Pray For All People

Reading: 2 Kings 4-5; Psalm 83; 1 Timothy 2 1 I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them. 2 Pray this way for kings and all who are in authority so that we can live peaceful and quiet lives marked by godliness and dignity. 3 This is good and pleases God our Savior, 4 who wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth. (1 Timothy 2:1-4 NLT) Paul’s fatherly instructions to young Pastor Timothy include important insights about his personal life and his pastoral ministry to the churches. This first part of chapter 2 has application both to private devotional life and to public worship in the church. First of all, pray for all people. Pray for nice people and not-so-nice people. Pray for important people and for ordinary people like you and me. Pray for people you’ll interact with today and for people who are far away. Pray for everyone who comes to mind. Pray for all people. When you pray for “all people”, which includes, but is not limited to, kings and all who are in authority, this is how we can pray for them:
• Ask God to help them.
• Intercede on their behalf.
• Give thanks for them.
Pray for all people. That means to pray for neighbors who are inconsiderate in how and where they park, and whose kids make too much noise and leave skate jumps and rubbish on the sidewalk. It means to pray for business people who don’t care about the homeless and for the homeless people who aggravate the business people. It means to pray for our political leaders: for the officials we elected last time; for those who have been in office for a long time; and for those we should elect the next time we have the opportunity to vote. Pray for all people: So we can live peaceful and quiet lives, marked by godliness and dignity. Because God wants them to be saved and to understand the truth.

Prayer:

Father, I have so much “growing up” to do! You’re saying to “pray for” all people. I’m still working on learning not to “pray against” people I think are doing wrong. (I guess it’s good you don’t answer all my prayers the way I pray them!) Help me do better at this. Today I’m going to try to pray for everyone who comes to mind. Amen.

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