Praying for authorities

1 Timothy 2: 1-2, “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life.”

The concept of praying for the governing bodies that rule over one, or even others is one that is a truth and of importance among the believers. This is not to say that we place our salvation in government or in the laws passed by government but rather that we pray that God would be working in the lives of them to direct them in ways that will allow Christians to perform their reasonable service to God free from persecutions at times. This is also not to say that one will never face persecutions and therefore we should cease to pray when they come. Rather Paul tells Timothy and actually urges him that the practice is good and profitable, and pleasing in the sight of God (v. 3).

Personally I think it is often times difficult to know how to guide ones prayer for a government one might agree with yet often makes decisions against our conscience or even to pray for a government one does not agree with altogether. The same can be said about our governing authorities at our jobs, our various forms of recreation, or even in the homes that we live in.

In Psalms 72 we see the psalmist writing a psalm or even a prayer to God for the king of the land. We see a starting point by which we can begin to see HOW to pray for our governing bodies, our authorities, our leaders, and our “heads” of various organizations. In this psalm we see the prayer being that they would have the justice and their progeny would practice righteousness. The prayer is for a righteous government continually, that would be God-honoring and of good benefit. There is a prayer for the authority judging righteously, an aspect that asks for prosperity for the people, and righteousness to exist among the people. A prayer that the authority would protect the poor, give deliverance, that they would fear God, that peace would abound. These are things that we can pray for earnestly and seek God to instill and bring about… “that we may lead a peaceable and quiet life.” It is not wrong to pray for this and to pray for the righteousness of our authorities…but it is not in keeping with the urging of Paul and the Scriptures to not pray for them at all. Even Psalm 72:15 it states, “…May prayer be made for him continually, and blessing invoked for him all the day!”

The Psalm in a more serious sense gives a good picture to Christians of what the Reign of Christ will look like. He will encompass all of this, will bless the righteous, will prosper the saints, and will bless those who serve and worship the Lamb of God. It is a beautiful picture of what we can hope and pray for in the rule and leadership of Christ over His church and over His creation and in that sense should encourage prayer in 2 ways. The first is praying that the leaders would in essence lead and govern in a way that resembles Christ’s true leadership. The other is to pray that Christ would enact HIS leadership and to look forward to the coming kingdom of Christ!

As we continue or even start to pray for government it will begin to focus our attention to the work of God in various other areas of our lives and world that we might not otherwise notice. It will encourage us to trust God and His sovereign appointment of all who are in authority (Romans 13) and will continue to allow us to say as Psalm 75:18-19 state, “Blessed be the Lord, The God of Israel, who alone does wondrous things. Blessed be His glorious name forever; may the whole earth be filled with his glory!...”

Let’s begin to practice the encouragement of Paul to Timothy, begin to pray for our leaders, our governing authorities, both in the church and in the various other areas of our daily living. Seek to serve God even in our prayer life that we might continue to say…Blessed be the Lord, who alone does wondrous things. Continue to submit and align our thoughts to His thoughts, and look forward to the coming kingdom of the Lamb of God!