The Sovereignty of God in Elections (Proverbs 21:1)

“The King’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord. He turns it wherever he will.”
– Proverbs 21:1

What a verse. I listen to Proverbs 21:1. I’m going to read Proverbs 21:1 one more time. “The King’s heart… ” The heart of the King, the heart of a ruler and a leader in our country, “the King’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord. He turns it wherever he will.”

Is there any clearer statement of the sovereignty of God, the authority of God, the reign and rule of God as King over all Kings, all leaders, all rulers in the world? You think about any leader in the world, picture their heart and it’s in the hands of the Lord. Is this not confidence giving to know that ultimately every leader is under the sovereignty of God, the rule and the reign of God, even leaders who defy God, he holds their hearts in his hands.

God has sovereignly chosen leaders to serve for the good of his people.

Proverbs 21:1 Reminds Us of the Sovereignty of God

And just think about how this leads us to pray for our current leaders in different countries and future leaders. Proverbs 21:1 leads us to praise God for his sovereignty and to pray that God would turn their hearts and their lives for the good of many people. And ultimately for the glory of his name. This proverb drives us to intercession for those who lead us to pray and believe for the hearts of those who lead us. We’re talking to the God who holds their hearts in his hands, and God has called us to pray according to his word. So let’s do this.

This Verse Leads Us to Praise God

God, we come to you. We come straight to you through the blood of Jesus Christ. We praise you for this privilege of prayer you’ve given us for access to you. The fact that right now, we’re not just saying words that are just kind of going up into the air that you, the Lord King sovereign over all the universe are listening to us right now and we are praying for our leaders. God, we pray for current leaders, for future leaders in our countries and specifically here in the United States. In the middle of a presidential election, we pray for our current leaders and any new future leaders. God, we pray that you would turn their hearts and lives for the good of people in our country. And for the glory of your name.

This Verse Lead Us to Pray for Our Leaders

God, we pray that you would save them. God, we pray for the salvation of leaders. So we pray that you would direct them in ways that lead to good, to your good purposes for government, for your protection of people, for the promotion of good in every way in our countries. We pray for that. And for protection against evil in our countries, that our countries would do what is right in your eyes as we’ve seen in Judges. God, we pray for our leaders. God, we pray in the United States for President Trump and Vice President Pence, and Speaker Pelosi and other leaders all throughout our national federal government. We pray for different governors and state leaders, local leaders in government.

God, we pray that you would turn their hearts and lives for the good of people in the glory of your name. Please, God, we pray that you would do that. And we pray for future leaders, whoever will lead us in the future. And we pray that you help us to vote according to your leadership and God, we pray. God, we pray that you would turn the hearts of future leaders for the good of our country and the people in it in the glory of your name not according to what is right in our eyes, but according to what is right in your eyes.

Proverbs 21:1 Leads Us to Pray for Foreign Leaders

And God, we pray for leaders around the world like this. God, we pray knowing that the Thai King, his heart is in your hand so we pray that you would move, turn his heart for the glory of your name and the good of the people of Thailand. We pray for leaders in Turkey and Russia and Syria. God, we pray for leaders in Azerbaijan, amidst conflict there. And we pray for leaders in Azerbaijan and Armenia amidst the conflict there. Go through, God, turn the hearts of leaders. We pray that peace might reign, that people might be saved like their lives saved physically. And people might turn to you for the spread of the gospel in these countries.

We pray. We pray for leaders in Yemen, amidst conflict there. God, we pray for peace in Yemen. God turn the hearts of leaders so that peace might reign and people might be protected in Yemen. We pray for a new president coming into power in Kurdistan as their president has stepped down amidst political unrest. God, we pray for leaders all over Europe and unique challenges that we’re seeing countries in Europe facing. We pray for world leaders and we pray for Kim Jong-un in North Korea. God, please, please turn his heart. We pray for the good of the North Korean people.

This Verse Leads Us to Thank God

God, we praise you for the privilege you’ve given us of intercession, coming to you, the sovereign Lord and King who holds these leaders in the Palm of your hand. Turn their hearts for the good of many and the glory of your name. We pray. And we pray for this and leaders around the world and leaders in our own country. Even as we pray that you would turn our hearts daily toward you and to live according to your word, to love you with all our heart and to love our neighbors as ourselves. Oh God, we are so thankful that you are the sovereign King overall. And we say together today, all of our trust and all of our hope is in you. We praise you as our King. Jesus, you are our King and we pray all of this in your name. Amen.

David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.

David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow MeCounter CultureSomething Needs to ChangeBefore You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.

Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.

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