I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people.  This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. I Timothy 2:1 – 4 short.

Yesterday we were reminded that it is our privilege to pray for all people.  As Paul says, that “is good.”  And it pleases God our Savior that we do so. Good, so what should we pray?  Paul says, the object of our prayers is that “all people will be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.”  Prayers that concentrate on peace, on prosperity, on safety, on political wisdom and things like that might be well-intentioned but they miss the mark because if people do not know Jesus Christ, the Savior and Lord, peace will be transient at best.  Only those who are cleansed and kept by the atoning work of Jesus through which we are accepted by God, only those understand what peace costs.  We need only turn to the harsh cross of death and see Jesus submit to death there to begin to understand the basis of true peace.

That is why we pray and that is what we pray for. Paul declares that it is such prayer that is good and pleases God our Savior.

For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all people. Verses 5 and 6 That is the basis of our praying, what is real prayer.

We might pray that people who do not know Christ should live in peace for other reasons, and that is not a bad idea, but the Gospel of God has revealed beyond doubt that true peace is built on the fact that Jesus Christ is the mediator of peace for all people because he, alone, gave himself as a ransom for all people. 

Christ is our peace.  There is no other way.