Pray for Our Leaders

Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.

Having been raised in a Christian home, I am very familiar with the concept and power of prayer.  There are many scriptures that tell us to “pray without ceasing”, that we should “ask and [we] will receive”, and that we “have not because [we] ask not.”  These are truths that have helped me through some very difficult times in my life.

My current day job is in a Catholic hospital where prayer is part of the daily routine.  We pray at the beginning of meetings, over the hospital intercom twice a day, and with each other as co-workers and frequently with patients and their families.  It is just a part of our identity as a faith-based health ministry.

I have the privilege of leading a small group who makes up the Prayer Ministry Team at the hospital.  Among us are two of the Catholic sisters who belong to the order of sisters who started the hospital in 1856.  The rest of us are not professional clergy…and only two more of us are even Catholic.  Most of us are of Baptist or another evangelic faith.  But we find that when it comes to prayer, we agree on most aspects of prayer.

It has been very interesting to work together as a team for the last 18 months and to see how each of us contributes so uniquely to the work of the team.  The Baptists among us are willing and able to pray spontaneously and aloud.  The Catholic members originally found the concept of spontaneous prayer to be a bit un-nerving.  However, now, we end our meetings with “round robin” praying for the prayer requests that we have collected from our prayer request box outside the hospital chapel.  Every member of the prayer team has a chance to pray for the specific needs that have been presented for our intercession.

The individual growth and the growth as a team has been delightful to observe and be part of.

We are currently preparing for a hospital-wide Day of Prayer later this month.  Because of those preparations, I have been particularly aware of things I am reading and listening to about prayer and praying.

One of the instructions that God gave us in the Bible about praying is that we should pray for one another that our faith will remain strong.  Another charge is to pray for our leaders including the national leaders (back then they would have been kings and ceasars)…now they are more likely to be presidents and prime ministers…though we should not neglect the remaining royalty of the world either, eh?

I received an email from a friend that reminded me of the need to pray for our national leaders.  As the email pointed out, it can be difficult to pray for a person who supports what I would personally consider the “wrong” side of many important issues.  However, as this email pointed out, if we keep reading our Bible, the Lord will guide us in the right way to live our lives…and that includes praying for a leader whom you personally find it particularly difficult to support his decisions, actions, and deeds.

However, leave it to God and His sense of humor to find a solution to this dilemma.  Check out Psalms 109:8…it is the perfect prayer for our fearless Commander and Chief!