Prayer for our Leaders

The wonderful church I pastor is having a prayer emphasis this week, and today we are being reminded to pray for our government leaders. I invite you to join in with us as we pray for our nation. 1 Timothy 2:1-2 states, “First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity.” In this call to prayer, the Apostle Paul begins by challenging believers to pray for all people, but especially for government leaders. Think for just a moment about Paul’s world. The government for which Paul was urging prayer was not a government filled with godly leaders. As a matter of fact, they were just the opposite. At that time, Nero was the emperor of Rome, and Nero was far from receptive to Christianity. History tells us that he persecuted Christians ruthlessly. He found great pleasure in torturing believers and trying to ridicule Christians publically.  Being a Christian in the Roman Empire at this time was not very well received, but in this context, Paul urged Christians to pray for government leaders and to even thank God for them. The underlying message is that whether we agree with political leaders or not, we are commanded to pray for them.

I would say that God lead Paul to cover nearly every aspect of prayer by using the words “entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings.” You can easily look at these four words and see them almost as synonyms, but that is not exactly accurate. While the Greek word for “prayer” simply means to talk to God and “petition” means to request something from God, I want to focus for a moment on the first word that is used: “entreaties.” This word means to plead or beg. It carries with it a sense of urgency and desperation. We live in desperate times, and in these times, we are commanded to plead with God on behalf of our leaders. The decisions political leaders make impacts our nation and the world. It is easy to be angry at a leader or disgusted, if we do not agree with them. One thing I have learned is that it is hard to passionately and consistently pray for someone with whom we are angry. Before we pray for our political leaders, we may first need to repent of our attitudes before God and surrender our minds and hearts to the reality that we are in a spiritual battle, and urgent prayer for our political leaders is a key weapon on this battle field. So, today I urge you to pray for our president, our congressmen and women (both nationally and in our state), and our local leaders. Pray for their salvation, if they are not Christians, and pray that they would lead our nation in a way the reflects the truth of God. Pray that God would help them to turn a deaf ear to those who would influence them to govern contrary to God’s truth. Ask God to help us as a nation to be a champion for human rights and that our national leaders would take a stand against the persecution of Christians around the world. Pray for a revival in Washington.