are praying for a governmental entity specifically the sanhedrin when they pray they acknowledge the situation they know that god is a god of justice and they say look on their threats but their prayer for the government at that point terminates the prayer primarily is for them in other words how are we supposed to respond when the pressure comes how are we supposed to function when the difficulties arise
Three Prayers for Civil Government
if you ask the bible how can we pray for civil government i've reduced it to three arms
First: Pray for Their Redemption
first we pray for their redemption first timothy chapter 2 verses 1 to 7. you see that god the apostle paul tells timothy specifically to pray i entreat you first of all i urge you that prayers supplications intercessions and givings of thanks be made for all men for kings and all who are in authority in verse 4 he highlights the fact that jesus christ is a savior of all men by that he doesn't mean all men without distinction but in the context all men without exception kings rulers civil authority so it is just and legit for the church today to pray for the redemption of our government authorities
Second: Pray for Restraint
secondly we can pray that god restrains them solomon the wise man in proverbs 21 1 tells us in tune with god's sovereignty that the lord holds the heart of the king in his hand and then he directs that heart the way he does the rivers of water so lord god restrain them we don't want the variant communism please keep that from us that is a legit expression of biblical praying on the part of the people of god when i was younger they taught us of the horrors of communism we forgot those lessons communism is antichrist it is an absolute opposition and contradiction to the lord of glory the most virulent anti-communist ought to be people of god in churches because commies don't provoke or incite true religion they clamp down on it so restraint is a perfectly legitimate prayer for civil government
Third: Pray for Removal
and then there's the third r which is remove that remove them psalm 74 verse 11. asaph prays that yahweh withdraw his hand from his bosom and destroy the enemies of israel again that's the kind of praying we kind of shrink back from because we're filled with love in the new covenant as if god in the old covenant wasn't filled with love love is opposed to wretchedness to wickedness and to evil first corinthians 13 tells us love rejoices in what truth not lies not to deceit not deception and falsehood it rejoices in truth so god most high can either redeem restrain or remove that is a specific petition that the church has legitimacy to pray with reference to their civil authority
Praying for Our Own Response
now back to our text they understand the opposition they see the rage of their enemies they understand the nature of the battle and let us see how they pray so when we pray for redemption restraint or removal let's not neglect to pray for ourselves on how we're supposed to conduct ourselves in the midst of oppression and persecution notice verse 29 now lord look on their threats it's a great place for them to invoke the removal clause at that point but they don't and i'm admitting that and i'm acknowledging that but there's other places in the bible where men do invoke the removal clause but here it's now lord look at their threats and grant to your servants see here's the rub brethren whatever happens from out there whatever happens within here whatever happens in god's big world there's always our response to it there's always our reaction to it there's always the way we think through it the way we strategize about it the way we conduct ourselves in the midst of it and i think it's biblically right to ask god to make us proper vehicles