Chrysostom
Beloved of All
Your prayer for leaders and nations is good and pleasing before God, and I join you in it with thanksgiving. Scripture commands us to offer petitions, prayers, intercessions and thanksgivings for all in authority, whether we like them or not, and this duty is not removed by our preferences. We do this so that we may lead quiet lives in all godliness and dignity, and because God our Savior desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth, as it is written in 1 Timothy 2:1 to 4.
We pray with you for wisdom for presidents, prime ministers, kings, parliaments, governors, congress members, judges, generals, service members and pastors, and for their families. The wisdom we ask for them is not the wisdom of this world, nor of the rulers of this world who are coming to nothing. That worldly wisdom, when it trusts in itself and refuses the help of the Spirit, becomes foolishness even while it seems wise. The true wisdom is the wisdom of God in mystery, hidden before the ages for our glory, which is the Gospel, the way of salvation through the Cross of Christ. The perfect are those who believe. So we pray not only for skill in governing but for salvation itself, that leaders and peoples would know Christ, the Captain of our salvation, who alone saves, for there is no other name by which we are saved.
We agree that the Lord God Omnipotent reigns, as Revelation 19:6 says, and that He has taken His great power and begun to reign. He works all things after the counsel of His will, He thwarts the plans of the wicked, and He works all things together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. The heart of a king is like channels of water in the hand of the Lord, He turns it wherever He pleases, and He sits in the heavens and does whatever He pleases. Therefore we pray that He would raise up and set down according to His righteous purpose, that He would grant humility and clarity in what leaders say and how they say it, that He would foster godly alliances among free peoples and diminish evil alignments, and that He would preserve free speech and the open proclamation of the Gospel so that nations may be called to repentance and to become disciples of the Lord Jesus, according to Matthew 28:18 to 20.
We pray also for protection. We put on the armor of God and ask for His loving kindness, truth and angelic guard over you and over those in authority, for Christ who is in us is greater than he who is in the world, and no power of the serpent and his fallen angels can prevail against those who submit to God and belong to Christ. We pray for the peace of God to guard hearts and minds in Christ Jesus as we bring these requests with thanksgiving, trusting that God hears when we ask according to His will.
Continue steadfast in this intercession, praying for the Beautiful Land and its people worldwide, for all nations, and for the leaders God has allowed to be in power, that God would grant them repentance, wisdom from above, and protection, and that through the foolishness of preaching, which the world counts as folly but which is in truth the power and wisdom of God, many would be saved.
We pray with you for wisdom for presidents, prime ministers, kings, parliaments, governors, congress members, judges, generals, service members and pastors, and for their families. The wisdom we ask for them is not the wisdom of this world, nor of the rulers of this world who are coming to nothing. That worldly wisdom, when it trusts in itself and refuses the help of the Spirit, becomes foolishness even while it seems wise. The true wisdom is the wisdom of God in mystery, hidden before the ages for our glory, which is the Gospel, the way of salvation through the Cross of Christ. The perfect are those who believe. So we pray not only for skill in governing but for salvation itself, that leaders and peoples would know Christ, the Captain of our salvation, who alone saves, for there is no other name by which we are saved.
We agree that the Lord God Omnipotent reigns, as Revelation 19:6 says, and that He has taken His great power and begun to reign. He works all things after the counsel of His will, He thwarts the plans of the wicked, and He works all things together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. The heart of a king is like channels of water in the hand of the Lord, He turns it wherever He pleases, and He sits in the heavens and does whatever He pleases. Therefore we pray that He would raise up and set down according to His righteous purpose, that He would grant humility and clarity in what leaders say and how they say it, that He would foster godly alliances among free peoples and diminish evil alignments, and that He would preserve free speech and the open proclamation of the Gospel so that nations may be called to repentance and to become disciples of the Lord Jesus, according to Matthew 28:18 to 20.
We pray also for protection. We put on the armor of God and ask for His loving kindness, truth and angelic guard over you and over those in authority, for Christ who is in us is greater than he who is in the world, and no power of the serpent and his fallen angels can prevail against those who submit to God and belong to Christ. We pray for the peace of God to guard hearts and minds in Christ Jesus as we bring these requests with thanksgiving, trusting that God hears when we ask according to His will.
Continue steadfast in this intercession, praying for the Beautiful Land and its people worldwide, for all nations, and for the leaders God has allowed to be in power, that God would grant them repentance, wisdom from above, and protection, and that through the foolishness of preaching, which the world counts as folly but which is in truth the power and wisdom of God, many would be saved.
