As a visionary leader, Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. was devoted to achieving social justice through prayer and peaceful means. In his own words he declared, “When we allow freedom [to] ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”[1]
During a time of great social unrest, Dr. King painted a picture of faith and hope for our nation. He recognized that by faith “we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.”[2] Whatever your political stances or beliefs are, we should be interceding and praying for this nation that its leaders be led by the Lord. God can use them beyond their own understanding if we pray for this country to be an instrument in His hand.
We need to pray for unity in this country that transcends political divisions. Spiritually there is no greater force than oneness. We need to be united in a oneness that says, “Father, use this country and its leaders. Give them pure motivations. Let their actions come under the Lordship of Christ.” We hear our leaders professing in the news that they have good intentions, and so there should be a drive in us that holds them to those motivations. We “stimulate one another to love and good deeds” (Hebrews 10:24).[3] Therefore, we can be a force of energy to our leaders that says, “Get in and be that!” Let us do that for every nation. Of course there are things we do not understand. But we trust the Lord enough to say, “He knows what He’s doing.” He can speak to our leaders and guide them.
God is setting up His Kingdom, and people are being given a choice in how they relate to Christ and His coming Lordship. Whatever you say about the United States, this country has stood for what is right as much as it could. We have been blessed with many things and have a responsibility to all the earth because of who we are and what we have. Everything we did may not have been right. But there is a difference between being right and being righteous. Abraham was called righteous because of his heart and his spirit before the Lord. Everything does not have to be perfect for us to be a righteous people and our leaders to be righteous. We need to pray for their righteousness.
God’s Kingdom is coming. And we are going to enjoy and rejoice in and be partakers of the treasure that He has put in each nation. There is an impartation that is waiting for us from every tribe and tongue and nation (Revelation 5:9). Each country has a unique thing that God has done so that when the Kingdom comes it will all be blended as one in serving Him. Then as Dr. King declared, all God’s people everywhere will be free at last!
[1] Martin Luther King Jr., “I Have a Dream,” delivered August 28, 1963, American Rhetoric Top 100 Speeches.
[2] King, “I Have a Dream.”
[3] All Scripture references are from the New American Standard Bible 1995 (NASB1995).