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Politics and Prayer
July 7, 2012
By Pastor Tim Richards
The political atmosphere in our country is highly charged right now and it’s neither the first time nor will it be the last. The left and right distrust one another and sometimes go beyond that to downright disgust. In truth, most of us are much better at complaining about what’s wrong than we are at asking God to make things better.
In the Apostle Paul’s day government had problems too. In spite of that; or perhaps because of it, Paul encouraged prayer for national leaders. That’s ironic because the Roman government he was encouraging prayer for wasn’t sympathetic toward Christianity. In fact, the very leader Paul encouraged early Christians to pray for ultimately put him to death for his faith.
Praying for our leaders and country can change more than we imagine and it’s appropriate whether you’re conservative or liberal, a Democrat or a Republican.
Our prayers are significant as this true story from World War II illustrates. Before the German army swept across Europe in World War II the English commander, Lord Gort, was hopeful his soldiers could turn them back. However, after only ten days Germany occupied 75% of Belgium.
His army couldn’t match German guns that could shoot nearly twice as far and Gort realized his only hope of saving the army lay in retreat and even that wasn’t promising. He feared that by the end of the week more than 300,000 Allied soldiers would be dead, wounded, or prisoners-of-war.
During those dark days England proclaimed a national day of prayer. When Major Cyril Huddlestone heard about it he snorted, “Why don’t they send us some 25 pound guns instead?”
Then, the Nazi’s made one of their most colossal blunders of the war. Hitler stopped his tanks twelve miles from the coast and wouldn’t let them continue their victorious march. For three days Hitler and his generals argued about how to proceed.
The delay was a God-send for the Allies. The Dunkirk evacuation was quickly organized and civilian boats began ferrying desperate soldiers to safety. The army was evacuated because it had lost a decisive battle, but it survived to fight another day and that was essential to the Allies eventual victory.
It reminds me of Biblical stories where people prayed and circumstances dramatically changed. Winston Churchill even called it, “a miracle of deliverance.” It’s a more recent example of how the miraculous can happen when a nation asks God for help.
Recently the president’s popularity has been slipping and our approval of congress is at near historic lows. However, we should pray for our leaders whether or not we approve of them. We should ask God to help them lead our nation wisely instead of complaining about them to others who are just as frustrated. The truth is that our complaining rarely changes things, but our prayers often do.
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