This Is Good And Acceptable In The Sight Of God

And before we read the text, I want to ask you a question. And the question is this. Do any of you have any opinions about how civil government might be improved? And all God's people said? That's right. So we're all tracking right out of the gate together. All of us have opinions. If you know that there is such a thing as a government, you have opinions about how they could do better. Now, is this concern... unique to Christians? Are Christians the only ones who have opinions about government? And we all go, no, that's part of the reason. We live in this constant pot, pressure cooker, if you will, of competing ideologies about what it means for it to have a government and how they ought to behave and who they ought to care for and how they ought to care for them and really, most importantly, what they do with my money and how much of it they get.

And so as we come to the word of God this morning, I want to say simply to you, acknowledge this is the reality that we live in. We're not unique for living in it. If I were to go to another country and say, what do you think of your government? Boo and hiss and hurrah. Everyone would have an opinion. So the question for us this morning is not, do we have an opinion? The question is, what ought our opinion as Christians? What ought our actions be as Christians with regard to our civil government? Should we just agree with everyone in the world or some subsection of the world about our views of the Christian government? Or should a Christian have a view other than that? That's our topic this morning. That's what we're going to be talking about. This morning, my goal is that as we consider Paul's instructions about how to interact with our government, that by the end of our time this morning, we won't be left being led around by whatever talking heads we consume.

or our own homebrew of ideas about how Christians ought to understand, but rather we'd be informed by what the Word of God has to say. Our text this morning is 1 Timothy 2, verses 1-3. Would you please stand for the reading of God's Word? This is the Word of the Lord, and it is eternally true. First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority. so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. This is good and acceptable in the sight of our God, of God our Savior. This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. You know, when we come to the scripture, I've told you before that one of the things I try to do whenever I read scripture is I go, okay, this is the passage, this is the text I'm reading, whether it's for Sunday morning or for my own personal devotions or families or whatever.

When I come to the text, I say, okay, what's the rub? Is there a rub in here? What part of it do I go, eh? Or which part would I like to just pass over? What part am I least interested in understanding or knowing about or digging into? And the reason I might be inclined to pass over it is because I go, you know, I might be, this passage may be telling me to do something that either I'm uncomfortable with or don't like. And so I'd like to just pass over it. Now I ask you, when we read this text, is there any part of it that bothers you?

Does the part where he says, I want you to pray, bother you? No. How about where he says to pray for all men? Say, no, I can pray for all men. How about the part about leading a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity? Sounds good? And all of this is pleasing to God and our Savior. We say yes and amen. But there's this part in there about the civil government, the kings, and those who rule or those who have authority. And we go. Well, I don't know about that part. And so that's the part we're going to spend most of our time talking about because that's the part at which we need to grow. And so if we were to summarize the passage, if you were at home and you were having devotions with your kids and you read them this section and you just had a sentence or two and you said, honey, kids, this is what this passage is about, you would say to them, Paul's telling us, God's telling us, we need to pray as Christian people. We need to pray.

For everybody, most especially the people that he's put into authority over us to rule us in our government. That's the most important part of this passage. And the sweet part of it is that at the end it says, this is good and acceptable to God. And so we don't have to wonder if this is something we ought to do. It's good and it's acceptable. And your kids would say, okay, let's pray. But I want to ask us this question. Why does Paul urge us to pray in this way? The first chapter of this book, It could be summarized as Paul introducing himself and Timothy and the issues at hand. And what he does primarily in the first chapter of 1 Timothy is say, I'm a minister of the gospel. Timothy, you stay strong and fight the good fight. And remember that I'm a terrible sinner saved by grace. And that's the goal of your instruction is to convince everybody that they're a terrible sinner saved by grace so that they'll praise Jesus. That's your job as a pastor. Nothing else, just that. That's the first chapter. And then we come to this. First of all,

So after having introduced who he is and what Timothy's primary job is, he says, here's the first thing, the most important thing that I want to speak to you all about, that you need to understand. And it's that we would pray for those who rule. Why does Paul urge us to pray in this way? Well, first, it's not busy work. I think there's a danger when we pray that we think it's something that we do because we're supposed to do. And there's so many things in our lives that we do because we're supposed to do. And I don't want you to hear me saying you ought not do the things you're supposed to do. You should do the things you're supposed to do. But not simply because you're supposed to do it. Think of it this way. When you're anxious about something, you're fearful about something. And you pray. And you pray honestly. And you take what your burdens are and what's on your heart and you lay it out before the Lord. And you say, here it is. And I don't know what to do about it. I can't fix it. In fact, I've made the mess.

