Prayer In Politics

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Talk with him at any time about anything. On Encouraging Prayer, Dr. James Banks, author of the bestselling Prayers for Prodigals and many other books on prayer, provides weekly biblical insight to help you learn to love to pray. And now, here's James. So James, today you want to talk about prayer and politics?

Oh, I can hardly wait for this. And now, a word from our sponsors. Oh, just kidding.

But you're right. I mean, can we go there? After all, religion is sometimes called the third rail of politics, Robbie, you know, a reference to electric subway trains, and you don't want to touch it. But we do need to talk about it, especially from the standpoint of prayer, because, man, this is an election year, and we can't ignore it.

Oh, you got that right. I mean, it's everywhere in the media, especially with the week it's been with primaries and special council reports and international interviews. I mean, there's a lot going on right now. Yeah, there is.

Yeah. And there's a lot of division out there. And the reason why we need to talk about this is that no matter what you hear, there is only one person who can save us, and his name is Jesus. And that's the challenge that's presented to us at a time like this. Are we going to put the kingdom of God first and foremost in our thinking? I mean, that's really an excellent topic, because if our hearts and minds are so filled up with politics, right, it doesn't leave room for anything else. Yeah, I was really convicted about that this morning as I was going through this battle of, you know, what do I pick up first, my Bible or my cell phone, given the news reports coming out last night, and I've got to admit I picked up my cell phone first, you know. And we can find ourselves fixated, you know, clicking again and again our favorite sites and, you know, in one sense it's just to see what's going on, but there's also a spiritual component to this that we need to really be aware of.

Yeah, what's that? Well, you know, we find ourselves thinking that I'm right and they're wrong, and it's not that we're not to be involved, we absolutely must stand for the things that God would have us stand for, even when it's difficult and costs us. What happens in this battle between right and wrong that goes on in our nations is we can find ourselves trying to satisfy ourselves with political articles, you know, and they're never going to give us peace. Only Jesus can give that. We have to remember that we're citizens of the kingdom of heaven first, even before we're citizens of our country.

And so we're trying to stuff all these new stories in that might make us feel good. It's never going to work because, you know, ultimately only God can lead us where we need to be, and that's also, you know, what our country needs is people who have faith in him most of all, you know, so that he leads us to his solutions to our problems and not our own. So where does prayer fit into all that?

Well, it's very basic, but absolutely indispensable. The first thing is, we need to ask God to lead us and give us wisdom, which he's promised to give. And we need to pray, Lord, help me to love you more than anything else so that I'm living for your kingdom and looking forward to you most of all. Help me to read my Bible first thing in the morning, you know, not the news reports. Help me to have your mind and your spirit when I process political stuff. And, you know, because we live in this battle between good and evil, we need to pray for God's will to be done. When we watch the news, try praying your way through each story that you hear. That's an interesting thing to do. You know, see if you can turn it into prayer, each one, and ask for discernment with whom you vote for because what we need more than anything else at any level is leaders who are people who love God and who are really humble before them. Oh, that's excellent. And you were telling me before that you had a humbling experience once in a political setting one time.

Yeah, yeah. There was a time when I was asked to give a prayer at a prayer lunch for the governor of the state I was living in at the time. And, you know, I was kind of heavy thing I thought, well, you know, I've kind of arrived there asking me to do this and it was a matter where he was there and there was an another national figure from the Watergate era who was there. And, you know, what happened that day was that they were both late. The governor and this other, you know, higher mucky muck were both late and I was sitting in the front of the room on the die with the other speakers and while they were late we just kept drinking iced tea. And, you know, iced tea has a powerful diuretic effect.

You know, if you've seen the scene in Forrest Gump where he meets the president, you know, after drinking all this Dr. Pepper you kind of get the idea. And what happened as I'm praying that was actually it was a beautiful way for God to humble me. Yeah, I imagine, right?

So what did you learn from this? Well, be careful with prayer breakfasts or lunches where there's more talking than there is praying, you know, if our candidates want to show up and be prayed for, that's great. But if we do more talking than praying, look out, you know, be very careful not to hold anyone up as a model of righteousness. The ones who really love God wouldn't want you to do that anyhow. And, you know, let's just talk to God. That's what it's about.

It's not a photo op for a constituency. Yeah, I've been thinking all week about, you know, your house should be a house of prayer or my father's house should be a house of prayer that we've talked about several times on the show. And being that our heart is, right, the house of the Holy Spirit and that kind of thing, I was thinking that, wow, when Jesus cleared the temple, he was clearing out all those money changers.

And to the money changers and those people, it was all about me, me, me, me, me. And perhaps, you know, he's wanting to clear my temple that, you know, when it comes to politics and these things, I'm really concerned about me, me, me, me rather than being about my father's business, my father's house. And I love that idea of sitting there watching these ads that I have to endure anytime I particularly decide to watch any TV and think about, wow, what is my father up to in this particular situation rather than, you know, the fact that I'm so disgusted by the ad. Well, and pray about it, you know, or pray against the concepts that it's raising up. Yeah, and it looks like we need to pray, too, because we're afraid we're out of time. But so, I just said, Lord, thank you for this insight.

And wow, what a new way to look at those political ads. And I'm grateful for this wisdom and insight. And Lord, I pray that you really would help us to make our houses of prayer throughout the day through all these situations. And I ask this in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. You can hear more from Pastor James by visiting his website, jamesbanks.org, or by visiting Peace Church in Durham, North Carolina. May God bless you and encourage you as you pray. This is the Truth Network.