Online prayers held for Trump amid COVID-19 treatment: We know prayer works
Christian leaders across the nation prayed for President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump, who are being treated for COVID-19, during an online “Call to Prayer” event hosted by Trump’s campaign team Sunday evening.
Lara Trump, the president’s campaign adviser and who is married to his son, Eric, said the president and his wife "are going to come through this, no problem, and it will be because of the power of prayer."
"We know it works,” she added during the online event, while acknowledging that they have seen people's messages of support.
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Jentezen Franklin, senior pastor of Free Chapel, a multi-campus church in Gainesville, Georgia, noted that it means a lot that the president of the United States has called the whole nation to pray for him.
Trump, 74, and the first lady, 50, tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday. The president is currently hospitalized at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center but White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows told Fox News that he has been improving and may be discharged Monday.
Franklin said the day after the Trumps tested positive, he noticed that his 85-year-old mother’s eyes were a little puffy during breakfast. When Franklin asked her about it, she said she woke up at 3:30 am with Trump and his wife “on my mind, on my heart and on my lips.” She prayed for them for three hours.
Franklin said he thinks millions of people may have done what his mother did.
He said 1 Samuel 12:23 is speaking to the nation and to all those who are hurting and suffering during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by failing to pray for you. And I will teach you the way that is good and right,” reads the verse.
Bishop Harry Jackson, one of the chief advocates of the reconciled church movement and leader of Hope Christian Church in Maryland, said he drove past the hospital where the president is and saw numerous people standing outside with placards that said they love the president and are praying for him.
“God is about to release healing not only to the president but to the nation,” Jackson said Sunday and read Psalm 133.
Others who offered prayers during the Sunday event included Pastor Ramiro Pena, founder and senior pastor of Christ the King Church of Waco, Texas; Pastor Paula White-Cain, who leads New Destiny Christian Center in Florida and is Trump's spiritual adviser; and Cissie Graham Lynch, granddaughter of late evangelical pastor Billy Graham and daughter of evangelist Franklin Graham.
"I declare and decree healing through your body right now … that every part of your body … will be healed by the superior blood of Jesus Christ right now," White-Cain prayed.
Lynch stressed, "The power of prayer that my family, that was taught from my grandfather, my grandmother and my parents and passing on to my generation, … Lara, I want you to know that this is just a small representation of homes and families that are praying for your family."
As of early Monday, the “Call to Prayer” event video on Facebook had been viewed 1.7 million times.
On Sunday, Trump released a video on Twitter to share an update on his health from the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
“I feel much better now,” he said. “We’re working hard to get me all the way back, I have to be back, because we still have to make America great again.
"I’ll be back, I think I’ll be back soon and I look forward to finishing up the campaign the way we started and the way we’ve been doing and the kind of numbers we’ve been doing, we’ve been so proud of it.”
The president also thanked medical staff for attending to him and called the drugs he is taking “miracles coming down from God.”
He added that the next few days would be “the real test.”
Melania Trump is “doing well” as she’s “slightly younger” and “handling it statistically like it’s supposed to be handled,” Trump added.
Dr. Brian Garibaldi, who is part of the team treating Trump, said in an update Sunday, “Today, he feels well, he’s been up and around ... Our hope is we can plan for discharge as early as tomorrow.”