Lord, help me. Clean up what I've broken. What is one of the conclusions of that? What does that produce? It often produces some measure of peace. When you realize that you're not alone having to bear all of your sins and all of your failures and all of your fears and all of your anxieties in this world, but that you have a God in heaven that you can come to and speak to and say, here's who it is. Here's what it is. Here's who I am. Lord, have mercy. Help. And you come away with confidence that he will help. And you see that he does help. And so one of the things prayer does is it reorients us to our place. Our place in this world, our relationship with God. It shows us how we're to behave and where we belong. And so when we pray, it exercises our faith. And it says, here are all these things that are realities in my life. You're God in heaven.

Don't pass these things over, please. For the sake of your son, hear and act. And so Paul tells us to pray. First of all, I urge you that in treaties and prayers and petitions and thanksgivings, and we could go into what is the difference between an entreaty and a prayer, a petition and a thanksgiving. And what I want to say is the rest of the passage pretty much tells you. Okay? When you pray, you're going to pray for yourself. If I were to ask you, what do you pray most about? If I was going to give you a piece of paper and have one, two, three written on it and say, okay.

Next to one, write who you pray for the most. Next to two, write who you pray for the second most. And next to three, write who you pray for third most. Most of us would say the things that are closest to me are the things I pray for the most. I pray for myself. I pray for my family. I pray for my kids. Then I pray for my church. And then I pray for my neighbors or my extended family. We could all go through and we could list these things. And this is the way our mind works. This is how we naturally come to the issue of prayer. And so Paul tells us that we ought to pray on behalf of all men. He doesn't make mention of us praying for ourselves. Because it's assumed you're going to pray for yourself. You know your needs. You know your fears, your aches, your pains, and all the rest. And you'll pray for them. And that's good. He's not saying that's bad. He's just saying here are other things we need to add to your list. We need to pray for all men.

Now, if we're praying for all men, what are you going to pray for them? Well, most especially, what you're going to pray for is their salvation. Have you ever lived in your life and you meet somebody, and maybe you didn't even meet them. Maybe you just looked at them and you went, no, they're not Christian-type people. You think, no, they couldn't believe. They've got tattoos, or they've got piercings, or they've got orange hair, or hair now. I'm only describing myself. When I say tattoos and I say piercings and I say orange hair, me. That's who I was. I was that guy with a water bottle. I was the bodybuilder with the gallon of water walking around. That was me. Can that man be saved? Only by the grace of God. But we all judge these people and we look at them and we go, whoa, I don't know. These aren't good people. And I say, exactly, they're not. And neither are you. So what ought you to do? And you say, well, I hope they come to Jesus somewhere where they fit in a little better.

And I say, well, pray for all men. You say, Ian, what's that mean? Well, it means the ones that you go, I don't know. Maybe they don't speak your language. Maybe their culture is different. Maybe they're poor. Maybe they're rich. Pray for all men. It's easy to pray for yourself. It's easy to pray for the people that you live with. It's easy to pray for the people that you know who are already here. But Paul doesn't tell us to pray for them. He says, pray for all men. And so when you strain out all of the people I've just mentioned, we're left with the misfits and those who don't know Jesus. Pray for them. Pray for them. First of all, I urge. In other translations that would be translated, I exhort. I implore. It's not like, oh, by the way, I suggest if you have time. No. Before you do anything else, pray for all men. Pray for the lost. And then he goes on, and here's the interesting thing. Of all these men who particularly...

