Pray For All In Authority
By W. C. Moore
"I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; for kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty" (1 Tim. 2:1-2).
All Christians, of whatever nationality and regardless of the particular shade of political opinion to which they may lean – should recognize their great responsibility and their place of privilege and power, given of God, to respond heart and soul to His own "call to prayer" as given in His Word.
The very fact that God's Word tells us definitely to pray for all in authority, that we may have peace, shows conclusively that the main responsibility for seeing that God's program is carried out lies on the doorstep of God's own people. God has a program for today. All saved people are called to be "laborers together with God" (1 Cor. 3:9), in the carrying out fully, to God's own triumphant consummation, of that program – the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to every creature, to all nations, in all the world (Mark 16:15; Matt. 28:19).
It is not that we Christians are to be primarily concerned that our nation shall be spared from the horrors, the privations, the awful suffering which any war brings upon a people – but we are to be concerned to the very depths of our souls – that God's own program shall be fully carried out, consummated – and that every soul that can be saved shall be saved before God's judgments fall on a world that has rejected its only Saviour, the Lord Jesus.
"Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness" (Matt. 6:33). Our first duty, as Christians, is to seek with all our heart to advance God's cause on earth – to get the Gospel, in the power of the Holy Ghost, to every creature, to all nations, to all the world.
To be "workers together with Him" (2 Cor. 6:1), "linked up with Omnipotence” a wonderful thing indeed, but it carries with it tremendous obligations.
God's Word says, "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much" (Jas. 5:15). What a sobering thought – that much will be left undone that ought to be done – if righteous people, if you, if I – do not lay to heart this obligation to pray fervently, effectually!
Who has not thrilled at the deliverance God wrought in World War II, when thousands of trapped soldiers were miraculously evacuated from Dunkirk in answer to prayer? Remember also the Spanish Armada! And consider in Scripture, one man, Elisha, in touch with God, led a whole blinded army to the headquarters of his own nation (2 Kings 6:8-23).
The heart of kings is still in God's hand, to be turned, at His will, in whatever direction God shall choose (Prov. 21:1). God changes the king's word (Dan. 3.28). The Scriptures show that God has placed a tremendous responsibility upon you, upon me – to be effectual "workers together with Him" in getting God's will done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Oh, let us call on God, in Jesus' Name, to speed His program of world-evangelization, and to hinder Satan's program (2 Thes. 2:7, margin), so that we may have peace, not for selfish or sinful ease or indulgence – God forbid! – but that His glorious harvest shall be gathered, and that God's people shall be made ready for the coming of the Lord!
It is not for a mighty conqueror that God is looking but for intercessors, standers-in-the-gap! Will you be one? Will I be one?