For the sake of Jacob my servant,
    of Israel my chosen,
I summon you by name
    and bestow on you a title of honour,
    though you do not acknowledge me.
5 I am the Lord, and there is no other;
    apart from me there is no God.
I will strengthen you,
    though you have not acknowledged me,
6 so that from the rising of the sun
    to the place of its setting
people may know there is none besides me.
    I am the Lord, and there is no other.
7 I form the light and create darkness,
    I bring prosperity and create disaster;
    I, the Lord, do all these things.

God has the right to use anyone He chooses. Cyrus did not know the Lord, but he was known by Him, and called to a particular purpose. God knew where he was and put His Hand on him, and moved him into position on the world’s chess-board.

Proverbs 21:1 says:

”The king’s heart is like a stream of water directed by the Lord;
    he guides it wherever he pleases” (New Living Translation).

We know that in the U.K. we will go to the polls before the year is out. It’s the same for the U.S.A also. We may (or, I appreciate, may not!) feel rather distressed when we consider the options. But I can almost guarantee you that if you saw Cyrus’ name on the ballot sheet you would not be happy. We need to remember that the Lord raises up rulers and He puts them down. He is the sovereign Lord of history (7). We may have little, or no understanding of how God is going to use some seemingly ungodly person. Obviously, He sees the much bigger picture.

What we can say for certain is that we are meant to pray for our political leaders, and recognise that they can be converted:

”The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know. Pray especially for rulers and their governments to rule well so we can be quietly about our business of living simply, in humble contemplation. This is the way our Saviour God wants us to live.

 He wants not only us but everyone saved, you know, everyone to get to know the truth we’ve learned: that there’s one God and only one, and one Priest-Mediator between God and us—Jesus, who offered himself in exchange for everyone held captive by sin, to set them all free. Eventually the news is going to get out. This and this only has been my appointed work: getting this news to those who have never heard of God, and explaining how it works by simple faith and plain truth.” (1 Tim.2:1-7: ‘The Message’).