For the Sake of Our Country | In Jesus’ Name.
Haha… 2 days ago, I posted exactly what this devotional was about. See ‘Pray for all people’… even politicians? to see. There’s really nothing more to say based on today’s devo…
Interesting… why did it hit me two days ago?
Running After Papa…
I’m doing a devotional produced by our church and for the first four days, our memory verse has been 1 Timothy 2:1-2 from the New Living Translation:
I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them. Pray this way for kings and all who are in authority so that we can live peaceful and quiet lives marked by godliness and dignity.
OK. That verse, by itself, is enough for this post… but I’ll continue.
It’s election time here – the Republican primaries have begun and the every night there is some sort of “Live Breaking News” and some political pundit projects and declares a “winner” with 3% of precincts reporting – just to be first to declare a winner (and they don’t really even care if they’re correct)… I frankly hate the election season for exactly that reason. Why don’t they just wait until it’s completely counted and tell us ONE TIME instead of hundreds of times a day… but I digress…
The point is this – regardless of my political point of view or my likes or dislikes of government officials and those running our country – God calls me to “…pray for all people. Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them.”
Paul has laid out the foundation of our prayers for other people – God to help them; intercede for them; give thanks for them.
“Pray this way for kings and all who are in authority…” – say what? It’s easy to ask God to help our leaders. It’s the last two ways that are the doozies.
“Intercede on their behalf…” What does that mean? The Message translation puts it this way. “Pray every way you know how…” That implies some thought, preparation, work, commitment and time. That means the President, Vice-President, his Cabinet members, the Senate, the House, the Judges (all of them), my boss(es) at work, the principals at my kids schools, our city governments, our school leaderships, the coaches of my kids teams, their teachers, the police and other emergency responders, our military leaders, – ALL OF THEM. “… pray this way for all people.”
“give thanks for them,” seriously? Dude – that’s hard. It’s easy to give thanks for the ones I agree with. It’s hard to give thanks for the others – especially the ones I violently disagree with and would never support in any campaign or election. But God calls me to give thanks for them. Jesus died for them too and God is still bigger and stronger than any government or any country or any World Order.
This is the command of our Lord. Our obedience to his commands will bring blessing and Paul doesn’t fail to tell us that that is.
“… that we can live peaceful and quiet lives…” – that’s something I can get on board with. That’s an outward blessing and benefit God provides for us.
Obedience to God’s commands doesn’t just do something for us – it does something in us. When we obey – when we do the hard things (and believe me, praying for ALL politicians the way described in this verse is HARD!) we become “…marked by godliness and dignity.”
God, help me to live out 1 Timothy 2:1-2 and to earnestly, honestly pray for everyone – especially in this time of heated debate and season when opinions and judgements are easily formed. Help me to pray for our leaders – our current ones and our new ones as the elections continue this year.
…Running After Papa…