How do you pray about corruption in government?
What country do you live in? The reason I ask is because The Bible Speaks to You Podcast has had listeners to in 209 countries and territories all over the world since it started back in 2019. Whatever country you live in, my next question is: Is there any corruption in government in your country at the local, regional, or national level?
I would imagine that your answer is probably, “Yes.” Corruption in government has been going on since governments began thousands of years ago. And it can happen not just in governments, but in churches and businesses as well, even in families.
How do you respond to corruption in government?
When you see corruption in any form of government, have you prayed about it? Have you just been offended and alarmed by it? Have you warned everyone on social media about what’s going on? And have you noticed that some people don’t see what you see, they turn a blind eye to it, or maybe even think what’s going on is exactly what needs to happen?
Pretty quickly, we realize that just talking about the problem doesn’t solve anything. So, let’s come back to the question: Have you prayed about the corruption in government? And if so, how do you pray? Will your prayers make a difference? Can they make a difference?
What is the best way to pray about corruption in government?
Do you pray for what you want to happen?
A lot of people I talk to pray for what they think is right. They ask God to do what they want to happen.
For example, someone in your country may believe that the current government is corrupt and should be held accountable. They pray for justice and for God to get rid of the corrupt officials and politicians.
Others in your country may believe the government is doing the right thing and they pray for those opposing the government to be stopped and held accountable for slowing down what needs to happen.
Now, there may be lots of variables in between of people praying for God to do very specific things with very specific outcomes and consequences.
But if you’re just praying for what you want and what you think is best for your government, you may or may not be praying for the right thing. I know that may be hard to accept, but just because you think something is right doesn’t make it so.
And maybe you are praying for the right thing to happen. You see the problem as it is, perhaps even as Jesus would see the problem, but when you pray for what you think is the right solution, it could easily not be the overall best possibility. God could have something much better to bring to the situation.
God’s warning
In the book of Jeremiah, God gives a pretty powerful warning to people who were just speaking their own opinions and passing it off as a message from God. The same warning is in place today for us to examine our motives when we pray.
This is what the LORD Almighty says: “Do not listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you; they fill you with false hopes. They speak visions from their own minds, not from the mouth of the LORD. They keep saying to those who despise me, ‘The LORD says: You will have peace.’ And to all who follow the stubbornness of their hearts they say, ‘No harm will come to you.’ But which of them has stood in the council of the LORD to see or to hear his word? Who has listened and heard his word? Jeremiah 23:16-18 NIV
Anyone can claim to be a prophet of God with a message from God. Anyone can say a prayer for whatever they want. But that doesn’t mean the message is from God or that a prayer is in line with God’s will.
When it comes to certain political topics, we can all get pretty opinionated about what we think is right.
Letting go of your will
When you’re praying for your government, or the government of other countries, if you really want your prayers to be effective, in the sense of accomplishing God’s will, then you will have to separate your will, your opinions, and your preconceptions from your prayer. Otherwise, you’re praying like those folks God is rebuking in the time of Jeremiah when He said, “They speak visions from their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord.”
That is not a rebuke you want to receive from God. But if you’re praying for your will to be done, then you need this rebuke and hopefully it will wake you up to pray instead for God’s will.
It’s really arrogant for you or me to tell God what to do. The times I have done this in the past, telling God what I think should happen (thinking I was praying at the time), I have gotten a rebuke and I realized what I’ve been doing.
But there are other times, I’m sure, when I have been so certain what a particular outcome should be that it took me much longer to surrender my preconceptions of what or how things should happen.
How would Jesus pray about corruption in government in your country?
If you really want your prayers to make a difference in the world and specifically when it comes to praying about all the corruption in government, it is a good idea, as is the case in every situation in life, to follow the example of Jesus.
So now the question becomes: How did Jesus pray? How would Jesus pray about corruption in government? Whose side would he take?
I did an episode along these lines back in 2024 that talks about this from a little bit different angle. Episode 240: How Would Jesus Heal Political Division?
Fortunately, we have a very good idea of how Jesus would pray because of the prayer he taught us, which we name after him, the Lord’s Prayer.
The Lord’s Prayer heals corruption in government
Here’s an idea. How about praying each line in the Lord’s Prayer to heal corruption in government.
