The Bible tells us that we are to pray for our leaders

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. This is good and pleases God our Savior, who wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth. (1 Timothy 2:1-4)

The political season is going hard and heavy. Everybody has somebody they like that is running for office, and everybody has somebody they do not like. It is easy to grow offensive in our likes and dislikes.

But the Bible tells us that we are to pray for our leaders. The Bible never tells us we are to pray against them. Now you may want change or you may want things to stay the way they are. But no matter how you feel about an elected representative, as an elected representative they are your physical leaders. And you pray for them.

We live in a country that can change its leadership and its corporate vision by voting new people in and old people out. We have that power.

However we do not have the power to speak ill of our leaders. They are from God and God, through his word and the words of the apostle Paul, tells us that we are to pray for them

It is easy to say, well I like this or I do not like that. But remember, this was written in a time when one of the most ruthless emperors Rome ever had was in power. Nero was in charge and he was mean. Yet the Bible never says, pray for him to go. Instead it says Ask God to help him.

This was from an apostle who was eventually killed by a Roman emperor if church tradition is right. But he still says pray for him, intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them.

That is a long ways from the vitriol and anger poured out on our president and other elected officials. Whatever you may think of them, however you may feel, whether or not you agree with them does not matter. You are to respect them. if you do not, you are sinning and disobeying God.

Romans 13:1-4 says:  

Everyone must submit to governing authorities. For all authority comes from God, and those in positions of authority have been placed there by God. So anyone who rebels against authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and they will be punished. For the authorities do not strike fear in people who are doing right, but in those who are doing wrong. Would you like to live without fear of the authorities? Do what is right, and they will honor you. The authorities are God’s servants, sent for your good.

They are from God and they are sent for your good.

You don’t like them? Vote them out. But while they are in office you respect them and pray for them. Talking ugly about them is a sin.

Hard to do, but absolute Bible truth.

We are gone to Kansas again this weekend. We will see you soon. God bless you.

daily java

Daily Java:

Then, with the crowds listening, he turned to his disciples and said, “Beware of these teachers of religious law! For they like to parade around in flowing robes and love to receive respectful greetings as they walk in the marketplaces. And how they love the seats of honor in the synagogues and the head table at banquets. Yet they shamelessly cheat widows out of their property and then pretend to be pious by making long prayers in public. Because of this, they will be severely punished.” (Luke 20:45-47)

The religious leaders had just tried to trick Jesus. And, of course, it didn’t work. Jesus threw their arguments back in their faces and asked them an even harder question. Then he turned to the people around him and began talking about these men.

He didn’t say these things in a quiet voice. He didn’t take the crowds aside and whisper to them so he wouldn’t hurt the religious leaders’ feelings. He just said it out loud: these men are dishonest and fake.

It made the people about whom he was talking really mad. And ultimately they killed him.

But the thing is, he didn’t care that they got mad when he said bad things about them. The Son of God didn’t really care that he hurt their feelings or made them look foolish in front of everybody. It did not bother him, nor did he temper what he said. They responded by killing him.

They didn’t kill Jesus because they didn’t like the way he dressed or what he did. They killed him because he insisted on doing the will of God differently than what he wanted and he didn’t care who knew it.

If Jesus had come and asked their opinion, gotten their stamp of approval, everything would have been fine. They would have given him good counsel, they would have shown him the best way to go about it, the best things to say, the best place to buy his special robes, all that. They would have liked him if he had come with their approval.

But instead he came with the stamp of God’s approval on him, not theirs. He came in the power of the Spirit, not in the power of the church.

And the religious leaders couldn’t stand that. They couldn’t stand being bypassed, especially by
someone they considered of inferior intelligence and education.

What does that say to us today? It says that those around us are not going to like what we do because they didn’t like what Jesus did. And we are followers of Jesus. If they didn’t like him, they are not going to like us.

It also says that we need to say what we need to say and tell people what we need to tell them. if we don’t, we and they will die.

Jesus didn’t care what anyone thought. He did what he needed to do. And he knew that God was on his side.