Are you to give attention to? Well, for the kings and those who rule. And I don't think we can read this text and not come away with, he's saying pray for the wicked leaders. Not just the righteous ones, but the wicked ones. If we're praying for all men, especially kings and all who are in authority, he's telling us to pray for those who don't fear God and don't serve God, who don't know the Lord, and who are using, oftentimes, using their position. as an implement or a tool to work against the proclamation of the gospel and the kingdom being built. Pray for them. Now, why would we need to be told to pray for wicked rulers or for those who don't know God? Well, the easiest answer is because those are the last people we'd want to pray for. And if we were going to pray for them, what might we pray for them? Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord? Do you not smite them on the rocks, destroy them, remove them, shut their... Like, here come the imprecatory psalms, all aimed at the wicked.

Should we ever pray that way against the wicked who oppress? Yes. The whole point of this is not for me to say be nice. You need to be nice good Christian people who never get riled up about the things that are offensive to God. That's not the point. There's a better reason for you to pray for them. And it doesn't first have to do with them. It has to do with you. It has to do with me. And it has to do with the fact that these are the last people we want to pray for. And I was reading and preparing to preach. I came across this passage from from John Calvin, dealing with this issue of praying for our wicked rulers. And he says this, speaking of Paul, he says, All the magistrates who existed at that time, speaking of when Paul had written, were so many sworn enemies of Christ, and therefore this thought might occur to them, to us as Christians, that because our rulers are so wicked, this thought might occur to them, that they ought not to pray.

for those who devoted all their power and all their wealth to fight against the kingdom of Christ, the extension of which, above all things, is desirable. And so Calvin says very simply about our hearts, he says, you know, if there's one group of people that you wouldn't pray for, it's the ones who oppress you and use their power to do it. Those are the ones that Paul's telling us to pray for. That's the part of the passage we want to skip over and say, I'll pray hopeful prayers, faithful prayers, for everyone except those who use their authority. To persecute. So we can look back at Paul's time and we say, yeah, they had a hard go of it, a rough go of it. He was saying this to the Ephesians because of the oppression that they would have been under and their inclination to despise. Is our time so different? Was Calvin's time different? Was Calvin able to sit in his comfy chair and write these kind of things about the civil government because there were no wicked rulers in his time? No. Calvin got ran out of Geneva on a rail. He got exiled, kicked out.

Because of the way he preached by the civil magistrate. Uprooted and sent away. Pray for those who persecute you. Pray for your government. Pray for those who use their power to oppress. Pray for them. So do we live in a time where we can identify with this sort of struggle? Well, on some level, yes. And Luis, I can't help but look at your family and think of Venezuela. And think of how hard and how difficult it is there for your loved ones who suffer. And the temptation to bitterness that they face because of it, right? So what are you to do as Christians? Pray. Now some of you might say, well, yes, this is well and good. We should pray. But some of you may say, well, I don't know that I want to. You haven't convinced me that we ought to pray for wicked rulers. And I say, okay, can I give you an example of Scripture where we're told explicitly to do this very thing? You all say yes. Great. Here we go. There's a time in the Old Testament where the Israelites were...

weren't serving God or being wicked. And their judgment, their discipline from the Lord was that they would be sent off into exile. That the Babylonians would come and would get them and would take them away. And they were going to go live in Babylon for a number of years, 70 years. And so Jeremiah, the prophet Jeremiah, is ministering during this time. Now he's back in Jerusalem. He hasn't gone away with the exiles, but there are exiles who have gone away and they live in Babylon. And so Jeremiah sends this letter to Nebuchadnezzar to be given to the people. And do you have any idea what he says to them?

It's the last thing you'd ever want to be said to you if you were one of those captives. This is what he says. Listen. It's Jeremiah 29. He says, And take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands that they may bear sons and daughters and multiply there and do not decrease. Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile and pray to the Lord on its behalf. For in its welfare, you will have welfare. Now, if we were going to summarize what he said to the people who've just been taken away to exile, you have to consider yourself in these passages. If you had just been taken away to Babylon, what was the last thing you would want to do?

Well, you wouldn't want to unpack your bags and set up shop. You'd want out of Babylon. You'd want back to Israel. And what does Jeremiah say to them except, build houses and live in them. Plant gardens and eat the fruit of them. Marry, have children and raise them up. Do not decrease. What he's saying is you're going to be there for a while. You're going to be living in this unbelieving land. You, God's people, are going to be living in this unbelieving land. And you're going to be there for a while. a good while. Just in this room, let's say, you're going to be there for 70 years. Raise your hand if you think you'd be there at the end of 70 years from now. Tabitha is the only one. You understand what the import of this letter, of what Jeremiah is saying. He's saying most of you who've been taken off into exile, you're going to die there. And you're never going to see Jerusalem again. Now do you think these people had reason to be bitter and angry? To hate Babylon?

