Pray for your government leaders each day this week

This week has been a somewhat quiet week for me, due to the weather I have only been to work one day this week and so have not really had much to do. Because of this I have had time to complete this weeks task in a much fuller way than I may have done had I been busy. The task that I completed this week was to pray for my government leaders every day this week.

So how did I do? Well surprisingly well, I actually remembered everyday to take some time out and pray for them, and in doing so spent time in prayer about other things too. Also having time on my hands I did not just pray directly for the leaders of the country or cabinet ministers. Each day I tried to pray for a different aspect of the government and different aspects of the work they have to do. I prayed for the leaders at both local and national level, everyone involved in running the country, the families of the politicians and much more about their lives. I prayed for policy decisions and for the politicians to be blessed with wisdom and clear thinking so as best to run the country for everyone who lives in it.

Now I can't tell you if it made a difference, I have no idea if David Cameron or any other politician felt the effects of my prayers or if it helped make anything better for anyone. But I have noticed that I have changed some of my personal ideas about the leaders of this country, I have actually thought about the difficulty of their job and not just criticised out of hand. I have thought about how the job they do affects everything in their lives right back to how they interact and get on with their own families. Maybe this task has not made a huge difference to the country or it leaders but it has had an effect on me and for that reason alone I am thoankful that I completed this task.

So what is next? what task is next on the agenda. Well the challenge that was pulled from the hat this morning was to read the doctrines. This is something I have been meaning to do in my personal time anyway and have just not found the time to do it yet. But not just to read them but to understand them and learn them. I feel it is important for me to know as much about the organisation that I am a part of as well as I can and this is a step I really need to take. Please check back next week to see how I do and feel free to follow the Advent Challenge read the previous tasks in the Soldier's Challenge and all the other posts through this week.