Military Wellness Collective

EP 23: Praying For Government and Military Leaders with Wisdom

• Military Wellness Collective

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What do you pray when leaders are flawed, the stakes are high, and the news cycle won’t slow down? We take a listener’s question and walk through a clear, Scripture-shaped way to intercede for authorities—from presidents to platoon leaders—without slipping into outrage or tribalism. Starting in 1 Timothy 2, we look at why prayer is commanded, how it calms quarrels, and what it produces in communities longing for quiet, dignified lives.

Together we unpack a hard but honest view of power: leaders are a mix of good and bad, and the hardest problems land on their desks. Through a brief tour of history, including World War II’s moral tradeoffs, we show how complexity doesn’t excuse wrong but deepens our prayers. Instead of talking points, we start with biblical principles and move outward to policy and practice. That shift helps us replace labels with lament and hot takes with intercession that protects the vulnerable and seeks justice.

We offer a practical roadmap: begin with thanksgiving, even for difficult leaders; ask for wisdom and discernment that values life and truth; pray for your own humility to submit when you should and the courage to quietly resist when conscience demands it; and don’t forget what matters most—salvation and transformed hearts. Daniel’s quiet faithfulness becomes a living pattern for today’s military and civic life: obey God, accept consequences, and keep a steady witness.

If this conversation helps you trade grumbling for grounded prayer, share it with a friend, subscribe for more faith-and-military insights, and email your questions to hello@militarywellnesscollective.com. What’s one prayer you’ll start for your leaders today?

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SPEAKER_00:

Hey y'all. Welcome back to another episode of the Military Wellness Collective. I'm Brittany Brown, be your host. And of course, I have Kelly O'Day and Brian O'Day here with me. Hey y'all. And Joshua.

SPEAKER_01:

Hello.

SPEAKER_00:

Awesome. Today we are excited. The listener questions have been coming in. If you want to send us a question, we have an email now. Super exciting. You can send us email address. Hello at military wellnesscollective.com. You can email us your questions or topic ideas you want us to talk about.

SPEAKER_02:

But today Hello at militarywellnesscollective.com.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm glad you slowed that down, Brian, because Brittany tends to speak really quickly.

SPEAKER_00:

My dream was to be a news broadcaster. So that's where it comes from. Yes.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, yeah. So I also she would sit in front of the oven. As a child. So the glass oven portion. Not while we were married.

SPEAKER_02:

She could see herself and just before we had the self-facing cameras. That's adorable. Oh wow.

SPEAKER_00:

And you want to you're really good at it.

SPEAKER_02:

And now here you are.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Here you are. Talking into a microphone.

SPEAKER_00:

Anyway, we digress. Today's episode is a listener question from an avid listener that we're really excited to answer. So, Brian, can you read the question you got from our friend?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, this is from Chris. Full disclosure, he texted it to me because we didn't have the email set up. But great question. So we are told to pray for our governments in 1 Timothy 2, and then also for our city in Jeremiah 29. We're told to pray for our government and for our city. What types of things are we to pray for the authorities that are over us andor for the places we live? So many policies and politicians seem to be mixtures of good and bad, or they change so much that you don't know what to think. Man. Great question. And so I think we're going to focus in on our government, on our leaders, the people who are running our government, people who are running our military. That that feels like so commander-in-chief, president of the United States, Secretary of War, all the way down to my fire team leader, if Lance Corporal 0311. So like leaders all up and down that chain.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I know there's a specific definition for what a loaded question is.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

I know this doesn't actually fit that, but there's a lot there. So we're going to it's like we could have a podcast. A whole podcast episode.

SPEAKER_00:

So we're going to.

