Good and Pleasing

12/8/2015

2.1-4 1 First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, 2 for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. 3 This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. – St. Paul

I can’t think of the last time I interceded for a government official. We live in a day of political division and some really believe that government is the answer, and some really do not. There is a belief that somehow, some way we can have/find justice in this world and we need a single source for that justice and so, therefore, (to some) government seems to be the solution to that need. We can’t have just your form of justice, nor can we have just mine – we think we want a single source providing liberty and justice for all.

And so we exchange freedoms in this quest for justice. And the more we exchange, the less we have and the hope in doing so, is that we will secure justice. Exchanged freedoms however, come at the expense of limited liberties for some; and not necessarily justice for all. But our quest for justice races on.

I can’t think of the last time I interceded for ‘kings and all who are in high positions’ and yet these are the very people I entrust in my quest for liberty and justice for all. I wonder why I pray about my family, my church, my business, the sick, the hurting, and the needy; and yet my radar screen is too small to encompass those to whom I look for liberty and justice. I must not care that much about them. Does God?

There are a couple of obscure passages in 1 Timothy that speak volumes of what should be and is  missing in our quest for liberty and justice for all – one of them is the above. That’s why we need to pay attention to what it is we think we want, and from whom we think we want it.

And we must pay attention to what God thinks about all this as well: I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth… Justice God’s way, not ours.

When is the last time you fell on your face before God and prayed for kings and those in high positions? I know I am in arrears here; and I know I must repent.

Father, may I do that which is good and pleasing in Your sight because You desire all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth… especially since I keep looking for liberty and justice for all in the wrong places… Father, forgive me my silence, and help me to pray. Amen