In this prayer, you quickly see Jesus is pointing our eyes, our heart, and our loyalty, not to an earthly government, but to God’s kingdom or government in heaven and here on earth.
Are you praying for your kingdom to come, the kingdom of your political party to be in power? That is the opposite of what the Lord’s Prayer is all about. The implication is that we give up our kingdom or any other kingdom in order to be aware of and participate in God’s kingdom.
When you pray for God’s will to be done, the implication is that you are surrendering your will, however convinced you are you’re right. Put this in the context of praying about your government.
Praying for everyone
The true spirit of the Lord’s Prayer is to pray for everyone, everyone from every political perspective, to surrender to God’s will and God’s kingdom. And as I said, that implies giving up personal opinions about what must or must not happen.
And if you’re going to keep with the true spirit of the Lord’s Prayer, when you pray,
Give us today our daily bread. Matthew 6:11 NIV
…you’re actually praying for everyone to have their daily needs met, whether it’s literal bread, or daily emotional and spiritual nourishment. The word “us” includes everyone, not just the folks who you agree with politically.
Take a moment and envision God giving all of His children equal quantity and quality of their daily needs and daily inspiration of truth and love, and everyone receiving them equally. This may seem far off and impossible, given the current state of affairs.
But this is exactly what’s going on in God’s government, or the kingdom of heaven, right this moment, and every moment for eternity. I’ll say this again, in heaven, God is giving everyone everything they need. That’s the way He governs. That’s what the Lord’s Prayer is opening our eyes to.
Forgiveness helps heal corruption in government
The next line of the Lord’s Prayer is the one about forgiveness. Jesus says when you forgive others, God will forgive you.
Who are you willing to forgive? Just the people you agree with? What about forgiving everyone who agrees or disagrees with you about what is right or wrong in the government of your town, region, or country! That includes you forgiving yourself if you have been self-willed in your prayers, thoughts, and actions. And ideally, other Christians will be praying to forgive you as well.
I think sometimes we underrate forgiveness. But forgiveness is a powerful healing balm that restores a spiritual balance to any situation.
Deliverance from temptation and evil
The next line in the Lord’s Prayer is a request for God to deliver us from temptation and evil. Think about how that applies to praying about corruption in government.
You’re asking God to keep you, and everyone else, from being tempted to condemn others when they disagree with you.
You’re praying to be delivered from the temptation to pray for your will instead of God’s will.
You’re praying to be delivered from all evil influences and for everyone else to be delivered from these evil influences as well.
God’s kingdom
And the final line in the prayer is a powerful reminder that our focus is on God’s kingdom, power, and glory. We’re not praying for special favors or victories for our personal kingdom and power or our political party’s kingdom and power.
We praying to see more of and bear witness to God’s kingdom, power, and glory.
This approach to prayer takes a whole lot of humility. It requires giving up our own will, our own opinions, our own predispositions to what we think is right. And it is a great unifying force in the Christian world.
Now you may be thinking: Well James, this all sounds pretty good, but I don’t know what good praying like this is going to do. If I quit praying for what I think is right, it seems like the terrible things that are happening are just going to get worse.
You are not the solution to corruption in government, God is
Well, I know what you mean. Sometimes it does seem that things get worse before they get better. But you can never go wrong with praying for God’s will, and actually meaning it. All too often we give lip service to praying for God’s will but then we tell Him what we think it should be. That’s not the real spirit of the Lord’s Prayer.
When you think you’re going to be personally responsible for the solution, you’re assuming a role that’s beyond your personal abilities. Yes, you may be very talented and intelligent and able to do amazing things, but if you think you are the source of the solution instead of God, you actually may be either part of the problem, or the roadblock to solving it.
Whenever you realize you cannot solve a problem with your own will or your own abilities and realize the only real solution comes from God, then you’re on the right track.
The more you commune with God in the true spirit of the Lord’s Prayer, the more peace of mind you will experience. And this prepares your heart for God to use as He sees fit, to help bring healing to a situation.
Praying for leaders
There’s a well-known passage in 1 Timothy about praying for leaders.