SPEAKER_01:

I don't think we're going to cover everything in this. There's so many rabbit trails to go down as far as like discussing all the different aspects of this question, but we'll do our best. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

I just want to start off reading because he mentioned First Timothy two. So I'm going to read First Timothy two, one through two from the English Standard Version. It is first of all, then I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. I just verse three says, This is good and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. We could read a little bit further too. So there's more there why he's telling us to pray for our leaders. Yeah. So good. So let's give a little bit of a historical context, maybe to this. I so I've had the privilege to homeschool our kids, and there was this history teacher that we utilized through Compass classroom. And it really helped shape my ideas of how I look at leaders and historical characters. So when it takes we're millennials here, everybody, right? Y'all are millennials?

SPEAKER_02:

I'm an exennial.

SPEAKER_00:

No, I don't know.

SPEAKER_02:

I don't know what it means. But anyway, that's a microgeneration they put between millennials and Gen X. Okay. What are the years for that? Yeah. 77 through 83. Oh, I am too, huh? We're all exennials. Not me. Oh, we're seven. We're 84.

SPEAKER_03:

They're young'uns.

SPEAKER_02:

You're 84? Yeah. Sorry, we're dating ourselves. Oh man.

SPEAKER_00:

But this guy was super helpful. And I just want to think about this as we shape this conversation. When we're talking about leaders and people, I think we get questions like this because sometimes we see leaders in front of us. Maybe they're not doing what we think they should be doing as Christians. So how do we pray for them? But this guy really helped shape my view saying history is more of an art, not a science. It depends on what time of history you're looking at, somebody. And he used Columbus. So when we were growing up, Columbus was a hero. Now in school, he's like demonized. And he's just really brought it back to we're all human beings, that we're all sinners. Columbus was a sinner. He did a lot of really good things if you look at history, but he also did a lot of really bad things. So where's the heart motive there? And I think all of us could be seen. If I run for government, I'm sure lots of things would come out, right? So as we think about this, we need to think like how close are we? Brian mentioned to the windshield before when we were talking about this. Like, how close are we to the windshield? That changes it. So when we need to think about like what we are seeing right now and just kind of shape that a little bit, I think.

SPEAKER_02:

So go ahead and so yeah, I think it's interesting. There was a, I don't know why I think about this interview. It was just very fascinating to me. I don't even know if they still do it or not, but a a newscaster was interviewing the the president on Super Bowl Sunday. And so it just had a very different tenor than like every other interview of a president I've seen. And the president happened to be President Obama back during his term. And it was a very right-leaning newscaster interviewing President Obama. And but it was very cordial because it was Super Bowl Sunday, and so they were talking about the foot the Super Bowl and everything else. And I I just remember President Obama said, because the newscaster asked, hey, what what has surprised you most about being president? And President Obama said, Well, there are no easy problems that come across my desk. All the easy problems are handled elsewhere. It's only like really wicked complex problems that come across my desk. And you know, in our current moment, the most difficult jobs have press all the time.

SPEAKER_04:

Right.

SPEAKER_02:

Right? So like the president, secretary of war, like uh senators, representatives, like they're on the news all the time. And so it makes it really easy to they're heroes or they're villains. And like those seem to be the only two categories we have. And so I think the first thing is like, man, what if I was in that position? I would be a mix of good and bad. I would be like Christopher Columbus, I would be a mix of good and bad. Like, man, look at all these cool things Brian's done. Like, that's true of me today. Yeah. Like, yeah, here's all the cool things Brian's done. Here's all the evil things Brian's done. And so, like, we're just so all these leaders that we're gonna pray for are a mix of good and bad. They're human beings. The hero of the story is is Jesus. Yeah, that's good. Not any of these humans. The villain of the story is basically everybody else, Satan for sure, but everybody else. And so, like, all the humans that you interact with are a mix of good and evil.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I think that's really good.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and if we do a quick like history survey there, we're talking all the way back to biblical times. We had good and bad coming out of the leaders then. Even the Roman Empire did a lot of good, pulled a lot of people out of poverty, like helped out a lot of people with industry and roads and helping with feeding people, aqueducts, and all the stuff. Also did some pretty crazy weird stuff too. Brutal brutal thing, brutal stuff. And then you like fast forward to medieval times, you have kings who are doing good and bad at the same time, depending on your perspective. Then you roll up to like, I mean, even in our history, we have the Civil War. If you're in the South during the Civil War, the South are the good guys. If you're in the North during the Civil War, the North are the good guys.

