Prayer's Classless Covering
From I Timothy 2 – 1 Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, 2 for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. 3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
In the movie Gettysburg based on the novel The Killer Angels, Gen. Robert E Lee is planning late into the night with his chief, indispensable aid, Maj. Walter Taylor. Noting the hour, Lee concedes, "We should have a larger staff." Taylor takes umbrage or at least manages to manufacture it. "I would be insulted. I can do the work." As Lee settles into a rocking chair and transforms from The Old Man into an old man, weary, Taylor tenderly covers him with a blanket so he might rest.
So is the attitude Paul would have from us in reference to the exalted and sometimes revered. Prayer is our default, he charges, toward all men. As he does, and we consider harnessing ourselves to obedience, I have little doubt but that we picture the masses of the most vulnerable and the favor we are doing for them by praying for them. Paul under the Holy Spirit's leadership quickly extinguishes such condescension. While a generic positive disposition toward all men still echoes in our minds, Paul is explicit in verse two that he would have us cover kings and all who are in authority with our prayers, as with a blanket more restorative than any Taylor could find.
Our pride can rankle at this. There are those benighted people we can convince ourselves we somehow dignify with our prayers, convincing, as it were, an otherwise reluctant Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to love them as we do. But in our bifurcated minds, there are those who ought to know better, those who have enough of this world's goods and privileges that they can fend for themselves. If we would have peace, however, there is no place for class warfare from the prayer warrior. The president needs prayer, even and maybe especially with all his advantages. The pastor, who takes on such accountability James says not many should desire the role, needs our prayers. The man or woman we classify as too rich or too educated because they have more of a measurable advantage in some area than we do is vulnerable before the Creator. Knowledge of Him is at least as likely to be crowded out in the life of the human elite by other considerations. Our call, then, is to lift every enclave, every strata, up to the One Who opens eyes and ears, changes hearts, that we might use our position to His glory.
In the movie Gettysburg based on the novel The Killer Angels, Gen. Robert E Lee is planning late into the night with his chief, indispensable aid, Maj. Walter Taylor. Noting the hour, Lee concedes, "We should have a larger staff." Taylor takes umbrage or at least manages to manufacture it. "I would be insulted. I can do the work." As Lee settles into a rocking chair and transforms from The Old Man into an old man, weary, Taylor tenderly covers him with a blanket so he might rest.
So is the attitude Paul would have from us in reference to the exalted and sometimes revered. Prayer is our default, he charges, toward all men. As he does, and we consider harnessing ourselves to obedience, I have little doubt but that we picture the masses of the most vulnerable and the favor we are doing for them by praying for them. Paul under the Holy Spirit's leadership quickly extinguishes such condescension. While a generic positive disposition toward all men still echoes in our minds, Paul is explicit in verse two that he would have us cover kings and all who are in authority with our prayers, as with a blanket more restorative than any Taylor could find.
Our pride can rankle at this. There are those benighted people we can convince ourselves we somehow dignify with our prayers, convincing, as it were, an otherwise reluctant Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to love them as we do. But in our bifurcated minds, there are those who ought to know better, those who have enough of this world's goods and privileges that they can fend for themselves. If we would have peace, however, there is no place for class warfare from the prayer warrior. The president needs prayer, even and maybe especially with all his advantages. The pastor, who takes on such accountability James says not many should desire the role, needs our prayers. The man or woman we classify as too rich or too educated because they have more of a measurable advantage in some area than we do is vulnerable before the Creator. Knowledge of Him is at least as likely to be crowded out in the life of the human elite by other considerations. Our call, then, is to lift every enclave, every strata, up to the One Who opens eyes and ears, changes hearts, that we might use our position to His glory.
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