I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people—for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. 1 Timothy 2:1, 2 NIV
But what if these leaders are corrupt? Pray for them.
Jesus says to pray for your enemies and those who curse you. It doesn’t mean you are praying for them to prosper in their corruption. You can pray for them to hear God’s voice, for their eyes to be opened, to repent and see a more righteous way of governing. They need these prayers and it can make a difference.
But if you’re just praying for certain human motives and circumstances to change, it may not be the most effective way to pray.
Jesus set the true tone of what prayer is, which we talked about already with the Lord’s Prayer. But let’s go a little deeper here.
Pray to change things versus bearing witness to what is true in heaven
In a way, Jesus didn’t pray to change things. He prayed to bear witness to what God was already doing. He said,
Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son [referring to himself], can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.” John 5:19 NIV
The reason Jesus could heal people is because he saw the Father already doing it. He was bearing witness to what God was doing. I did an episode several years ago on this idea of not trying to change something when you pray. It’s Episode 190: Quit trying to change something when you pray. There are some really helpful ideas that can apply to how you pray about corruption in government.
What do you see God doing?
When you pray to heal corruption in government, instead of starting your prayer trying to change or heal something, focus on God’s government in heaven as your starting point. What do you see God doing? How do you see God governing in heaven?
Corruption in government is really about dishonest people, people who are not following the laws of God in their lives. They cheat, they lie, they steal, they do things for their own gain instead of the good of the whole.
So, we talk about a corrupt government, but when you’re praying, it’s important to remember you’re dealing with people.
And here again, it’s about bearing witness to what is true about someone in heaven, who, on earth seems to be corrupt.
A heartfelt prayer
My prayer for people in government, who appear to me to be dishonest and corrupt, is to ask God to show me what is true about them in heaven, the heaven which Jesus says is at hand, here and now.
If someone seems to be wielding evil power and influence, I pray to see that in heaven, there is no evil power or influence whatsoever. These people have no power of their own, because God has all power. They don’t have the power to cheat or lie in heaven because sin cannot enter heaven. In heaven, people can only do what is good and right. And that heaven is at hand right now, Jesus says.
This is not a prayer of petition. It’s a prayer of affirmation of what is already true in heaven. It’s a prayer of awareness of what God is revealing.
The most effective way to pray about corruption in government is to first get a clear spiritual vision of what God’s government is like in the kingdom of heaven. Fix your gaze on that. Keep your focus on how God governs in heaven.
Focus on heaven
Ask God what is going on in heaven right now. Ask God to show you what is true right now about any person or situation in heaven. Again, keep your spiritual eyes on what God reveals to you.
This takes a little humility because we still think heaven is only someplace we go after we die, but Jesus made it clear and promised us,
the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Matthew 4:17 KJV
Keep asking God to show you what is true in heaven-at-hand about the people who, here on earth, appear corrupt.
Acknowledge in prayers of affirmation that everyone in the kingdom of heaven has everything they need, and is obedient to all God’s commandments, that everyone is pure, truthful, and loving. They are delighted that God has all power and have no desire to be in charge.
Hold onto this spiritual vision. It’s the awareness of what God is revealing to you. This is bearing witness to the truth Jesus bore witness to. This is your prayer. And it brings to bear God’s healing presence to corruption in government.
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James Early, the Jesus Mindset Coach, is a Bible teacher, speaker, and church mentor. He conducts Bible workshops online and in person. His focus is on getting back to the original Christianity of Jesus by learning to think, pray, and love like Jesus. Contact him here.
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Bible References
Jeremiah 23:16-18 NIV
16 This is what the LORD Almighty says: “Do not listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you; they fill you with false hopes. They speak visions from their own minds, not from the mouth of the LORD.
17 They keep saying to those who despise me, ‘The LORD says: You will have peace.’ And to all who follow the stubbornness of their hearts they say, ‘No harm will come to you.’
18 But which of them has stood in the council of the LORD to see or to hear his word? Who has listened and heard his word?
Matthew 6:11 NIV
11 Give us today our daily bread.
1 Timothy 2:1, 2 NIV
1 I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people—
2 for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.
John 5:19 NIV
19 Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son [referring to himself], can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.”
Matthew 4:17 KJV
17 the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
