Welcome to this weekend's In Touch podcast with Charles Stanley. You likely know many who need prayer,

but are you praying in a way that truly makes a difference? In today's message, you'll learn how to

pray with purpose, asking God to meet real lasting needs. Now, all of us have prayed for other people, and all of us have had the experience at

times of praying for other people and expecting something to happen and nothing happened.

And we've asked, well, did I read the scriptures right? Do I understand prayer? Was God listening?

And all the questions that we went through. But I want to share with you this morning

some principles that I feel are very essential if you and I going to pray for someone else and pray

effectively and see either God meet their need or change their life or whatever the situation

might be. But I want us to look first of all here at the people that Paul says, we ought to pray for.

And Paul writes to Timothy by saying, I exhort, therefore, that first of all, supplications,

prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men. Now that's sort of like like Lord just bless everybody. But then he gives us a

category here, and then I want to expand upon that category so that you and I may see that we do

have a definite responsibility to pray for different types of categories of people. So he says,

first of all, in verse two, for kings

and for all that are in authority. And in our day and time, that would be for presidents, for

dictators, for emperors, or whoever they may be. And he says that we are to pray in their behalf.

He speaks of supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving, all of which means

to note their needs and to intercede in their behalf, to make petition for them, and then

to give thanksgiving to God.

Now, we need to pray that every man who runs for office will have a fear for God, will

have a reverence for God, will

acknowledge that God is sovereign, that God is supreme, and that every man needs to bow his

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