Prayer Target: Prayer for Our Leaders

1 Tim 2:1-4

1 I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men;
2 For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.
3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior;
4 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

The Bible exhorts us to pray for those in leadership over us, indicating that our own personal well being is tied in to praying for our leadership.

Who comprises our leadership? Obviously, there is the governmental leadership.. our national and providential and local leaders, representatives, senators, members of national parliament, governors, mayors, chancellors, town council, etc. There are the civil authorities, such as judges, justices, police officer, etc.

There are leaders we trust our children to, principles, school headmasters, teachers, etc. There are the leaders in our businesses and jobs; supervisors, bosses, department heads, directors, presidents of companies, board members and chairmen of the board.

Then there are our spiritual leaders: our pastor, the church elders & councils, various teachers and ministries, heads of denominations, etc.

In short, we have a lot of leaders to pray for. Some of them are believers and some are not. Some of them are godly, and some are not. Some of them do a good job and some do not. Yet, God in the bible admonishes us to pray for all of them.. "that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty".

We can pray that God bless them with wisdom to lead well, with honesty, with a desire and passion for justice and to assure that none are abused or oppressed. We can bless with a realization of God and His goodness and of His desire to bless our nations and our governments and our churches and our schools and our businesses and our homes. We can pray for God to speak to their hearts and to lead and guide them and manifest Himself and His truth to them. We can petition the Lord to protect our leaders against personal or spiritual harm, to make them wise to discern and reject the schemes of the enemy to kill, steal and destroy the lives of the that God has entrusted into their care.

Can our prayers for leadership make a difference? You be they can! Just look at what God did in South Africa. Less than 10 years ago, that country had violence, civil unrest and unfair discrimination (Apartheid) ripping it apart. If ever there were reasons to criticize leadership, the late 1980s and early 1990s provided the South African nationals with many! But some of the people began to pray for their leaders (and even for the opposition's leaders). Their prayers yielded results. An article published in May of 1989 states that "Leaders in white churches acknowledged that apartheid is a sin, agreeing that attempts to defend it are heretical, and asking for forgiveness for having helped to maintain it." The article went on to say that "Since 80 percent of the country's legislators belong to the church, Western analysts said the actions of the Dutch Reformed leaders this month could be a significant step towards dismantling apartheid." These men and women of God continued to pray. In 1994 apartheid was legally abolished, a major victory for God's kingdom and a big step of healing for South Africa. But God did even more through the prayers of the people. God mobilized an interracial group of Christian politicians and business to form a Christian political party, one that will uphold Bible values and honor God in it's politics.

This party is named the African Christian Political Party or ACDP. The party started small, but gained several seats in their most recent elections. The head of the ACDP is an ordained Minister, Kenneth Meshoe, who is very much a man of God (I heard his wife speak at a political rally in Capetown last April, and she is definitely a spirit filled on fire for God believer). Prayers that the South African people prayed for their leadership have made drastic and measurable differences.

Our prayers for our own nations, political leaders, civil leaders, legal leaders, school and workplace leaders and our Church and Christian leaders can make every bit as much of an impact as the prayers of the South Africans made. People of God, let's follow their example and pray for our leaders!

Lord, Touch our leaders with your spirit. Fill them with your wisdom. Give them a heart to rule wisely and give them a passion to make decisions in keeping with your principles and guidelines.. Manifest yourself to them and transform them into men and women who know you personally and who are sold out to you. Protect them from the schemes of the evil one and give them a heart after your heart. Let them usher forth your peace and goodness to those that they have charge over. Transform them each into better leaders, and turn their hearts to be sensitive to your leading.

Show us how to better pray for those leaders you have put over each of us. Give us a heart to pray for them and wisdom to pray effectively.

Amen.

Please feel free to pray into this topic during the week, to build on one another's prayers and also to discuss insights you have on the week's prayer target. Post your prayers and /or discussion to the prayer-school list by emailing them to this address: prayer-school@xc.org

Please limit your prayer/discussion to the current week's prayer target; please do not pray into or discuss previous week's prayer targets. However, if you have a praise report to answered prayer from a previous week's prayer activity, please feel free to post them any time.