It’s been a big weekend for birthdays. Yesterday, my sisters [Ceney and Debbie who are not twins] had a birthday. And local friend Laurel and former co-worker Jennifer. And today is Donald’s Trump’s 80th birthday. We are instructed to pray for secular leaders.
1 Timothy 2:1-5 [The Passion Translation]:
Most of all, I’m writing to encourage you to pray with gratitude to God. Pray for all men with all forms of prayers and requests as you intercede with intense passion.
And pray for every political leader and representative, so that we would be able to live tranquil, undisturbed lives, as we worship the awe-inspiring God with pure hearts.
It is pleasing to our Savior [God] to pray for them.
He longs for everyone to embrace his life and return to the full knowledge of the truth.
For God is one, and there is one Mediator between God and the sons of men—the true man, Jesus, the Anointed One.
We learn so many things from this short portion of Paul’s letter to his beloved student and co-minister, Timothy:
1. We pray with gratitude to God. An “attitude of gratitude” makes everything new.
2. We pray for all men with all forms of prayers and requests. That includes praying with our understanding and in the spirit [speaking in tongues]. We pray for those that the Father puts on our hearts. There are SO MANY people to love and pray for.
3. We intercede with intense passion. We put all of our hearts into helping others through prayer. The spirit in us helps us even when we don’t know what to pray for [Romans 8:26-28].
4. We pray for every political leader and representative. Even those we don’t “like” or agree with. Sometimes my prayer is to back down the evil in worldly leaders. But I pray that what they do will allow the gospel to have “free course” [2 Thessalonians 3:1].
5. We pray so that we are able to live tranquil, undisturbed lives. We don’t want the focus of our thinking to be about survival: food, housing, protection from harm or loss of life. Some people live in those situations. Yet God is able to supply our needs even when things are tough. But we pray that we may have lives where we can minister and serve the gospel of deliverance to others.
6. When we are able to live tranquil, undisturbed lives, we can worship our awe-inspiring God with pure hearts. That is the great focus of our time and life.
7. Praying for people is pleasing to God, Who is our Savior in all things. He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to save WHOSOEVER will believe on him.
8. God longs for EVERYONE to embrace his life and return to the full knowledge of the truth. That’s what we can offer through Jesus Christ our Lord!
9. There is ONLY ONE GOD. Despite tradition to the contrary, there is only one God, our Father. And there is only one Lord, Jesus Christ [1 Corinthians 8:6].
10. There is one Mediator between God and the sons of men—the true man, Jesus, the Anointed One. God anointed Jesus with holy spirit power [Acts 10:38]. He did the Father’s will until he could say “it is finished.” Now Jesus is risen to the Father’s right hand and is LORD OF ALL. He is able to rescue any person who turns to him for salvation [Romans 10:9,10,13].
Amen. I love you.
