1 Timothy 2.1-7 Make thanksgivings

Have you ever struggled to be thankful for something you just aren’t? To give thanks for the death of a child. To give thanks for ailing health. To give thanks for tornados, hurricanes, forest fires, earthquakes, tsunamis, or politicians? How many people have taken time to give thanks for Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Attila the Hun, Vladamir Putin? Or do you just pray to fix them? Change them? Rewrite history? Pray for their death or dismemberment?

We are urged to give supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings for EVERYONE. For all those who in are high positions that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity. We are told we should give thanks and pray for leadership in our world. For those with great power we are to give thanks they are willing to accept the positions they are in and take on the responsibility for which they have taken on. We pray they make good decisions for all of God’s people. We pray that they come to the knowledge of truth.

Know what we don’t pray for? That they are liked. Being liked is not a requirement of life. When we like people, we have a tendency to bend rules for them, cater to them, go out of our way for them. Sometimes it takes someone who rubs us the wrong way to push us into action.

I stay out of politics. I don’t watch the news. On occasion, I will read a news article if something comes up in conversation that piques my interest or concern but for the most part, I prefer to live not seeking extensive knowledge about things I have absolutely no influence in regard to. I have enough stress, responsibility and purpose in my life, I don’t need to be going out to find more.

I had a strange experience a couple weeks ago. In the morning, I listened to a highly conservative relative talk about how much he admired Charlie Kirk and how is death was such a shame. Then just an hour later, I attended my seminary class, I listened to someone talk about how much they hated Charlie Kirk and were struggling with not rejoicing in his death. I heard both sides of an argument, that I won’t lie before that day I had never heard of the guy that these two people had such strong opinions about. Both of these people are Christians. Both of these people pray about Charlie Kirk but in very different ways. One for prayed for his success and one prayed for his failure.

So, what happens here where we have one person praying for and one person praying against someone? Do they cancel each other out? Does God ignore one and not the other? Too political for you? Maybe the problem isn’t about which side of an argument you’re on but what you’re praying for and how you’re praying.

Matthew 6:7-13

⁷ And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. ⁸ Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

⁹ “This, then, is how you should pray:

First, establish you know exactly who it is who you are praying to.

“‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,

Second, establish that you know who is in charge.
¹⁰ your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Are you asking that your will be done or God’s?

Third, ask for only what you need not necessarily what you want
¹¹ Give us today our daily bread.

Fourth, beg for forgiveness for you are in the wrong. You have passed judgment against others and God’s will.
¹² And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

Fifth, try do better and be sincere about the changes you want to make in yourself.
¹³ And lead us not into temptation,
    but deliver us from the evil one.’

Our God desires everyone to be saved. Terrifying thought, isn’t it? We say a lot of things in our faith but do we really mean it? Anyone you struggle with even thinking about the concept of salvation for?

And, last but not least, know the consequences of your own actions and others.

¹⁴ For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. ¹⁵ But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

Forgiveness does not mean that others do not have to suffer the consequences of their actions. Forgiveness means I will try a hard as I can to pray for your salvation and that you take the power you have as an individual and use it that all may live a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity. Forgiveness does not mean that you approve of someone’s action or that you want to encourage them in the same way. It does not mean you make judgments about others.

Thank God for this world and everything in it. That truly does mean everything. Recognize when you are imposing your will on others for you will be judged for it. Offer not solutions to the world’s problems to God in such a way that you are trying to tell God how to fix something (for that matter, don’t do it to other people either) but own that which is within your control, you and your own actions. You may express your desires to God, that is completely acceptable, and you may ask that God help you relieve those desires in whatever way God sees fit. Warning: that may not be the way you think it should go. Remember line 2? This is God’s kingdom not yours. Refer to line 1: God is in charge.

When we pray, we pray these things that all may live a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity. We do not stand on street corners or shout in our churches that others may know out viewpoints, for truly I tell you, they have received their reward. Whether reward is good or bad is not ours to judge or decide. It simply means they will receive the consequences of their actions, which will not be determined by you, the one who prays.

When we pray, we are not to heap up empty phrases asking for things which are not ours to decide, thinking that if we say it enough times in enough different ways, it will come true. God knows what we need before we ask. God knows what they need before we ask. To make suggestions to the contrary, that perhaps you know better than God, or that you are the one who is to determine the solution to the world’s problems.

Christianity is often peddled as an easy religion. It’s not. There are so many things in this world that it is a struggle to be thankful for. There are so many people in this world that it is a struggle to be thankful for.

I hope you hated this sermon, this message. I hope it made you angry or upset. I hope you talk about it with every significant person in your life. I hope you go home and pray for me and this church and my poor husband, who has to deal with me day in and out on this earth. And I hope that in your grumblings, you realize you’re judging, you’re stepping on God’s toes, you’re interceding in places where it is not your place to intercede or control. I hope, amidst your reflections on this sermon, good or bad, you pray that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity.

I hope you pray, establishing who you are praying to and the great power which only they possess. I hope you ask only for that which you deserve to have. I hope you beg for forgiveness, grant forgiveness to others, and I sure as hell hope you pray to be a better person each and every day, for you know what the consequences are if you do not seek these things.

God uses ways that we struggle to understand. I don’t know why God designed this planet so that it frequently destroys what I deem to be innocent people and wildlife with massive natural disasters, but it does, and so there must be an explanation beyond my understanding for it. I don’t know why this human creature made in God’s own image is capable of doing such horrible, awful things. But here’s what I do know.

We are created by and belong to God to be used as God’s instruments of justice, compassion, and forgiveness on this earth. We are given little power except that to pray. And so, we must learn to pray wisely. We must learn to pray as Jesus has taught us to pray, not to get what we want but to be better servants. To be thankful for all things and seek God’s interests above our own. To pray unceasingly for all the leaders of the world that they be open to God working through them, using them, all of them in ways we are not meant to comprehend so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity.