“Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know. Pray especially for rulers and their governments to rule well.” (1 Timothy 2:1-2, The Message)
Paul’s charge to Timothy, and indeed to leaders today, is not about politics. It’s not about electioneering. It’s not about seeking “God’s man for the White House”, nor for Sussex Drive or #10 Downing Street.
It’s a call to pray for the leaders of the land to “rule well”.
Recently, the host pastors of Canada’s Global Leadership Summit had an opportunity to do that in an extraordinary, and unscripted way.
For our annual gathering of these leaders, we met in Ottawa for two days of equipping and planning.
With the help of the Honourable Ron Cannan, P.C., M.P. Kelowna – Lake Country, we were given a behind-the-scenes tour of Canada’s Parliament, including time in the House of Commons itself.
We lingered there for a long time, soaking up the history and, more importantly, the symbolic significance of where we stood. With each of us being reminded again of our call as Christian leaders to uphold Canada’s elected officials, something very special happened.
Brad Watson, our Summit host pastor from Windsor, Ontario, simply asked if we could pause and pray for Canada’s government.
There, standing on the floor of the House of Commons, we prayed. And we prayed. And we prayed.
We prayed that God would grant our elected officials unusual wisdom to lead our country through turbulent times. We prayed that each of our government leaders would know the support of Canada’s churches.
When we had finished, quietly one of our team began to sing the Doxology. Each of joined in, in reverant tones.
It was a holy moment.
And it was a moment that caused me to renew my resolve to make praying for our government leaders a higher priority in my own life.
Practically speaking, I will do this in 4 ways:
- I will make a point to know the issues my local elected officials are dealing with, and I will pray specifically to those issues.
- I will uphold the families of my local elected officials in prayer.
- I will pray for wisdom for government leaders.
- I will let these leaders know I have prayed for them.
How do you keep government leaders an active part of your prayer life?
