Author: John Page 137 of 167

Zephaniah 3:1-3 “Woe to her that is filthy and polluted, to the oppressing city!  She obeyed not the voice; she received not correction; she trusted not in the LORD; she drew not near to her God.  Her princes within her are roaring lions; her judges are evening wolves; they gnaw not the bones till the morrow.”

Zephaniah 3:6 “I have cut off the nations: their towers are desolate; I made their streets waste, that none passeth by; their cities are destroyed, so that there is no man, that there is none inhabitant.”

The next reason to pray for our leaders is a very practical one.  Our leaders have a significant impact on our lives and their conduct influences us in substantial and tangible ways.  The extremes of this leadership dipole are starkly contrasted in I Timothy 2 (see the All in Authority post from July 27^th) and in Zephaniah 3.  Through leadership, we can lead “quiet and peaceable” lives or we can have our streets made waste and our cities destroyed.   We can be characterized by “godliness and honesty” or we can be “filthy and polluted.”  God can consider us “good and acceptable” or He can extend to us the sorrowful salutation “Woe to her.”

In a sermon entitled “Intercession, Every Christian’s Duty” George Whitefield provided a wonderful and succinct summary of this line of thinking:

“Next to the praying for all men, we should, according to St. Paul’s rule, pray for Kings; particularly for our present sovereign King George, and all that are put in authority under him; that we may lead quiet lives, in all godliness and honesty.  For, if we consider how heavy the burden of government is, and how much the welfare of any people depends on the zeal and godly conversation of those that have the rule over them … we shall not only pity, but pray for them”

PLEASE PRAY FOR AMERICAN LEADERS TO BE FILLED WITH ZEAL AND GODLY CONVERSATION.  Our welfare depends upon it.

Psalm 9:20 “Put them in fear, O LORD: that the nations may know themselves to be but men.  Selah.”

A nation is a mere reflection of its individuals.  A country is but a composition of its citizens; America is but a composition of Americans.  Thus, if we want to see our nation transformed then we need to begin at the individual level.  Those who most greatly impact our national character are our leaders, and our faithful prayer for them is a good place to start.

A leader of an organization of any size has a disproportionate influence on the character and culture of that organization, a humbling thought for those in leadership positions.  The situation is no different for the leader of a city, state, or nation.  If the Lord were to mold the hearts of a few select individuals around us, then we would see that transformation manifested in a large scale way.  PLEASE PRAY FAITHFULLY AND FERVENTLY FOR THOSE WHO HAVE THE GREATEST INFLUENCE ON OUR LAND.

Of course, a leader is a mere reflection of those who voted for him (or who failed to vote at all).  Thus, a nation gets the leaders that it deserves, those leaders who reflect the character of the nation’s citizens.  While the thoughts above should prompt us to pray for our leaders, these thoughts should also prompt us to closely examine ourselves.  Is the nation a reflection of my testimony?  Is my life truly distinct and different from the national culture that I claim to oppose?  Am I getting the leaders that I deserve?  If this nation were like me, would it be more like our nation today or more like the nation founded by our Christian forefathers?  Such an examination should prompt prayer for individual revival in our own lives, which is always the trigger for something greater.  PLEASE PRAY FOR INDIVIDUAL REVIVAL SO THAT A LAND THAT REFLECTS OUR INDIVIDUAL CHARACTER WOULD BE CHRIST-LIKE.

Jeremiah 33:3 “Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.”

We should pray for our nation and its leaders because our Lord is a marvelous God who stands ready to amaze us.  We are directed to call unto Him so that He can answer us in His great and mighty ways that we cannot even fathom until He acts.  The moment we give up on praying is the moment we give up on the power of prayer and give up on our amazing God.

The Lord has done great and mighty things by miraculously allowing this nation to succeed in its bid for independence.  He has done great and mighty things by miraculously forming this nation upon a Christian foundation.  He has done great and mighty things time and again by miraculously enabling this nation to be a “Shining City on a Hill” as it puts its underlying Christian principles into action on the world stage.

