1 Timothy 2:1-8 Chapter 2 1 I exhort therefore, first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercessions, thanksgivings, be made for all men; 2 for kings and all that are in high place; that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and gravity. 3 This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; 4 who would have all men to be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God, one mediator also between God and men, `himself' man, Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself a ransom for all; the testimony `to be borne' in its own times; 7 whereunto I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I speak the truth, I lie not), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. 8 I desire therefore that the men pray in every place, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and disputing.

When we observe the godless condition of our nation, we readily recognize the need for change. But the biblical solution for our predicament is surprising. In his first letter to Timothy, Paul instructed his protégé to establish some priorities in the church, including prayer “for kings and all who are in authority” ( 1 Timothy 2:2 2 for kings and all that are in high place; that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and gravity. ). Our petitions help us live tranquil and godly lives and thereby provide opportunities to tell others about the Savior ( 1 Timothy 2:2 2 for kings and all that are in high place; that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and gravity. -4).

Paul would never have given this command to Timothy if he didn’t believe that the church’s prayers made a difference in achieving God’s purposes for their nation. Our problem is not with the Lord’s promise or power, but with our doubt. By focusing on the enormity of the problems or the power of those in office, we lose sight of our sovereign God, who listens for our pleas that He intervene.

Political policies and legislation are not ultimately determined in conference rooms and governmental chambers, but in prayer closets. The voices that shape the direction of a nation are not necessarily those that loudly ring out in legislative halls, but those that approach the throne room of the heavenly Father with bold faith (Heb. 4:16). As the church believes and prays, the Lord will respond.

Knowing that God can change a country, you may be wondering why He has waited so long. But He is likely already working in ways we don’t recognize or understand. Every authority on earth can be touched by the power of prayer if we are willing to ask and believe God.

