Saturday night, June 13th, instantly became a “where were you then?” moment.
I was sitting on the couch watching a movie when my phone rang. I looked at the screen and saw a notification from a group chat that included several friends who work full-time as Christian missionaries. It was a simple question: “Are you all watching this?” I got a flurry of incredulous affirmative responses, so I quickly typed in, “What and where are you watching?”
“We have a responsibility to pray. We need to pray regularly for all our national, state and local leaders.”
The next message was shocking: “Someone shot Donald Trump on live TV.”
At that moment, along with the rest of the country, I watched and read reports of what would soon be confirmed as an assassination attempt that ended in failure. The last assassination attempt on a sitting or former president occurred the year I was born, in 1981. This type of political violence is not unprecedented in our nation’s history, but it has never happened in my lifetime.
I wrestled with a range of thoughts and emotions. I was shocked, I felt angry. I immediately told my wife what was happening. I gathered my kids together. One of them had heard the news from a friend while playing a video game online. As parents, I did my best to help them make sense of this historic moment. I called my dad and asked him if he had heard the news. The aforementioned group chat was in an uproar. After an hour or so, it finally occurred to me: “I should pray.”
This is an embarrassing thing for me to write because I am a pastor. I have been a Christian for 28 years and a pastor for 18. I have preached in countless sermons that prayer should be our first resort, not our last resort.
It wasn’t my first resort in that moment of national crisis, but it should have been. Before I scrolled, before I called, before I read, I should have prayed.
I ended up praying that night. First, I repented for not practicing what I preached, and then I prayed for all those involved in this tragedy and for the entire country. I prayed the next morning as I prepared to address the congregation, and I also prayed at the church service that morning.
On Sunday morning, before praying in church, I conveyed a specific exhortation to my people. I told my people that there is no place for political violence in our country. I told my people that as Christians, we have a double responsibility in moments like these: we must always denounce and pray against evil in all its forms.
Regarding prayer, I said, “We have a responsibility to pray. We need to pray regularly for all our national, state and local leaders. We need to appeal to our King, the King of kings, for their protection, wisdom and the salvation of our souls.”
I believe this because the Bible teaches it. God’s Word is filled with commands, calls and exhortations to pray. The Bible tells us what to pray, how to pray and what to pray for.
The principle of praying for leaders is found in 1 Timothy chapter 2. The Apostle Paul wrote to a young pastor named Timothy who was pastoring the church in Ephesus that Paul had founded ten years earlier. Paul’s letter addressed a series of concerns in the life of the church and gave Timothy specific instructions on how to address those concerns in order to faithfully lead the church. 1 Timothy 2:1 To tell“First of all, I invite supplication, prayer, intercession and thanksgiving for all people.”
Paul was encouraging Timothy to treat prayer as a primary and important tool.
God desires that all men and women be saved through faith and trust in Christ alone, and that includes our leaders.
And while it’s clear that we are called to pray for all people everywhere, in 1 Timothy 2:1 Paul specifically calls the church to pray for “kings and all those in high positions, that we may live peaceable and quiet lives, godly and dignified in every way.” Paul is saying we need to pray for our leaders to rule so that there is peace and tranquility in society, a general peace in which all men and women can thrive, and opportunities for Christians to live faithfully without fear of persecution.
Christians love to pray for Christian leaders. But Ephesus was under the control of the Roman Empire and had no Christian king. So when Paul calls us to pray for our leaders, he is not simply referring to the leaders we like or the leaders of our chosen political party.
In other words all Leaders.
We should pray for our leaders at all levels: local, state, and national. We should pray for their safety. I believe that Christians should not have to practice their faith in fear of persecution from their leaders. I also believe that elected officials should not have to perform their duties in fear for their lives. We should also pray that God would give them wisdom. As Christians, I believe we should pray that wisdom be rooted in the principles of God’s Word.
Most importantly, I believe we should pray for their salvation. Paul continues in 1 Timothy 2:3-5: “This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all.”
God desires that all men and women be saved through faith and trust in Christ alone, and that includes our leaders.
Tragedy is inevitable. Failure to pray is inevitable. In moments of crisis, may we all say: “Let us pray!”
