Kingdom Building
September 19, 2019
Scripture Reading:
1 Timothy 2:1-7
First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings should be made for everyone, for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity. This is right and is acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. –1 Timothy 2:1-4
We can work as hard as we possibly can to model our lives like Jesus being good people who do justice and show mercy. We can engage in communion with God to guide our actions and our behavior and work to walk humbly with God. These actions grow our faith, nurture our hope, and expand our love. These steps, however, are preparation for the next giant step, joining in Christ’s call to create a world ruled by love. For it will take all the faith, hope, and love that we can muster to make that change happen.
Thus, the author of Timothy urges us to pray for all leaders and kings, whether we like them or not and trust me when Timothy was written there were more disliked than liked for good reason. We must understand that God’s gift of free will includes everyone and sometimes our prayers collide with the desires of others. Somehow amid such conflicting ideas, God is still God and engages with all of us in seeking a world ruled by love. That is God’s ultimate desire, I believe, and God can support multiple ways of making it happen. Our prayers for those leaders whether we think they are great, mediocre, or awful are important, if for no other reason than to help us keep [our] heads while all about us are losing theirs and blaming it on [us]* while God continues to work toward that vision.
Our faith and trust in God as we partner with God in seeking that vision is key to our salvation amid chaos and the salvation of all who will come to know God’s love.
Prayer: God who is love, the breadth and depth of which is beyond our understanding, thank you for your abiding presence and amazing patience. Amen.
*Taken from If for Boys by Rudyard Kipling. See at https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46473/if–
All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.