MORAL ACTION: Should We Still Pray For Our Political Leaders?”

By Dr. John M. Adams, Executive Director • Moral Action

Our Heavenly Father hasn’t promised that every political leader will become pure and righteous if we pray, but He still commands us to pray for our leaders and those of other nations as well. The Bible says, “I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men. For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.” (I Tim. 2:1-2).

You might say the world is still rocked by conflicts and corruption and lawlessness but let me ask you a question — How much worse would the world be if God’s people didn’t pray? What if we simply gave up and allowed the devil to carry on his schemes without interference? We may never know what impact our prayers are having — but God is still at work in response to the prayers of Christians. Lloyd Ogilvie said, “I’ve never witnessed such intense hatred and vitriol in Washington D.C. The disdain between the Democratic and Republican parties has plunged to new depths. The drive to rule is tearing our country apart.”

“Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints” (Eph. 6:18).

• Pray for our leaders, for wisdom and guidance in the days to come.

• Pray for both parties, that they will put aside their animosity and partisan politics for the sake of the unity of our great nation.

• Pray that the hostility will cease, and that peacemakers from both sides of the aisle will provide the courageous leadership so desperately needed.

When Benjamin Franklin emerged from the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia after helping forge the U.S. Constitution, he was asked what sort of government the delegates had created. His reply was, “A republic, if you can keep it.”

Our nation was born in a quest for religious liberty and founded on Christian morals and spiritual principles. John Adams, an original signer of the Declaration of Independence and our second president, wrote a profound letter to the Massachusetts Militia in the fall of 1798, saying, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

“Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much” (James 5:16).

“I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men. For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.” (I Tim. 2:1-2).

What a difficult and different approach to governmental authority. Even if we disagree, we are to pray for those who rule the daily affairs of our lives.

In Acts 17:7, the early church had been accused of action against the decrees of Caesar and having another king — Jesus Himself. Their enemies effectively accused them of dissatisfaction with the ruling parties. Paul encouraged these early believers to look to God as the One who had placed these men in authority.

• Pray that they would have wisdom. This was Solomon’s prayer as he ruled the nation of Israel — that he would have “an understanding mind to govern the people” (I Kings 3:9 ESV).

• Pray that our leaders would have wisdom to know right and the strength to do it.

• Pray that they would have discernment. This is the ability to know right from wrong — to know God’s leading as opposed to the leading of the enemy (I Kings 3:9). Pray that God would protect them from lies and deception.

• Pray that they would be instruments of God. This was Paul’s instruction that rulers, authorities and governing bodies were actually “servants of God” (Romans 13:4 ESV). Pray that our leaders would lead a society marked by tranquility, godliness and dignity

Oh, how we need all of Christian folk to rise up in prayer. God can and will hear us as we pray!