To hate Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon. If there ever were a people who could be angry, it's them. And Jeremiah writes to them by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Build houses and live in them. Plant gardens, tend them. Get married and have kids. And have your kids have kids because you're going to be there a while. And then there's this thing at the end. Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you. And pray to the Lord on its behalf. For in its welfare you will have welfare. Now there's an interesting thing here. He tells them to pray. He tells the righteous or God's people in the city, he says, pray for the wicked. Why? Because he says your welfare, your benefit, the good for you and your family and those that you love rises and falls with the goodness of the place you're living. If it goes poorly in Babylon, what's that going to mean for the Israelites who live there? Well, it's going to mean it's going to go poorly for them.

And if it goes well in Babylon, what's that mean for the Israelites who live there? It's going to go well with them. And so this is the reason Jeremiah gives that they ought to pray for their wicked kings. That it might go well with you. And everyone can get on board with that. I want it to go well with me. I want my family and my life and my wealth and my comfort and all the things that are dear to me, I want those things protected. But what God's word tells us is that we have to connect that to the welfare of those that we live around and that rule over us.

realizing that if it goes well for them, it'll go well for us. That it's contrary to nature for us to pray and say, I pray that it would go well for me and terrible for everyone else. Now, is it possible that it could go well for God's people and poor for everyone else? Yeah. Sodom and Gomorrah are a very good example of that. Abraham looks down on the valley and he says, Lord, if there's any righteous down there, don't destroy them all. And he keeps going. He goes from 50 and down and down. If there's just a few. And he's got Lot, his relative in mind. He's like, but my family's down there. You can wipe out all the wicked, but my family, can you be gracious to my family? And he's praying to the Lord and interceding for him. Be gracious. Be gracious to the whole city for the sake of a few. So what does God do? He sends angels down to Lot's house and he says, Lot.

Get your family and all the people who love you and get out of here because I'm going to destroy this place. And he does. So was there a cost to Lot and his family? Yeah. What was the cost to him? Well, first of all, not all of his family came with him. And second of all, he lost his wife on the way. And so we have to understand biblically our connectedness with the people we live around. that it may be foolish of us to think that our stocks in life are going to just rise and rise and rise while everyone else's stocks are plummeting. We're connected to those we live around. And so we ought to pray for those who rule over us, for their sakes as well as our sakes. You know, many of us, I think, who want our government to change, what we're really talking about is how we're ruled. We're talking about the people who rule us, and we're saying, I want the people who rule me, though none of us would say it that way, I want the people who rule me, who have authority over my life, to rule in a different way. And if you're a Christian, I think we can go this far in presuming that we would like them to rule in a more Christian way, as we understand it. We would say, as long as I can submit to God and to godly rule, that would be a good thing. And I wouldn't have the troubles.

In that scenario that I have in this scenario with wicked rulers. Yeah? All my troubles will be gone. Yeah, and it's not true, is it? I mean, Luis gives an example of the lottery, and he says, in my work in the bank, people believe these lies. If I just had money, it would fix all the problems, and yet the reality of people who win the lottery is they're in a worse position five to seven years after they win the lottery than they were before they won the lottery. The same is true of us. And so at the risk of pushing us a little further than even we've gone so far, I want to say, would we be content if God ruled over us? That's really the question. Would you, Christian man or Christian woman, be glad to go along as long as the Lord God was the one making the rules? And we all want to say, I think I would, but I don't know that I would. Well, let me give you an example of when God's people didn't want that. There was a time in the Old Testament when...

