Praying for our country and leaders

The Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy, the pastor of the church in Ephesus, regarding praying for those in authority. He told Timothy: I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them. Pray this way for kings and all who are in authority so that we can live peaceful and quiet lives marked by godliness and dignity. This is good and pleases God our Savior, … (1 Timothy 2:1-3 NLT)

Paul wrote these directives at a time when Nero, the Emperor, had absolute power. Ultimate authority for life and death was literally in the hands of Nero. Nero was not a benevolent leader. History records many of the atrocious activities of this leader. Yet Paul wrote these things: Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf; give thanks for them. If this was the instruction for Timothy and the believers in the Roman Empire how much more applicable are the instructions for believers today? We are clearly instructed to: Ask God to help our leaders; intercede for our leaders; give thanks for our leaders.

As we approach the anniversary of our country’s birth and as we draw near to another election of the leaders, we need to obey the directives of Paul to Timothy. We need to: Ask God to help our leaders. We need to: Intercede for our leaders. We need to give thanks for our leaders.

The goal of praying for those in authority is, ‘so that we can live peaceful and quite lives marked by godliness and dignity.’ Living peaceful and quite lives marked by godliness and dignity happens in two ways. One way is that God answers prayer and the circumstances and conditions of society make it possible for people ‘to live peaceful and quite lives marked by godliness and dignity.’

The other way that this happens, is that God answers prayer by forming the attitude in people so that they ‘live peaceful and quite lives marked by godliness and dignity’, regardless of the circumstances and conditions of society. God answers prayer and works in hearts, so that His followers have an attitude of peaceful and quite lives marked by godliness and dignity, in a world that is opposed to them and in a society that is out of control.

The follower doesn’t get to choose which way God answers the prayer. The bottom line is that, God wants to create in us ‘peaceful quite lives marked by godliness and dignity’ regardless of what is happening in the land. If you didn’t know it ‘peaceful quite lives marked by godliness and dignity’ is what God is trying to do in you and me when we pray for those in authority.