Let us pray for our leaders
November 10, 2008 (Monday)
The election of a new president has caused me to reflect upon the personalities and characters of the other 43 presidents we have had. The History Channel has done us a big favor by producing programs about all the presidents, taking about ten minutes to summarize the life and work of each. Frankly, that’s not much time but it’s enough to get an idea of what each person was like. The overall impression for me was that each president, from the first to the most recent, was a human being, with strengths and weakness common to all the rest of us. There is no reason to assume that the newly-elected president will be that much different from all the others. He won’t be a superman or a god, just a man. Because of that, he will need our prayers. Besides that, the Bible urges us to pray for our secular leaders because, whether they realize it or not, they are serving God. Don’t believe me? Read Romans 13. Verse 4 of that chapter says that the ruler is the servant of God. It actually uses those very words.
The final verse of a great hymn says it clearly:
“This is my Father’s world.
O let me ne’er forget
that though the wrong seems oft so strong,
God is the ruler yet.
This is my Father’s world:
why should my heart be sad?
The Lord is King; let the heavens ring!
God reigns; let the earth be glad!”