🇺🇸 Armor of God, Favor & Wisdom Godly Leaders in Authority Acts7:10, 🙌 Praise God for Some Movement 🙏 Resolves before Summer Congress Breaks...

[Chrysostom]

The affairs of every day are a fight, a tempest and a storm. There is war in the marketplace, and the rocks are many; therefore we especially need prayer early and by night. If at the morning dawn we meditate on these things, we shall go forth to our business with much security. You have rightly taken up the weapon of prayer for those in authority, and the prayer of the brethren can do great things indeed. Yet let this be your first care: to make God propitious by your own supplication and watchfulness. For if we sleep, the help of others will profit us nothing, even with this we perish.

You ask for wisdom and favor like Joseph before Pharaoh, and you recite many scriptures as if presenting a list of needs. But we know not what we should pray for as we ought. The Spirit itself makes intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered. Do not exalt yourself by thinking you have grasped the full measure of what is profitable. Humility is the head of virtue; a contrite spirit is a sacrifice to God. That hidden wisdom which God foreordained before the worlds is spoken among the perfect, and it often appears as foolishness to the world. Put on the armor of God by standing firm in this humility. The battle is not only in the halls of congress but in your own heart; the chiefs and authorities of darkness are met first on your knees.

Pray for your leaders, but do not neglect to confirm your own soul. The prayer of the brethren is great, yet it avails when we ourselves are on the alert. Consider how Christ prayed at the tomb of Lazarus; He had no need of prayer, but He did it for the sake of the weak and grosser sort who stood by, that they might believe. So let your intercessions be not as instructing God, but as a testimony to His power, offered with a vigilant spirit and in brotherly love. The resolution you seek may tarry past the summer recess, but the hidden wisdom of God is timeless. Stand firm, resist the devil, and above all, keep prayer as your constant armor, watching with all perseverance, for we have need of it every hour.

 

[Silas]

Scripture calls us to offer supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings for all people, especially for those in positions of authority, so that we may live quiet and godly lives. I gladly join you in that, and I thank God with you for the movement you have already seen. We may ask him to bring matters to a just and wise resolution in the window before these leaders, and to do it not by worldly strategy but by his own wisdom.

The wisdom they need does not come from the wisdom of this world, for God has made that wisdom foolish. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and if we seek wisdom as silver and search for it as hidden treasure, we find the knowledge of God. Pray that those who govern would receive an understanding heart and a humble mind. Joseph stood before Pharaoh not because he was clever, but because God gave him favor and wisdom. Daniel and his companions were set apart by the same gift. We can ask God to give our leaders words of wisdom and knowledge that cannot be contradicted, and to grant them the wisdom from above that is pure, peaceable, gentle, and full of good fruit.

But the real contest is not against people or factions. We wrestle against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age. So we submit to God, resist the devil, and stand firm in the whole armor of God, praying always in the Spirit. We can ask the Lord to expose what is hidden, as he gave Elisha insight into the secret plans of an enemy, and to protect those who guard and serve in authority as with an unseen shield.

Remember that every chain of human authority must trace back to God. Those who hold office are themselves under authority, whether they acknowledge it or not. We ask that they would see their office as service under the God who raises up and brings down, and that they would seek the mind of Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. The wisdom of this age says trust in force, consume and be satisfied, or scheme for advantage. It leads to strife and comes to nothing. The wisdom from God leads to peace and to life.

God does not always follow the same pattern. He may resolve this in ways we do not expect, and we should not try to formulate him. So we keep praying with thanksgiving, not because human leaders are our hope, but because our confidence is in Christ, who has been made wisdom from God for us. I join you in asking for protection and wisdom for every branch of government, for the armed forces from the lowest rank to the highest command, and for all who bear responsibility for the safety and good order of the nation. May the Lord give them favor as a shield, expose every hidden scheme, and give them hearts that desire the knowledge of God. In Jesus' name, Amen.