The Israelites had judges. They didn't have kings. They didn't have rulers. They had judges appointed by God to adjudicate and decide their issues. And they had God's law to guide them morally, ceremonially, judicially. All of their rules came from God. And we might look at that and go, those were the glory days. That's when it was all good. They had God directly ruling over them. But what did they say? Listen to this. 1 Samuel chapter 8. Samuel the priest is ruling. He's old and he's about to die. And his sons, who don't walk in God's ways, who are wicked, are set to take over for him. And so it says this. It says, And it's interesting because they say, the reason we want a king is because your sons don't walk in our ways. They're not godly. So give us a king like the nations. And it's really a foolish thing if you think about it because what were the kings of the nations like? Did they rule like God would have? No. We want a king like the nations because your sons are wicked. And the people are lying to themselves and trying to get one over on Samuel. But you need to see better than that. Your son's wicked, so we don't want him to rule over us. Give us a king like the nations. Samuel prayed to the Lord.

Because he was upset. And the Lord said to Samuel, listen to the voice of the people in regard to all that they say to you. For they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. And so you see the Israelites here who have what we might think was idyllic. Yes, they had God ruling right over them. And I'd say, they didn't like it. They didn't like it. They said, we want a king like the nations. Samuel goes and he prays and the Lord says, just do what they're saying. It's not you they're rejecting, it's me. But here's what I want you to do, Samuel. I want you to go to these people and I want you to tell them what their king is going to be like. And so Samuel went to them and he told them what their king, Saul, was going to be like. And he describes an ungodly king. He's going to take advantage of you. He's going to take your wealth. He's going to take your land. He's going to take your food. He's going to take your sons and daughters. He's going to live very well and you're going to suffer. That's what he's going to be like. You want a king like the nations?

Samuel describes to them a king like the nations. And do you know what the people said? They said, no, but there shall be a king over us, that we may be like all the nations, that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles. So do these people want a tranquil and quiet life? Yeah, they do. They want them to go out and fight all their battles. They want them to go out and handle all their troubles and provide all for them, but they're ignorant. They don't realize that everyone's a sinner and that not all kings rule well. And if you were to read the history of the Old Testament, of all the kings that came later, a precious few of them ruled well. The vast majority of them ruled very poorly. The constant refrain in the Old Testament with regard to their kings was, and they didn't follow in the ways of their father David. And they didn't tear down the idols. And they didn't submit to the ways of the Lord.

Time and time and time again. Those in authority took advantage of their people. And so we have to get down to the bottom of the issue. And it's this. Are we willing to be ruled at all? Now we all realize that it's unavoidable. You can't actually get away from being ruled. And so that's why we set about this work of figuring out what kind of ruler we want. But the funny thing is we want a ruler who's either just like us or we want to become the ruler ourselves. We're Americans, says John. Here's the difficulty. Who appointed Saul? The Lord did. Who appointed the Romans at Paul's time? The Lord did. Who appointed Nebuchadnezzar in Israel when they were hauled away? The Lord did. And so who appointed those who rule over us today? The Lord did. And so when we oppose...

Those who rule over us. Those who exercise authority. We have to see that we're opposing those who God has put in place over us. And you say, but they do wicked things. And I say, I know. Slow down. Stay with me a minute. Because all of us want to run to, well, but when don't I have to obey? And I say, sure, there are times when you don't have to obey and you don't have to submit. I'm not saying there aren't cases like that. But the vast majority of the time, you're not in that place. And if we live our lives as Christians, wanting a king like the nations, what are we asking except that we would become like the nations in every other way? That our opinions of our civil magistrates would reflect and mirror the world's opinions of their leaders? Isn't that what we're asking for? We want to become like the world. And yet we as Christians ought not to want to become like the world.

Because we can see and we understand from Scripture that God is the one who appoints these rulers and these people and that they will give an account for the way that they rule. And I can't tell you how much of a comfort that has to be to God's people when they face persecution and trial and suffering at the hands of wicked men. That their God in heaven will right every wrong in his time. And that we as his people are going to spend a lot of our time waiting for that day. And yet praying that those who are ruling over us and doing wickedness would turn from their way. For their sakes and ours. Romans 13, 1 and 2 says, Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. Therefore, whoever resists authority, those who rule over them civilly, have opposed the ordinance of God. And they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves. And so this is the tension of our passage.

