and for our newly elected leaders in both the White House and the Congress," Moore wrote on his website.

"If government or ideology is an idol for us then the stakes are always apocalyptic and existential.

"If we seek first the kingdom of God, then we can ask God to bring about good from our leaders — to hold them accountable when they don't and to commend them when they do, without checking first with whether praying for such is to the advantage or disadvantage of whatever our temporal 'tribe' might be."

Republican Jeb Bush said he was praying for Biden and for healing.

"I have prayed for our president most of my adult life. I will be praying for you and your success. Now is the time to heal deep wounds. Many are counting on you to lead the way," he said.

Franklin Graham, a strong Trump supporter, said his prayer was that "Americans will pull together." 

In a moving Facebook tribute to his late father, Billy Graham, on what would have been his 102nd birthday, he said that if he were still alive today, he would "encourage Americans everywhere to pray for the future of our nation and the political direction that could come."

Last week Graham said he feared a harder time awaited Christians under a Biden administration.

Speaking to Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, Graham said that under the Obama administration "no question, there were problems there". 

"You had a lot of activists in the White House that wanted to push hate gay lesbian agenda," he said. 

"They targeted businesses to shut them down – florists, bakers, people like that who refused to participate in a gay wedding."

He continued: "I think if the Democratic party wins again, they'll be right back with that agenda and they'll be looking for business and ministries to target, to shut them out of business, or even put them in jail. Who knows, but it's coming."

He said Christians would continue to do their work but "it may cost us more, there may be people who go to prison."

He added, "But let's do the work God's called us to and not be afraid of what's going to happen or not happen."