I recently read Ed Silvoso's book, Transformation: Change the Marketplace and You Change the World (Regal, 2007). Silvoso wrote about an opportunity he had in 2000 to lead 3,000 Philippine pastors in a public act of repentance for their ungodly hostility toward the newly elected president. The new president, a former movie star, had defeated the born-again incumbent and openly displayed an immoral lifestyle.

The morning he would speak to these pastors, God impressed on Silvoso that because these pastors possessed so much anger toward their president, they didn't have clean hands (1 Timothy 2:1-10). The pastors also failed to obey the command to pray for their leader: "Therefore I exhort first of all that suplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority . . ." (1 Tim. 2:1-2). At the time Paul wrote these words, Caesar and his heathen, ungodly appointees made the Philippine president look tame by comparison.

Silvoso preached from 1 Timothy that day, and the pastors responded. They repented before God for their ungodly actions. They also wrote letters of apology to their president and promised to pray for him regularly. Word got back to the president, who sent a member of his cabinet the next day to thank the audience and to accept their letters. What happened as a result? That president, many member of his family, and his successor all became Christians and began to pray for their nation.

I was on an airplane as I read Silvoso's words. I realized that I, too, was angry toward and certainly wasn't praying for Christian Public Enemy Number 1: the liberals. Fueled by my penchant for talk shows, which demonize their opponents, I had fallen into the same trap as these pastors from the Philippines. I'm thinking most of you probably feel the same way.

As of today, there are 83 days left until the election. What about if all of us, me included, ask God to forgive us for being angry and not praying for those who do not represent our beliefs. Then what about every day, every time we see or read about any of them, we stop right where we are and pray for them by name. Pelosi. Reed. Obama.

And when we do? I'm thinking we just might hold the key to this year's election, no matter what the outcome.