More on Prayer

Last week I wrote about praying for everyone you know and said I would pray through my address book. I did that and plan to keep doing it so I can regularly pray for everyone I know. However, the passage in 1 Timothy 2 goes on to tell us about some specific people we should pray for (1 Timothy 2:2):

“for kings and rulers in positions of responsibility, so that our common life may be lived in peace and quiet, with a proper sense of God and of our responsibility to him for what we do with our lives.” (Phillips)

As I read that I thought about the last time I prayed for those in positions of responsibility in our government. It has been a while. It’s not that I’ve never prayed for our governmental leaders, but it has been a long time. I think that during election years I tend to pray for them more and then promptly forget to pray for them in my day to day life.

So this passage prompted me to pray for our governmental leaders starting with the President of the United States and ending with the administrators in our local schools. I confess, I did it once this week and haven’t gone back to it yet. Maybe that will be my application for this coming week.

Also note that the passage tells us why we should pray for these leaders: “so that our common life may be lived in peace and quiet, with a proper sense of God and of our responsibility to him for what we do with our lives.” So I prayed that these people in positions of responsibility would make decisions that allow us to live in peaceful and quiet ways. I also prayed that the decisions they make will allow us to worship the one and only God, i.e. have a proper sense of God. I also prayed that they would make decisions that allow us to serve God as is our responsibility, living our lives in ways that are pleasing to Him.

So, this week, join me in praying for our governmental leaders. Remember to pray that the decisions they make will allow us to live lives that worship and serve God Almighty, and that the decisions those governmental leaders make will allow us to live in peace and quiet.