As we all watch a new administration settle in to the White House, Christians struggle openly with an issue that we usually only pay attention to during and immediately following an election – how do we pray for our government? It doesn’t matter if you are excited by the results of the election, or disappointed with them. How do we pray biblically for our leaders?
As we think about how we pray for our leaders, we must first acknowledge that we are called to pray for them. God is clear about his expectations in 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, godly and dignified in every way.”
However, we are not to pray for our leaders grudgingly because we can’t figure out a way around 1 Timothy 2. Instead, we need to realize that the gospel compels us to pray for our leaders eagerly. Christ summarizes the law of God, what God requires of his people, saying, “”You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” The gospel requires us to love our leaders as our neighbors. We can not glorify God and enjoy him forever if we do not love our leaders as our neighbors – and that requires praying for them.
As we respond to the gospel call to pray for them, we wonder how to pray for them biblically. Often how we pray depends on our personal feelings towards them. If we like them or their policies, we give thanks for them and pray for wisdom. If we don’t like them or their policies, we pray for God to change their hearts and make them agree with us, or for God to protect us and our nation, state, community while we undergo this judgement from him. But is this what God intends? Is this his gospel being worked out or ours?
Obviously our prayers are different based upon our view of our leaders, but biblically how are we called to pray? According to 1 Timothy 2 we pray for them and “all people” the same way. This means that we pray for them, their families, and their work governing us. We pray for protection for them and their families, for peace in tough times, for wisdom as they face the challenges of the fallen world we live in. No matter the political party, where we see that they do not acknowledge or uphold biblical standards, we pray for God to align their wills with his. And ultimately, we pray that they (whether they profess Christianity or not) acknowledge that he alone is the sovereign God who controls all things.
With every election and every leader, there are those who rejoice and those who fear. Whether you are overjoyed by our leaders or concerned about them, the call upon us is the same – to remember that our allegiance and hope are found in Christ alone and not in man. God has promised that his will will be done on earth as it is in heaven. No leader is the messiah, the anointed one, the savior of the world, nation, state, etc. Only Christ can claim this. And no leader is the ultimate expression of evil, or an adversary for us to judge. Christ alone is our hope and he alone is Lord.
Christians who are more elated than troubled by their leaders need to remember that though he works through human beings, our hope is in Christ alone. Man is but the instrument and God is the true ruler.
Christians who are more troubled than elated also need to remember that their hope is in Christ alone. Beyond this, they need to remember that we are to love our neighbors. We are not free to disparage, vilify, or ridicule any who are made in the image of God, for in doing so we speak of the God whose image they bear. In Exodus 22:28 God clearly commands his people, “You shall not revile God, nor curse a ruler of your people.” And he makes it clear in James 3 that our words reveal our heart: “[B]ut no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water?” Instead, the burden to pray for our leaders is all the greater.
Some specific Scripture passages that deal with our duty towards our leaders (though the gospel itself calls out our duty):