We know not what the Lord stands ready to do in this land today if we are faithful to pray for our nation and its leaders.  We know not how He will shew Himself great and mighty.  We know not what situations He will alter or what individuals He will transform.  Sadly, we will never know unless we are faithful to call unto Him.

PLEASE CALL UNTO THE LORD DAILY AND FERVENTLY REGARDING OUR NATION AND ITS LEADERS.  Then, stand back and be ready to be amazed.

I Kings 3:9 “Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad: for who is able to judge this thy so great a people?”

Leaders face challenges that we can only imagine.  These challenges are made all the more daunting when they trust in their own wisdom to solve them.  Solomon recognized his insufficiency, and his willingness to turn to the Lord for wisdom and discernment “pleased the Lord.”  Through his humility, God allowed Solomon to “judge this thy so great a people.”  Senate Chaplain Peter Marshall recognized this same important truth and prayed:

“We need Thy strength, Thy guidance, Thy wisdom. There are problems far greater than any wisdom of man can solve.  What shall our leaders do in such an hour?  May Thy wisdom and Thy power come upon the President of these United States, the Senators and Congressmen, to whom have been entrusted leadership.  May the responsibility lie heavily on their hearts, until they are ready to acknowledge their helplessness and turn to Thee.  Give to them the honesty, the courage, and the moral integrity to confess that they don’t know what to do.  Only then can they lead us as a nation beyond human wisdom to Thee, who alone hast the answer.”

Until our leaders recognize their need for full reliance on the Lord, we must pray in their stead as Marshall recommends.  Our problems are far greater than they can solve.  Our problems are far greater than we can solve.  Until our nation – its leaders and its citizens – comes to the point where we recognize our helplessness, we will flail about in our own insufficient wisdom.  Yet, once we humbly rely upon the Lord, we can be led “as a nation beyond human wisdom.”

PLEASE PRAY FOR OUR LEADERS TO ACKNOWLEDGE THEIR HELPLESSNESS AND TURN FULLY TO THE LORD.  God alone has the answer for the problems of today and tomorrow, and our leaders only need to humbly ask to receive it.

Proverbs 21:1 “The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will.”

The king’s heart is worth our prayer because it is in the Lord’s hand.  As the Lord wills, so goes the heart of even those who are rich and powerful.  The Chaplain of the Senate in the 1940s, Peter Marshall, recognized that our prayers should focus on the godliness of our most powerful leaders:

“We pray, Lord Jesus, for our President.  We are deeply concerned that he may know the will of God, and that he may have the spiritual courage and grace to follow it.  Deliver him, we pray, from all selfish consideration.  Lift him above the claims of politics.  Fill him with the Spirit of God that shall make him fearless to seek, to know, to do the right.  Save him from the friends who, in the name of politics or even friendship, would persuade him from that holy path.  Strengthen and empower his advisors.  Bring them, too, to their knees in prayer.  May their example and influence spread, that we, in these United States, may yet have a government of men who know Thee, the Almighty God, as their Friend, and who place Thy will first in their lives as well as in their prayers.”

Marshall’s prayer provides a wonderful reminder of the things we should pray about for our most powerful leaders.  We should pray for their salvation, their knowledge of the will of God, and their determination to follow that same will.  We should pray for our leaders to embody selflessness, higher purpose, courage, and discernment.  We should pray the same for those around them.  Only as the king’s heart turns whithersoever God wills it through our intercessory prayers can we expect to return to an America governed by Christian leaders who recognize the Lord’s preeminence in all our affairs.

Regardless of our alignment with our leaders, we should pray for them as Peter Marshall prayed.  In fact, the less we align with them and the more we think they are following an errant path, the more we should pray for them.  For those we oppose, we must recognize that a change of their heart is as simple for the Lord as a flick of the wrist.

PLEASE PRAY THAT OUR LEADERS WOULD GET SAVED AND FAITHFULLY FOLLOW THE WILL OF GOD.   Our prayers, to the Lord that holds the leader’s heart in His hand, may return our nation to a government of men who know the Lord and who faithfully follow Him.  Such an end is certainly worth our time in prayer.

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