SPEAKER_03:

Right.

SPEAKER_01:

And then there's the clash and they work it out, and then we all figure out and try to splice it apart and looking back on it.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

World War II, same thing. Like we have good things that happen on both sides. We also have huge atrocities that happen on both sides. People willing to really destroy entire areas, cities, towns in order for the quote unquote greater good. So and on both sides. Civilian casualties were through the roof. I mean, we're talking just horrible things, but depending on the side you're on.

SPEAKER_02:

So let's pull that thread a little bit. So I it's hard to assume things about all of our listeners, but I think all of our listeners would say that the the United States of America and the Allies are the good guys in World War II.

SPEAKER_04:

Okay.

SPEAKER_02:

Stopping Nazism and its spreading all across Europe and beyond. Good things. Stopping the brutal version of Japanese imperialism in that time period. Very good thing to stop that. Good thing to stop that. Stopping things like Pearl Harbor happening, but those things were happening lots of other places before Pearl Harbor happened. It was happening all throughout China and the whole Indo-Pacific area, right? So good things, right? Things like should we have dropped nuclear bombs on two cities in Japan? Can I muddy those waters? Muddy the waters.

SPEAKER_01:

So that was the decision that was before them, and that's a difficult decision to make, right? I mean entire destroy an entire city.

SPEAKER_04:

Right.

SPEAKER_01:

Kill tens of thousands of people, and then have horrible. Generations of impact. Generations. The alternative to continue to try to take out Japan or bring them to an unconditional surrender. The alternative was actually much worse. Not and what a lot of Americans think is it's not the invasion of mainland Japan. They were gonna firebomb all of Japan. And the Nagasaki and Hirosha Hiroshima, sorry to get into like a history lesson here, but those actually weren't the worst bombings of the war. It was when they firebombed. Right. Because they they developed napalm and they dropped them and they burned entire cities. And those those those were way worse, and they were way cheaper, and they're way easier to drop than the the atomic weapons. And that's what that was the plan to do to all of Japan.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, and and the I think the point of all of this is like those were insanely difficult decisions in the moment. Very hard. The morality and the ethics of which is being debated today, generations later.

SPEAKER_00:

And I think that's the question too that he asks like, what does it look like to pray for them? How do we pray for them? What do we pray for them? Right. And I just First Timothy two talks about I urge that's a strong word that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all those. So, what would be the opposite of this? I know we just had a mini history lesson, y'all, but you gotta bear with us because this matters, right? Like we in order to get us to how do we pray for our leaders, what authorities, what does that look like? What's the opposite of that though? What do we actually tend to do? Let's just be honest here.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I think what we tend to do is to complain, to slander, to gossip, to try to do their job for them, and honestly, to fall into tribalism of this person, like we take it away from the issues. Like this person is hero or villain. Like we just we uh we seem to try to like categorize things as hero or villain. So complaining, grumbling, slandering, all of those th and and again, hero or villain. I here to me, this is kind of a litmus test of if we're falling into this like temptation for tribalism. Okay, the sitting president, whoever he or she might be, whenever you're listening to this, if you listen to this 10 years from now, this is still true. But the sitting president, is there something they have done, a decision they have made that you agree with? Yes or no? And is there something that they have done that you disagree with? Yes or no? If you can't answer yes to both of those, then you're you're in tribalism, right? So the current sitting president, there are things he has done that I would say, wow, that would that was probably a good decision. Just biblically speaking, you know, ethically, morally, like that was a good decision. There's other decisions where I'm like, Yeah, that's not a good decision. You you should not have done that. And and honestly, the humility for all of them be like, and I might be wrong in my assessments, right? Like the just the intellectual humility for that. So I think the thing we do instead of praying is yeah, tribalism and grumbling, complaining, all that kind of stuff. So don't do that.

