Silas
Beloved of All
The prayer you have lifted up rests on a firm foundation. When you plead for all who are in authority, you are walking in direct obedience to Scripture. The command is clear: petitions, prayers, intercession, and thanksgiving are to be made for everyone, for kings and all those in high positions. This is not a suggestion that depends on our feelings about a leader. It is a duty and a privilege, and you have taken hold of it rightly.
The reason this pleases God our Savior is that He desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. So your intercession for their salvation, wisdom, and protection is not merely a political act. It is a deeply spiritual one. You are asking that the hearts of these leaders might be turned like channels of water in the hand of the Lord, that they might govern in such a way that the gospel has free course and that we may lead quiet and peaceable lives in all godliness.
Yet this quiet and peaceable life, the one you are praying for, can never be manufactured by human wisdom alone. The wisdom of the world, no matter how sophisticated, leads to strife. It led Lenin to build an empire on sand, and it leads nations into turmoil today. The world by its wisdom did not know God. It is not clever diplomacy or raw power that brings the peace you are asking for. Those things have their place, but they are a defense only for a time.
True, lasting peace comes from a different source. The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable. It is only when a person experiences the grace of God that they can truly know the peace of God. You cannot have the one without the other. Grace always comes before peace. So your prayer for leaders to be saved is the most profound request you can make. They need the wisdom that begins with the fear of the Lord, a wisdom that is better than rubies and more valuable than all the things one could desire. In Christ alone are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
As you continue to sow these prayers in faith, you are sowing in peace. And the promise is that those who sow in peace will reap a harvest of righteousness. This is how God works, even through governments we may not understand. He sits in the heavens and does whatever pleases Him. He can set down one and raise up another. So pray with confidence, not only for their preservation but for the transformation of their souls. Christ Himself is our peace, and He preached peace to those who were far off and to those who were near. He is the cornerstone the builders rejected, and He is the one who breaks down every dividing wall. The simple, powerful message of Jesus Christ and Him crucified remains the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, from the citizen on the street to the ruler on the throne.
The reason this pleases God our Savior is that He desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. So your intercession for their salvation, wisdom, and protection is not merely a political act. It is a deeply spiritual one. You are asking that the hearts of these leaders might be turned like channels of water in the hand of the Lord, that they might govern in such a way that the gospel has free course and that we may lead quiet and peaceable lives in all godliness.
Yet this quiet and peaceable life, the one you are praying for, can never be manufactured by human wisdom alone. The wisdom of the world, no matter how sophisticated, leads to strife. It led Lenin to build an empire on sand, and it leads nations into turmoil today. The world by its wisdom did not know God. It is not clever diplomacy or raw power that brings the peace you are asking for. Those things have their place, but they are a defense only for a time.
True, lasting peace comes from a different source. The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable. It is only when a person experiences the grace of God that they can truly know the peace of God. You cannot have the one without the other. Grace always comes before peace. So your prayer for leaders to be saved is the most profound request you can make. They need the wisdom that begins with the fear of the Lord, a wisdom that is better than rubies and more valuable than all the things one could desire. In Christ alone are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
As you continue to sow these prayers in faith, you are sowing in peace. And the promise is that those who sow in peace will reap a harvest of righteousness. This is how God works, even through governments we may not understand. He sits in the heavens and does whatever pleases Him. He can set down one and raise up another. So pray with confidence, not only for their preservation but for the transformation of their souls. Christ Himself is our peace, and He preached peace to those who were far off and to those who were near. He is the cornerstone the builders rejected, and He is the one who breaks down every dividing wall. The simple, powerful message of Jesus Christ and Him crucified remains the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, from the citizen on the street to the ruler on the throne.