Bible in One Year: Isaiah 15-18 Chapter 15 1 The burden of Moab. For in a night Ar of Moab is laid waste, `and' brought to nought; for in a night Kir of Moab is laid waste, `and' brought to nought. 2 They are gone up to Bayith, and to Dibon, to the high places, to weep: Moab waileth over Nebo, and over Medeba; on all their heads is baldness, every beard is cut off. 3 In their streets they gird themselves with sackcloth; on their housetops, and in their broad places, every one waileth, weeping abundantly. 4 And Heshbon crieth out, and Elealeh; their voice is heard even unto Jahaz: therefore the armed men of Moab cry aloud; his soul trembleth within him. 5 My heart crieth out for Moab; her nobles `flee' unto Zoar, to Eglath-shelishi-yah: for by the ascent of Luhith with weeping they go up; for in the way of Horonaim they raise up a cry of destruction. 6 For the waters of Nimrim shall be desolate; for the grass is withered away, the tender grass faileth, there is no green thing. 7 Therefore the abundance they have gotten, and that which they have laid up, shall they carry away over the brook of the willows. 8 For the cry is gone round about the borders of Moab; the wailing thereof unto Eglaim, and the wailing thereof unto Beer-elim. 9 For the waters of Dimon are full of blood; for I will bring yet more upon Dimon, a lion upon them of Moab that escape, and upon the remnant of the land. Chapter 16 1 Send ye the lambs for the ruler of the land from Selah to the wilderness, unto the mount of the daughter of Zion. 2 For it shall be that, as wandering birds, as a scattered nest, so shall the daughters of Moab be at the fords of the Arnon. 3 Give counsel, execute justice; make thy shade as the night in the midst of the noonday; hide the outcasts; betray not the fugitive. 4 Let mine outcasts dwell with thee; as for Moab, be thou a covert to him from the face of the destroyer. For the extortioner is brought to nought, destruction ceaseth, the oppressors are consumed out of the land. 5 And a throne shall be established in lovingkindness; and one shall sit thereon in truth, in the tent of David, judging, and seeking justice, and swift to do righteousness. 6 We have heard of the pride of Moab, `that' he is very proud; even of his arrogancy, and his pride, and his wrath; his boastings are nought. 7 Therefore shall Moab wail for Moab, every one shall wail: for the raisin-cakes of Kir-hareseth shall ye mourn, utterly stricken. 8 For the fields of Heshbon languish, `and' the vine of Sibmah; the lords of the nations have broken down the choice branches thereof, which reached even unto Jazer, which wandered into the wilderness; its shoots were spread abroad, they passed over the sea. 9 Therefore I will weep with the weeping of Jazer for the vine of Sibmah; I will water thee with my tears, O Heshbon, and Elealeh: for upon thy summer fruits and upon thy harvest the `battle' shout is fallen. 10 And gladness is taken away, and joy out of the fruitful field; and in the vineyards there shall be no singing, neither joyful noise: no treader shall tread out wine in the presses; I have made the `vintage' shout to cease. 11 Wherefore my heart soundeth like a harp for Moab, and mine inward parts for Kir-heres. 12 And it shall come to pass, when Moab presenteth himself, when he wearieth himself upon the high place, and shall come to his sanctuary to pray, that he shall not prevail. 13 This is the word that Jehovah spake concerning Moab in time past. 14 But now Jehovah hath spoken, saying, Within three years, as the years of a hireling, the glory of Moab shall be brought into contempt, with all his great multitude; and the remnant shall be very small and of no account. Chapter 17 1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap. 2 The cities of Aroer are forsaken; they shall be for flocks, which shall lie down, and none shall make them afraid. 3 And the fortress shall cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus, and the remnant of Syria; they shall be as the glory of the children of Israel, saith Jehovah of hosts. 4 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the glory of Jacob shall be made thin, and the fatness of his flesh shall wax lean. 5 And it shall be as when the harvestman gathereth the standing grain, and his arm reapeth the ears; yea, it shall be as when one gleaneth ears in the valley of Rephaim. 6 Yet there shall be left therein gleanings, as the shaking of an olive-tree, two or three berries in the top of the uppermost bough, four or five in the outmost branches of a fruitful tree, saith Jehovah, the God of Israel. 7 In that day shall men look unto their Maker, and their eyes shall have respect to the Holy One of Israel. 8 And they shall not look to the altars, the work of their hands; neither shall they have respect to that which their fingers have made, either the Asherim, or the sun-images. 9 In that day shall their strong cities be as the forsaken places in the wood and on the mountain top, which were forsaken from before the children of Israel; and it shall be a desolation. 10 For thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation, and hast not been mindful of the rock of thy strength; therefore thou plantest pleasant plants, and settest it with strange slips. 11 In the day of thy planting thou hedgest it in, and in the morning thou makest thy seed to blossom; but the harvest fleeth away in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow. 12 Ah, the uproar of many peoples, that roar like the roaring of the seas; and the rushing of nations, that rush like the rushing of mighty waters! 13 The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters: but he shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like the whirling dust before the storm. 14 At eventide, behold, terror; `and' before the morning they are not. This is the portion of them that despoil us, and the lot of them that rob us. Chapter 18 1 Ah, the land of the rustling of wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia; 2 that sendeth ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of papyrus upon the waters, `saying', Go, ye swift messengers, to a nation tall and smooth, to a people terrible from their beginning onward, a nation that meteth out and treadeth down, whose land the rivers divide! 3 All ye inhabitants of the world, and ye dwellers on the earth, when an ensign is lifted up on the mountains, see ye; and when the trumpet is blown, hear ye. 4 For thus hath Jehovah said unto me, I will be still, and I will behold in my dwelling-place, like clear heat in sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest. 5 For before the harvest, when the blossom is over, and the flower becometh a ripening grape, he will cut off the sprigs with pruning-hooks, and the spreading branches will he take away `and' cut down. 6 They shall be left together unto the ravenous birds of the mountains, and to the beasts of the earth; and the ravenous birds shall summer upon them, and all the beasts of the earth shall winter upon them. 7 In that time shall a present be brought unto Jehovah of hosts `from' a people tall and smooth, even from a people terrible from their beginning onward, a nation that meteth out and treadeth down, whose land the rivers divide, to the place of the name of Jehovah of hosts, the mount Zion.