After the US presidential election of 2012, The Lord spoke to me about several things related to national and international affairs. One thing He told me was to “Pray for righteous judges. Many policy outcomes that affect the people will be decided in the courtroom.”  That has certainly come to pass in the last year-and-a-half, as we’ve seen.

But how do we offer up specific, faith-filled prayers for righteous judges? There are so many of them, too, from local magistrates to circuit courts all the way up to the Supreme Court – where do we begin?

Certainly it is powerful to pray for individual judges, especially if you have the names of some or want to look up your local and state judges. For me, during a time of fasting last year, I was led to pray for each Supreme Court Justice by name and was amazed at the specific individual prayers God gave me for these men and women.

A good starting place in meaningful, faith-filled prayer is always to pray God’s word. He delights in having His own promises prayed back to Him, and His word is perfect. Isaiah says of the watchmen God has appointed, “All day and all night they will never keep silent. You who remind the LORD, take no rest for yourselves” (Isaiah 52:6 – NASB).

Psalm 82 is the perfect prayer specifically for the removal of unrighteous judges and ordinances – that is, those decrees that exist or that are pending which do not conform with God’s will. Here it is in part:

1God takes His stand in His own congregation;
He judges in the midst of the rulers.

2How long will you judge unjustly
And show partiality to the wicked?

3Vindicate the weak and fatherless;
Do justice to the afflicted and destitute.

4Rescue the weak and needy;
Deliver them out of the hand of the wicked.

5They do not know nor do they understand;
They walk about in darkness;
All the foundations of the earth are shaken . . .

8Arise, O God, judge the earth!
For it is You who possesses all the nations.

Notice verse 3 – “Vindicate the weak and the fatherless; do justice to the afflicted and destitute” – this applies certainly to the unborn, as well as to the myriad of children whose fates hang in the balance of  courtrooms because a normal functional family of a loving father and mother is unavailable to them.

So many judges today are epitomized in verse 5: “They do not understand…they walk about in darkness.” This week I heard a Pennsylvania judge defend his abominable ruling based on his interpretation of the Constitution. Clearly, he was not ruling in any kind of understanding of our forefathers and what they meant for the law to be. His judgment was clouded by darkness.

Finally, the last line of this Psalm is a powerful reminder of Who our ultimate Judge is – “It is You who possess all the nations.” Christ rules the nations and as coheirs, so do we.

I have come under conviction that when an unrighteous judgment is handed down – in this nation or in any other – my response should not be to throw up my hands, sigh, and say, “Another nail in the coffin of liberty and justice.” On the contrary, my attitude is one of total intolerance for anything that does not line up with the Kingdom of Heaven. I don’t care who or what authority issues the edict, God my Father is the highest authority, and I will put every ungodly ruling before this Judge.

Be encouraged as you join me in praying for our judges!