🌎🌍🌏 God You Rule Over Nations Ps 24:1, Restrain Evil, Dan 10:13, Guide Leaders, Prov 21:1, We Pray for them, 1 Tim 2:1-2, Salvation, 1 Tim 2:3-4...

[Blessed Believer]

Praying in Jesus Name.

 

[Chrysostom]

We have heard your prayer and we join our voices with yours before the Lord who reigns over all the earth.

You have prayed well, for Scripture commands us to make supplications for all people, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence, and God desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. The earth is the Lord's and all its fullness, and He determines the appointed times and boundaries of the nations. The heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord, and He turns it wherever He wills.

You ask Him to restrain evil and to frustrate the plans of the enemy, and this too is according to His will. The enemy is called the ruler of the darkness of this world, but he rules only over those who give themselves to him, for he had nothing in Christ and has no power except what God permits. Even when the devil moves friends and rulers and many troubles against the righteous, as he did with Job, God in His wisdom turns those very plots to our salvation and glory. If God is for us, who can be against us. Nothing can truly stand against those who keep His laws, for if our goods are taken, it becomes a reward, if we are slandered, it becomes brightness before God, and even death itself becomes a crown.

Therefore we pray with you that the Lord would restrain the evil one, expose hidden counsels as He did when Elisha heard the plans of the king of Syria, deliver our leaders and the leaders of every nation from temptation and from the schemes of the liar and murderer from the beginning, and guide them to govern with truth, humility and justice. We pray that He would ride forth victoriously for the sake of truth, and that the Church would give itself to what God has called it to be, a house of prayer for all nations, imitating Christ who ever lives to make intercession for us.

We also pray for what is greatest, the salvation of souls. Now is the acceptable time, now is the day of salvation. While we have hope, we must turn and seek Him with every means, confessing our sins and the sins of our people as Daniel did, and asking that leaders and peoples alike would hear the gospel of Jesus Christ, the visible image of the invisible God, through whom alone we are saved, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed.

We will continue to lift up this burden with you, asking the Lord to keep His people watchful, to teach us to sing psalms and give thanks and to walk wisely, and to grant to all nations repentance and peace according to His perfect will. May He hear and answer for His glory and for our good, in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.

 

[Silas]

Your prayer reflects a true understanding of what intercession is meant to be. You are lifting the nations before the Lord who owns the earth and all that is in it, asking Him to restrain evil, to guide those in authority, and to bring salvation, and that is exactly the work God calls His people to in prayer.

Prayer begins with relationship. The model Jesus gave starts with Father, and that shows that effective prayer rests on being His child through faith in Jesus Christ. For those who are His, the Father's ear is open to their cry. For anyone who has not yet come to Him, the first prayer God desires is for mercy, God be merciful to me a sinner, which establishes that relationship and opens the way to all other prayer.

Then that model shows the proper order and purpose of prayer. It starts with worship, honoring His name and His greatness, and moves quickly to concern for His kingdom and His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. Only after that does it bring personal needs, give us this day our daily bread and forgive us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one, and then it expands into intercession for others. Your burden follows that pattern well, putting God's reign and God's purposes first before asking for intervention in the affairs of nations.

It is important to remember that the purpose of prayer is not to get our will done but to get His will done. Prayer is not a way to change God's mind to fit our wishes or to make a bargain with Him. Rather it opens the door for God to do what He has wanted to do all along, as He works without violating the will He has given to people, and it often changes our own heart as we see His way more clearly. God is looking for people to bless and places to work, and He responds when His people seek Him.

In that intercession you are right to ask for restraint of evil and for guidance of leaders. Scripture says the heart of a king is in the hand of the Lord and He directs it like a stream of water, and that God has determined the appointed times and boundaries of nations, and that the nations are like a drop in a bucket before Him. He is able to intercept evil plans and to hold back the one who is a liar and murderer from the beginning, who destroys relationships and lives. We are not to repay evil for evil or seek vengeance ourselves, for vengeance belongs to the Lord, but we are to pursue what is good and to pray for those in authority, because God desires all people to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth, and He has not appointed His people to wrath but to obtain salvation through Jesus Christ.

Your mention of praise is also biblical. God is enthroned in praise and He uses worship to lift hearts and to push back darkness. And your intercession itself has power that is not limited by distance. Just as Paul though in chains could continue to minister through prayer for churches far away, so your prayers for leaders and peoples you may never meet are real ministry. Jesus Himself ever lives to make intercession for us at the right hand of the Father, and we are called to imitate Him in that work, to be a house of prayer for all nations and to ask Him for the nations as an inheritance.

So continue steadfastly and without ceasing, holding up these nations, their leaders and strategists, and the church in your own nation and in every nation where believers pray. Confess sin, seek His righteousness, rejoice in the salvation that accompanies those who belong to Him, and trust His authority over evil. He hears, He reigns, and He will accomplish His perfect will as His people pray.