Why Do We Pray for Our President?

Ask Pastor John

Desiring God

John Piper, Unknown, 163859, Pastor, Ask, Theology, Desiring God, Religion & Spirituality/christianity, Christianity, Religion & Spirituality, Questions

4.8 • 3.8K Ratings

🗓️ 1 June 2023

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Why does Paul call Christians to pray for kings and other political rulers — and what specifically might we ask God to do in them and through them?

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back to the podcast. Welcome to June. June 1st, a Thursday, our first Thursday episode
0:10.0	in a long time. But now part of our new routine here on the podcast, at least for the season
0:14.8	ahead, you can now expect ABJ episodes on Mondays and on Thursdays two times a week. No
0:21.5	more sermon clip Wednesdays. John Piper's sermons are now being curated in a new podcast
0:27.3	from Desiring God called Light and Truth. Light and Truth. So if you want your five days a week
0:33.6	fill of John Piper sermons, old sermons and new sermons, subscribe to our new podcast. Light and
0:39.1	truth. And I'm sure many of you already have. But on this Thursday episode, we're back in
0:44.5	studio with Pastor John to feel the question from Dustin in Indianapolis in the end. He writes this
0:49.6	Pastor John. Hello. In light of first Timothy two versus one to four, how are we to pray for
0:54.8	unrighteous leaders? How about presidents and other politicians? How do you do it? And what
1:02.1	specifically do you pray for? Let's read the text that Dustin is referring to so that we can
1:10.7	be specific. It's first Timothy to one to four I'll read. First of all then, I urge that
1:17.9	supplications, prayers, intercessions and thanks-givings be made for all people, for kings,
1:27.6	and all who are in high positions that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified
1:35.9	in every way. This is good. And he is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all
1:43.3	people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. So Paul is calling for Christians to
1:51.9	pray for all people. We focus on the kings, but it says all people are urged that supplications,
1:59.1	prayers, intercessions, thanks-givings be made for all people. And then the kings and all those in
2:05.5	high positions are a subset of all people. They are mentioned explicitly, I think, because
2:16.0	they are especially relevant for the purpose of the prayer mentioned in the next clause,
2:21.6	namely that we may lead a life that's peaceful and quiet, godly, dignified in every way.
2:29.4	So I take the all people to mean that wherever we look in the world and see people who might in
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