This was the text for today’s sermon. Barry pointed out that the very rulers wer are to pray for were persecuting the faithful and stopping them for living a quiet and peaceable life — and how we should pray for blessings on those we are in conflict with.

And that this hurts. For the person who has oppressed us does not engender a reaction of love, but of fear, hate and avoidance.

1 Timothy 2:1-7

¹First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, ²for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity. ³This is right and is acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, ⁴who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. ⁵For there is one God; there is also one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus, himself human, ⁶who gave himself a ransom for all-this was attested at the right time. ⁷For this I was appointed a herald and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.

We need, however to pray for the elite of our nations: those of the establishment, those who rule, those who have real power.

1. It is harder for those of the elite, who see themselves as leaders, to account themselves as broken, as sinners, and as slaves to their desires. It is very hard for them to humble themselves. It is hard to repent, and repentance is a prerequisite for salvation. God wants all to be saved, so our first prayers should be for that.
2. The elite  can make our lives miserable. They can restrict speech, remove churches. harass and hound believers — but they cannot destroy the church.  Paul says we should pray for our leaders so that our lives may be peaceable and Godly: that we have some degrees of freedom to make this so.
3. The conversion of a leader has flow on effects. There have been nations where the witnessing of missionaries has led, over generations, to a church that began with the most humble and oppressed, particularly in the modern missionary movement. But there have also been situations where the kings and nobles convert, and all follow: the most recent example of this was the Polynesian nations of the Pacific.
4. When there is no other freedom, there is still a degree of freedom inside our heads. If we are silenced, we can still pray.

We don’t have to like our leaders, for they are all to often psychopaths or useful fools. But we need to pray for them, particularly when they are unlikable, with evil policies, driving our cities and nations to destruction.

For miracles are not our business, but God’s.

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Chris Gale