A "How-To" Praying For Your Government

"Ascribe to the Lord, all you families of nations, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.  Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His Name; bring an offering and come into His courts.  Worship the Lord in the splendor of His holiness; tremble before Him, all the earth.  Say among the nations, 'The Lord reigns.'  The world is firmly established, it cannot be moved; He will judge the peoples with equity."  (Psalm 96:7-10, NIV)

Some believe that my service in the Church of Jesus and Jesus' Kingdom is based on my particular interest in politics, pursuing a "Republican" agenda, getting the culture I want, sort of like that carnal stuff which drives the humanists.  It is not.  I don't pray for some political party or personages to rule.  I don't pray for laws and regulations, etc., based on anything other than Jesus' Prayer, "Thy Kingdom come.  Thy will be done in earth as it is in Heaven."  I pray this for my family; I pray this for you; I pray this for the Church; I pray this for the nations.  The "key" Word?  "Thy"-"Thy"- Thy"!  Today's text is a great prayer for the nations.

It is just ludicrous to pray in any other motivation for the church, the governments, our jobs/vocations, etc., than, "Thy will be done."  Unless this is our motivation in prayer, all else is a waste of time, and does no one any good.  Two of Jesus' prayers come to me today.  "Yet, not my will, but Thine be done....Father, into Thy hands I commit My Spirit."  It may not be with these exact Words, but every day, every moment we should live in this "attitude."

Today I encourage you and me to remember that it is not to you, nor me, nor personages, nor governments that we, "Ascribe...glory and strength."  Moreover, we only, "Worship the Lord in splendor and His holiness."  Neither we nor the nations have any, "holiness," apart from the Lord Jesus Christ.  Our witness to the nations, to our national and local governments is, "....The Lord [Jesus Christ] reigns."  And, because, "Jesus Christ is Lord," because Jesus Christ, "....reigns[,] the World is firmly established, it cannot be moved...."  Jesus, "will judge the peoples with equity." 

Father, in Jesus' Name, I so affirm and pray.  Amen.

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Please pray today's text with me tomorrow while I am in the US Capitol Building.

When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, on that day he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"

Hebrews 12:2