Let us suppose that you were all civil servants, and you were all government employees in some shape or form, and let us suppose that all morality went out of even public services, and that in the civil service and in the health service and in all the other aspects of civil employment you were expected to lie and cheat and to cover up officially, and you will be in serious trouble if you don't do this. Christians couldn't function in those work places anymore, and they would all have to get out, and then there would be no witness in those areas of life. So we pray for rulers, not only the heads of the land, but the heads of departments, the heads of all these services, so that things may be ordered by the overruling and the goodness of God, whether it's according to their natural instinct or not, and we may be able to witness for the Lord and represent him. When it happens and even godless people do the right thing, then there is great cause for thanksgiving because we know that's not natural for them. When we look at a godless land like ours, and we see how much is left of moral order and rules and regulations – not very much, you may say – we give thanks to God. There are many believers who do have to get out of their jobs and their businesses and their trades, because the going gets too rocky and too rough, and you cannot live honourably in those professions. Let us cry out to God that in godless days there is an overruling and a shaping so that at least Christian people who are ambassadors of God's mercy and grace can continue to function in various spheres of life.
In Russia at the time of Glasnost, when President Gorbachev came to power, we were rather reminded of Cyrus in ancient times, the Medo Persian emperor who set free the Jews and allowed many of them to return to their homeland to rebuild their temple and reclaim their territory. Now it wasn't natural for Cyrus to do that, he was acting in a very curious way, but God overruled in his life. And when you see a president of the Soviet Union doing things which are greatly in the interests of persecuted Christian believers, you marvel and you give thanks to God for a great overruling. You may be cynical if you wish – that is up to you – and say you don't understand why the president of the USSR did such things, no doubt he was working in his own interests. You may take the view that he is a self-serving man, but God overruled and we give thanks for that. We pray for this kind of thing. Who are the people in eminence for kings and for all that are in authority? This includes all kinds of rulers: heads of schools, leaders at work. We do not want to get to the point where Christian people have to withdraw their children from the schools because of the rampant immorality, because of the total loss of any moral structure, because evil is being taught for good. It seems to be heading that way. We are living in an age when things that are condemned as evil in the Bible are being held up as legitimate and pure and reasonable, and civil protection is being given to the pursuit of evil. Now if this comes into the schools, it will be impossible for our children to be maintained in them. But what do we do first? We obey the Scripture. We pray for those in authority to maintain a kind of structure and standard in which Christian people can function.