SPEAKER_00:

Which clearly we're not supposed to do. I mean, multiple times in scripture we're told not to grumble or complain about things or to pray and intercede. Go ahead, Victor.

SPEAKER_01:

Oftentimes what we're grumbling and complaining about isn't the actual issue. It's what so-and-so or whatever newscaster or whatever term they put on it, or whatever stigma they put on it, or whatever society says about it. We start to like talk about all of the things around the actual issue to bring this back to a way of talking about biblical things. Oftentimes somebody will come to me with a question that is very obscure, and it's you really have to define the terms, figure out what they're actually talking about, whatever the theological thing is that they want to argue about, and then discuss the thing. Instead of going down that rabbit trail, I usually go, which passage of scripture do you want to talk about? Right. Because because we can go down all sorts of rabbit trails about what so-and-so said about this theology or what this topic is. But let's let's go to the Bible and let's read it and let's see what we can glean from it. And we need to do the same thing with a lot of these political issues.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. So it's a cousin question to that would be so if it's if it's a decision that's being has recently been made or is about to be made in in like our foreign policy or even just in your unit or whatever the case is, then a cousin question would be like, yeah, I wonder like what biblical principles are at play here? Like what what does the Bible say on this topic? Let's start there and then we can flesh out our foreign policy. Then we can flesh out on how Captain Smith should be leading this infantry company, then we can flesh out how Corporal Jones should be leading this fire team, then we can flesh out like what are the biblical principles at play here?

SPEAKER_00:

I think that's really important too, because a lot of times we think our biblical principle is from the Bible. And sometimes when we check that, it's really just opinion or preference. Like, what does the word of God actually say about that? If you scooch down in First Timothy two to chap first Timothy two, verse eight, he says, I desire that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger and quarrel or quarreling. So as I listen to you to talk about this, I think about like, okay, are we quarreling about real true issues? Like, because a lot of times it's just us buying into the media and pitting us against each other. So we've talked about historical context, we talked about what we should not be doing, we should not be quarreling and angry over this.

SPEAKER_02:

Before you, I know you're trying to segue us and you're doing great. Um it seems like in that passage, prayer is an antidote for anger and quarreling.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, there's a lot above that if we kept reading.

SPEAKER_02:

There's a lot going on. But prayer, prayer is gonna help us. Like it's like don't be anger, angry and quarreling. Right instead, we're praying. Right.

SPEAKER_01:

And it's a a commandment, not a yeah, this isn't a good idea. Yeah, this this should be nice to do if you did it every once in a while.

SPEAKER_00:

What you guys are saying, yes, and what Brian just said, like it's antidote because in verse five he says, for there is one God, and there's one mediator between God and man men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.

unknown:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

And he's we need to be taking these issues we have to the Lord. I think so often in our pride and lack of humility, we disargue or debate or want to fight about genealogies. That's all from scripture.

SPEAKER_04:

Don't have debates or about endless genealogies or all these things.

SPEAKER_00:

Like, what do we pray for our leaders when we're feeling that animosity, when we're feeling the hardship? Like this question is sincere, I believe. Like, how like when we're talking about being in the military, even as military members and then military spouses, when we're watching decisions be made that can impact our lives personally, whether it's from the president to Secretary of War to your commanders, whoever that is, how do we pray for these people? What are some things we should be praying for them?