Paul tells us to pray for those who don't do well, who don't serve God's purposes, who use their power to oppress. Pray for them. Pray for their welfare, because your welfare is tied to their welfare. Think of it this way. In your own life, where you're in authority, where you have some responsibility for other people, would you like the anarchy just below boiling point, and as soon as you do something wrong, full-blown... Chaos in your house. No. Now, why in the world could you as a husband or a father or a mother say, I don't want the people that I'm responsible for to have my head as soon as I sin and not extend the same sort of terms to those who rule over you? What you'd say of your children, if these were parents talking about their children, would you say, I want my children to understand that I'm a sinner. I want them to understand.

I don't always do what's right. And sometimes I don't do what's right with the full knowledge that what I'm doing is wrong. And yet for their sakes and mine, and ultimately for the glory of God, we need to maintain the structures that God has set up. Because if we tear them down, then there's no hope. Someone's got to be the leader of the house. It might as well be the one that God has appointed. And those who serve them ought to pray for them, for their leadership, for their care, for their mercy. that they would execute justice and that they would be kind and gracious to the people who are dependent on them. Because we see that our dependence, whether it's on our husband or it's on our parents or it's on our governor or it's on our president or our Congress, above all of that, it's on God. We're dependent on the Lord. And so we come to our Father and we say, Lord, have mercy.

on our land. Have mercy on our people and those who rule over us. Give them fear of you. Help them to execute justice and righteousness in the land. Help them protect the poor and the weak so that your people might live a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness. Because that's our desire. That's what we would like. And it's a good thing to want. Paul tells us to want it. So pray for it. But don't pray for it in the midst of destruction. Say, I pray for this, but I want there to be destruction as it comes about. Because you understand that if it goes poorly for those who rule over you, it's going to go poorly for you too. And so we pray for God's mercy. Jesus said, you've heard that it was said, this is Matthew 5 on the Sermon on the Mount, you've heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy, but I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. Does this not apply to those who rule over us? Or is it just with those who have no power to persecute and yet somehow are able to still?

No, pray for those who rule over you and those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even tax collectors do the same? Don't even the worst sinners in this world? Aren't they thankful for the people who are good to them? If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Therefore, you are to be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect, and this is the tension. As Christians, we live in this world, and it's not as it should be. There's real evil. There's real wickedness, and you're going to really deal with it. You're going to really face it. It's going to mean real suffering. First of all, then, I urge you that prayers be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that you might lead a peaceful, tranquil, quiet life in all godliness. This is the tension we live in.

We won't live in this tension forever. There will come a day when Jesus will return and all of these difficulties will be done. And we'll rejoice in that day. But until that day, how are we to conduct ourselves as Christians? That's the question. And so when I asked at the beginning, what do you do with government? What do you think about them? We all say, oh, I got opinions. And I say, I know, I know, I know. Let's make sure they're Christian. And let's make sure that you're praying for those who rule over you. It's easy to speak and say, they did wrong. And that's wicked. And you're not wrong for saying it if it's true. But what I say to you is, have you prayed for them? Or are you believing this lie that their destruction won't have any implication for your life? Pray for those who rule over you. That they might rule in such a way that you can lead a quiet and godly life. And the interesting thing is that there's room in that prayer for you to pray for them to be removed if they won't fear God and do what he says. And honor him.

As a protection to you and a protection to them. But mercy and love and concern for the wicked. Even those who oppress you. This is what the blood of Jesus Christ secures for you. The ability to look at your life and to say, yes, there is suffering. Yes, there is hardship. Yes, it is not going how it ought to go. These people who rule are not ruling according to God's standards. And yet my place is to pray for them. Because I'm no less of a sinner than them. And if God would save me and have mercy on me and love me, then what else can I do except love them? And all of a sudden, the tension still exists, the realities of life still exist, but the internal conflict and the temptations to constant bitterness and anger begin to recede. Because you say, there's a God in heaven who's put me in this place in this time with these rulers who rule this way. And he will right all of the wrongs in time. What he's given to me is his son, and what he's called me to do is to pray.

And you'll find peace and faith and strength to endure the burdens this side of glory. This is what Paul says is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, that we would acknowledge his lordship over all of creation through prayer and those who rule over us. It's good for us and for our souls to pray and to ask God to be merciful, that we might live peaceful lives. It's what we all want. And so Paul tells us this is what you do. You pray and ask God to give it to you. Let's pray.