Weekly Watch Focus: The Catholic Church—Prayer for a New Pope

February 15, 2013 Pope Benedict will resign soon because of deteriorating health. Give thanks for this eighty-five-year-old pontiff’s conservative leadership. Pray for the upcoming conclave of cardinals as they elect a new pope. May the Holy Spirit give them clear guidance to choose a man truly filled with the Holy Spirit, who will proclaim the unchanging gospel of Jesus Christ with prophetic clarity. May He be strong to protect the Church from encroachments of humanism, Marxism, and Islamic extremism. May the new pope continue the renewal of the Church modeled by Pope John Paul II, resisting abortion and perversion and welcoming revival and Holy Spirit visitation.

Eph. 1:20-23 (MSG), “All this energy issues from Christ: God raised him from death and set him on a throne in deep heaven, in charge of running the universe, everything from galaxies to governments, no name and no power exempt from his rule. And not just for the time being, but forever. He is in charge of it all, has the final word on everything. At the center of all this, Christ rules the church. The church, you see, is not peripheral to the world; the world is peripheral to the church. The church is Christ’s body, in which he speaks and acts, by which he fills everything with his presence.”

1 Tim. 2:1-2, “Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence.”

1 Tim. 3:15, “I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.”