SPEAKER_01:

I was to do this. Like we're gonna start, and then we both give deference to one another. Okay. This is beautiful. What humility. So in in the text there, the first one you read there from 1 Timothy 2, really it gave us a commandment and it told us to be thanks to give thanksgiving for these things for our leaders. It never actually says whether they're good leaders or not. It just says to give be thankful for them and to pray for them. So, yeah, we talked a little bit about us being grumbling and complaining, how where we tend to fall into if we're not thinking about these things clearly. So, what do we pray for them about? Well, first thing is we can pray with thanksgiving that we have even that knucklehead leader, even that guy we disagree with on more things than not. Right. We can still be thankful for the things that they're doing, whether they're good or bad. And some of the difficulties, some of the most the hardest leaders I've ever had to work with. With personally, I learned the most from about how to deal with difficult people. So I can be thankful that I had that experience with them. I wasn't really thankful in the time. I I will confess right now that sometimes it was more just gritting my teeth and frustrated.

SPEAKER_00:

But what I hear you saying is maybe the thing you're tempted to grumble or complain about, you should surrender that and pray for that thing to the Lord.

SPEAKER_01:

There can really be some personal development when there's when there's those ad adverse leaders that are before you for sure.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, that's good.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I think the other thing, the just the big overarching thing, is to pray for wisdom and discernment in that leader. We know, biblically speaking, that God God has his ways, and we don't know exactly how all he does this, but he can turn the hearts of kings like water in his hands. He can he can change the heart of rulers. And so we want to pray that they would exercise their duties in wisdom and discernment, and that they would do so just you know, with biblical morality, even if they don't generally do that. And so that's kind of the first thing I want to be praying for them is wisdom and discernment. If I realize, and and that'll that'll help me humbly realize like, hey, this person has a hard job and they have some difficult decisions in front of them. I need to pray for them that they will humble themselves before the Lord, however they understand that, and that they would exercise their duties with wisdom and discernment. However, the Lord does that. The Lord may take a really awful person and and prick their conscience for just a moment to value human life and make decisions to value human life. That's a good thing. Even if they do all sorts of other evil stuff, it's a good thing if they value human life and make decisions to value human life. It's just one example. I think the the the second big thing I want to pray for when I'm thinking about praying for my leaders, is pray for my own wisdom and discernment and attitude towards them. And so I'm also praying for myself. Like, okay, the most likely scenario is I'm supposed to submit to them if the thing they're deciding is is gonna require an action on my part. So depending on where you are, so that's who we should be praying most for is people who are kind of directly over us. Okay. And so if I'm praying for those who are directly over me, then I need to think through okay, how am I going to submit to them? Because we're told to be subject to these authorities in Romans 13. Romans 13 for sure. Yeah, absolutely. I was actually thinking of a different place, but yeah, Romans 13 for sure, be subject to these authorities. And so I need to be ready for that submission. I also need to be ready that every once in a while I will be in a position where I need to stand up to power and stand up for what is good and right against power. And I need discernment on when to do that. I think in our current moments, so-called Christians think they're supposed to stand up to everything that they kind of disagree with. That that's not the case. Uh standing up to authorities is a pretty rare thing. And it takes a whole lot of wisdom and discernment to know when when we need to be doing that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

This makes me oh go ahead.

SPEAKER_02:

No, please go ahead.

SPEAKER_00:

It makes me think of Daniel. It just makes me think of the question like, can you serve under an administration or under a leader you don't agree with? And I think the answer is yes. And I think Daniel's a good example of that. Like when he stands up to the authorities, it's actually in a way that is honoring and pleasing to God. And he actually doesn't say anything to the authorities about standing up against them. He just does what God commanded him to do, which went against what the edict of the day was don't do this. He still prayed to God, which is an example. He prayed three times a day, and we're talking about praying for our leaders.

SPEAKER_02:

Daniel is such a great example. Joshua and I preached through Daniel a few years ago at the same church, which was fun. Daniel's such a great example because you're right. He doesn't like walk into the king and like, this edict is awful. You can't, how dare you tell me not to pray? I'm gonna go pray anyway. And then he posts on his social media and he starts doing all that stuff. Like, no, what's he do? He just he's like, Well, I'm not gonna do that. I'm gonna pray to God. He's just as faithful, he's just faithful to do it, and he's willing to accept the consequences for it. And so when we the most likely scenario, if we're called to disobey an authority, the most likely scenario is we actually do that really, really quietly, and we are ready to accept the consequences, the earthly consequences for that disobedience.

