Barack Obama is fascinated by Abraham Lincoln and wants to model his
presidency after that distinguished man who also governed a divided
nation. Obama has studied his speeches and writings at length. Here’s
some of that background…

When looking at two battling forces in this country, Lincoln tried to discern where God was in it all. He said…

though we may not be able to comprehend it, we must believe that He who made the world still governs it.

Calling the world “a fiery trial” and himself “a humble instrument in the hands of our Heavenly Father,” Lincoln said

I have desired that all my works and acts may be according to His will, and that it might be so, I have sought his aid.

Lincoln found comfort in seeking God’s will, and it would be
comforting for us to think that our new president will take that
inspiration from Lincoln along with other traits he admires. Maybe
Obama encountered Lincoln’s proclamation appointing a national day to
fast, for what we as a nation had done against the divine law. Lincoln
wrote:

We have forgotten the gracious Hand which preserved us
in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have
vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these
blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.

He said we had become

too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.

Lincoln became more of a praying man in office, admitting that when he got down on his knees before God

a sweet comfort crept into my soul that God Almighty had taken the whole business into His own hands.

May our new president seek and find the guiding hand of Almighty God
in all his days in office, on all matters governing the dignity and
sanctity of every human life he serves.