阅读经文 

这个月除了深入查看主祷文，圣经中还有很多对我们日常生活中的祷告有帮助的劝勉。
       比如说，保罗在给提摩太的第一封书信中，敦促他为“万人”祷告，强调为“一切在位者”祷告的必要性。在这个教导的背后，保罗深信是神赐给领袖权柄统管我们。（参罗 13:1）值得注意的是，保罗是在罗马皇帝尼禄统治期间写下这些话的，尼禄则是有史以来最反对基督教的统治者之一。

但为统治者祷告的建议，无论如何都不陌生。早在主前600年前，先知耶利米就敦促耶路撒冷和犹大的流亡者为他们被掳到的城巴比伦求“平安和昌盛”。（参耶 29:7）我们为在位者祷告，是承认神在我们个人生活和社会生活中掌权。我们恳求神帮助我们的统治者，以正直和公平统治管理，好使每个人都活在造物主所预定的平安中。藉着这些祷告，我们祈求神使用我们做祂的使者。为掌权者和领袖的祷告源于我们向邻舍分享耶稣的爱和怜悯的承诺。

Along with the Lord's Prayer, which we have been looking at in depth this month, many other Bible texts give us helpful insights for prayer in our everyday lives.

In his first letter to Timothy, for example, the apostle Paul urges prayer for "all people," accenting the need to pray for "those in authority" over us. Behind this direction lies Paul's conviction that God has placed our leaders in authority over us (Romans 13:1). Remarkably, Paul wrote these words during the reign of the Roman emperor Nero, one of the most anti-Christian rulers of all time.

But the advice to pray for rulers, both good and bad, wasn't new. More than 600 years earlier, the prophet Jeremiah urged the exiles of Jerusalem and Judah to pray for the "peace and prosperity" of Babylon, where they were taken as captives (Jeremiah 29:7).

When we pray for people in authority, we recognize God's sovereign hand in our lives and our societies. We implore God to aid our rulers in governing with justice and equity so that everyone may live in the peace our Creator intended. By these prayers, we ask God to use us as his agents. Prayers for our rulers and leaders spring from our commitment to sharing Jesus' love and mercy with our neighbors.