How do you pray for leaders? Do you ask God to bless them with what they need to lead well? Or do you ask God to remove them and appoint someone else? Do you ask God to grant you the opportunity to lead? Have you considered how you should pray for leaders?
Praying for leaders can be murky for us. Each of us has our own perceptions, preferences, and agenda. We often judge our leaders based on personality and limited information, which challenges our ability to pray for them. Asking God to lead our leaders is our best option.
The Psalmist asks God to give the king what he needs to govern the people well. When we read the entirety of Psalm 72, we see many blessings the Psalmist asks God for on behalf of the king. The Psalmist doesn’t allow any existing perceptions of the king to cloud his decision to pray for the king. No, he has something bigger in mind. He asks for God’s blessings on the king for the sake of the people.
We can pray for our leaders in the same way, not just for leader but for the sake of the people being led or governed. We can ask God to grant the leader wisdom, discernment, justice, and righteousness. We can ask God to guide the leader along the path he wants the leader to walk. We know that God answers prayer. If more of us were to pray for our leaders, we just might see God working in amazing ways through them.
I pray we all ask God to bless our leaders. I pray we imitate the Psalmist’s prayer in Psalm 72. I pray each one of us will not allow our perceptions and preferences to cloud our prayers. Ask God to bless leaders. Pray for wisdom. Pray for justice. Pray for righteousness. Pray for the people.
Psalm 72:1-2
Give the king your justice, O God,
and your righteousness to a king’s son.
May he judge your people with righteousness
and your poor with justice.
Marty Pressey 