Praying for the U.S.A.

Having just experienced another great 4th of July with all its patriotic fanfare, and with a presidential election approaching later in the year, many of us are turning our thoughts to our nation and asking what our role should be as Christians who are citizens or residents of the U.S.A.
I have been enjoying my friend Charlie Drew’s book A Public Faith – Bringing Personal Faith to Public Issues. In one of his chapters, he makes the point that a primary responsibility we have as the church is to pray for our government. How should we pray? Here are some of his points, looking at Paul’s instructions in 1 Timothy 1:1-6...
1) Our prayers should be international as well as national. We must certainly pray for America. But we must pray for other nations, as well. Drew writes, “‘God bless America’ is fine, but it is not enough. Paul commands us to intercede and give thanks ‘for kings and all those in authority.’ The world political scene must be on our hearts as we pray.”
2) We should thank God for our government, not merely complain to him about it. Drew observes, “We should pray ‘thanksgiving,’ not merely ‘requests’ and ‘intercessions.’... Those who govern us need our encouragement at least as much as our criticism. When we thank God for our leaders, when we call to mind in prayer the good things they do and the efforts they make, we find ourselves behaving more charitably toward them. This change in us fosters a climate in which they find it easier to govern more responsibly.”
3) We should pray for more than just peace and prosperity. We should pray that God will work through the governments of the world in ways that will enhance the spread of the gospel. “Paul tells us that God longs for ‘all men ... to come to a knowledge of the truth.’ ... [There] is something far worse than an oil shortage, than America losing face, than bloodshed, even than the collapse of Iraqi sanitation, health care, and food distribution.... [Worse] than any of these things is the destiny of any – whether American, Jew, or Arab – who perishes without knowing the living God through his appointed mediator [Jesus Christ].”
Great stuff! Thanks, Charlie!