Silas
Beloved of All
Your commitment to pray for those in authority is right and biblical, and God is pleased when His people bring kings and all who govern before Him. Scripture tells us to make petitions, prayers and thanksgiving for all people, for those in authority, so that we may live quiet and godly lives, and that God desires all to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.
In praying for national and world leaders, the greatest gift to ask for them is wisdom. When Solomon was given the opportunity to ask for anything, he did not ask for riches or honor but for wisdom to lead well, and God was pleased with that choice and gave him wisdom and also added what he had not asked for. That is a pattern for how we should pray for presidents, vice presidents, cabinet members and all who lead. True wisdom is not the cleverness of this world. The wisdom of this world is earthly and self seeking and leads to confusion, and God has shown that the world by its own wisdom does not know Him. The wisdom that comes from above is first pure, then peaceable and gentle, and it dwells with prudence and hates evil. It is better than silver or gold or rubies, and nothing we desire can compare with it. So we pray that leaders would seek wisdom as a hidden treasure, that they would come to the fear of the Lord which is the beginning of wisdom, and that in Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, they would find knowledge and understanding. We pray that God would set a guard over their mouths and give them the tongue of the wise, that they would be surrounded by godly counsel and turn from envy and strife toward what is pure and just and merciful and humble before God.
We also join you in praying for unity among nations and for our own cities and neighborhoods. Lasting unity cannot come from human strategy alone but from the wisdom that is from above, which brings peace. We pray that God would frustrate plans that divide and destroy and that He would protect leaders and ordinary people alike. For our local areas, we pray as you have, that we would seek the welfare of the city where God has placed us, and that the Holy Spirit would convict neighbors, students, teachers, workers, parents, pastors and law enforcement of sin and righteousness and judgment to come, and draw them to Jesus. Scripture reminds us that prayer begins with relationship. The Father's ear is open to His children, and the one prayer He waits to hear from those who are not yet His children is, God be merciful to me, a sinner. Through faith in Jesus Christ alone we are brought into that relationship, and then our prayers have their foundation. We pray that many would hear the Word, receive saving faith as a gift, and be kept from evil as God promises to be a wall of fire around His people.
For provision, we pray with you for daily bread and for contentment with godliness, which is great gain. God restores and gives the fruit of His Spirit, love, joy and peace, and a cheerful heart, and we ask that His blessing would rest on what He provides. And we remember those in chains, the persecuted church around the world and the peace of Jerusalem, asking God to release those imprisoned for their faith, to comfort the suffering, and to guard His people.
Above all, we pray not simply to see our own wishes accomplished, but to see God's will done on earth as it is in heaven. Prayer is not a way to bend God to our plans, but a way for His kingdom and His purposes to be accomplished. As we agree together in prayer, we trust that God hears and answers according to His perfect will, and we thank Him in advance for what He will do in the name of Jesus, by whom alone we have access to the Father and salvation.
In praying for national and world leaders, the greatest gift to ask for them is wisdom. When Solomon was given the opportunity to ask for anything, he did not ask for riches or honor but for wisdom to lead well, and God was pleased with that choice and gave him wisdom and also added what he had not asked for. That is a pattern for how we should pray for presidents, vice presidents, cabinet members and all who lead. True wisdom is not the cleverness of this world. The wisdom of this world is earthly and self seeking and leads to confusion, and God has shown that the world by its own wisdom does not know Him. The wisdom that comes from above is first pure, then peaceable and gentle, and it dwells with prudence and hates evil. It is better than silver or gold or rubies, and nothing we desire can compare with it. So we pray that leaders would seek wisdom as a hidden treasure, that they would come to the fear of the Lord which is the beginning of wisdom, and that in Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, they would find knowledge and understanding. We pray that God would set a guard over their mouths and give them the tongue of the wise, that they would be surrounded by godly counsel and turn from envy and strife toward what is pure and just and merciful and humble before God.
We also join you in praying for unity among nations and for our own cities and neighborhoods. Lasting unity cannot come from human strategy alone but from the wisdom that is from above, which brings peace. We pray that God would frustrate plans that divide and destroy and that He would protect leaders and ordinary people alike. For our local areas, we pray as you have, that we would seek the welfare of the city where God has placed us, and that the Holy Spirit would convict neighbors, students, teachers, workers, parents, pastors and law enforcement of sin and righteousness and judgment to come, and draw them to Jesus. Scripture reminds us that prayer begins with relationship. The Father's ear is open to His children, and the one prayer He waits to hear from those who are not yet His children is, God be merciful to me, a sinner. Through faith in Jesus Christ alone we are brought into that relationship, and then our prayers have their foundation. We pray that many would hear the Word, receive saving faith as a gift, and be kept from evil as God promises to be a wall of fire around His people.
For provision, we pray with you for daily bread and for contentment with godliness, which is great gain. God restores and gives the fruit of His Spirit, love, joy and peace, and a cheerful heart, and we ask that His blessing would rest on what He provides. And we remember those in chains, the persecuted church around the world and the peace of Jerusalem, asking God to release those imprisoned for their faith, to comfort the suffering, and to guard His people.
Above all, we pray not simply to see our own wishes accomplished, but to see God's will done on earth as it is in heaven. Prayer is not a way to bend God to our plans, but a way for His kingdom and His purposes to be accomplished. As we agree together in prayer, we trust that God hears and answers according to His perfect will, and we thank Him in advance for what He will do in the name of Jesus, by whom alone we have access to the Father and salvation.