SPEAKER_04:

Right.

SPEAKER_02:

So often, you know, there's a there's a quote. I couldn't find the origin of it last time I looked for it, but there's a quote that says, Everyone wants to be a martyr, nobody wants to die for it. And it's this idea like I want to stand up to power, and it's like, well, if you do that, you might get fired. Well, no, how I I shouldn't get fired. Well, no, you might. You might get fired. Like, we have to be willing to accept the human consequences, the earthly consequences for doing that.

SPEAKER_00:

I think that shows whose will we want done.

SPEAKER_01:

Can I mention one more thing that I think we should pray for our leaders about and a quick story to get us there? It'll take a minute, I promise. So I was in a room full of pastors. I'm not gonna say which rooms, but we were praying about all sorts of different things. And our city came up, our city leaders, our county, our country, everything. And we were going around the room praying, and there was a lot of, you know, get rid of this wickedness, stop this thing, do this thing, you know, remove this person, all all this, all the stuff that we've kind of been kind of playing with during this conversation. And towards the end, the last person to pray chimed in and he said, he prays this prayer of God just save them, change their hearts, make them a new creature, help them, like get a hold of their heart and and change them, show them these ways, open their eyes to who you are, and because and in that moment it was like, wow, everybody was looking at the problems for what they are, as far as the laws, as far as the decisions that were made. Nobody was looking at the person until that prayer was brought up. And then it became very personal. It was like, oh, these people we see on TV, these people we deal with everything, they're people too. Right. They have a soul that we should also be praying for as well.

SPEAKER_00:

It makes me think of, I think it's in 2 Chronicles. This could be a coffee cup verse because it gets taken out of context all the time about, you know, if my people will humble themselves and pray, you know, then I will heal their land. Sometimes when we're having this conversation, this hurts a little, but it starts with us. Like, are we repentant of our own sins? Are we recognizing the sin that we have in within ourselves? I find that really helpful when I'm praying for leaders. Like, Lord, sometimes I'm not the greatest with money. Please forgive me. Help them to budget well and use money. Lord, sometimes I sin in this way. Help my leaders. Like, if you want to know how to pray for your leaders, it's kind of easy sometimes if we just look within ourselves. What are the struggles we have as a human being? Those people are facing the same struggles and they need us to lift them up. Like Brian mentioned for wisdom and discernment. Joshua's mention of maybe they just need to know the Lord. Like, do we care for these people as individuals and as image bearers that have a soul that if they perish and they don't know him, are going to spend an eternity separated from God? I think sometimes we overcomplicate maybe what we should be praying for them when if we look to scripture, the things that God tells us to pray for, we can simply pray for our leaders as well.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Man.

SPEAKER_00:

Because I know I overcomplicate it often personally. I don't maybe I'm the only one, but I love this question.

SPEAKER_01:

And we could we could talk about this for 20 episodes. So we really only scratched the surface. But uh hopefully this was helpful.

SPEAKER_00:

Do y'all have any resources really quick or things maybe that have helped you specifically in the military? If you want to give an example, what you've prayed for a leader.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, I think the it's interesting that we've come back to humility a lot. Just like immersing ourselves in scripture and the humility to realize if I was in that position, I would find it really, really difficult myself. And so I just think prayer, prayer fights against pride, it fights against anger and quarreling. And it it's just so to me, when I've done it well, it's because the Lord has brought me to a humble place through the word in prayer.

SPEAKER_00:

Good. Do you have anything babe? No.

SPEAKER_02:

No.

SPEAKER_00:

All right. Well, guys, that concludes another episode for the Military Wellness Podcast. Or Military Wellness Collective Podcast. Sorry. We hope that y'all enjoyed this. If you liked it, please share it with a friend. We would love just to get the word out about it, and we'd love to hear from you. So shoot us an email.