This is the time of year when about half of the country is excited (and probably relieved) and about half of the country is disappointed (and probably worried about what will happen in the next 4 years). As I said last week, it is a privilege to get to vote and have our voices heard, no matter the outcome. Whatever side of the coin you are on, it is extremely important to be praying for our just elected leaders. Whether we agree or disagree with what they stand for, they are the ones who have been put in leadership and we are not. 

Romans 13:1 says, “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.” Wow! That can be a tough pill to swallow, especially when we think back in the history of the world to leaders who have caused so much destruction and even killed many people in the countries that they were in charge of because of pure hatred and prejudice. Despite that, God had reasons for putting those people in leadership and allowing those tragedies to happen. We do not know those reasons, just like we do not know the reasons that our current leaders were put in their positions, but we know and trust that God knows what He is doing.  

Our leaders are people, just like us. They can do outwardly good things, but they also have a sin nature and can be inclined to think that they are always right about everything and the person running against them is wrong about everything. The person you wanted to win is not perfect with no bad qualities and the person you did not want to win is not the absolute worst person ever with no good qualities. Because our leaders are human beings, we should be praying for them. 

A few things that I want to be praying for our leaders include: 

• Wisdom to make good decisions for the current and future wellbeing of our country (even if I do not agree with those decisions) 

• Peaceful and respectful relations with leaders of other countries 

• Financial decisions that will help and not harm taxpayers in this country 

• Not purposely causing division 

• Respecting the people with both more and less authority and power 

• Not inserting themselves in areas they should not be in 

• Being actively aware and attentive in areas where they are needed 

That list is just mainly what I want to be praying for the people who are leading our country as a whole; we could add so many more prayer points for the leaders of our states, counties, and cities. 

I want you to think back to previous election seasons. I am sure that you can remember both excitement and disappointment in the winners of the past few elections. That is the nature of living in this country, sometimes your preferred candidate wins and sometimes the other candidate wins. I can’t predict how the next 4 years will go, but I can tell you that prayer works and if we are all praying for our leadership, we may be surprised with the results. 

On top of praying for our leaders, we are called to not be constantly defying leadership. Titus 3:1-2 says, “Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people.” Verse 2 goes well with what we were talking about last week: speaking evil of no one, avoiding quarreling, being gentle, and showing courtesy to all people. This week, however, I want to look at verse 1: being submissive to rulers and authorities, being obedient, and being ready for every good work. As we saw above, God assigns rulers and allows people to be in charge, so why do we as Christians act like that is not true when our leaders have different values than us? We can be so quick to decide that certain laws or regulations go against the Bible (but did we actually do our research on that?) and defy them because we think those regulations are not right. We often have such a better opportunity to be a good witness to others when we follow rules that we may not agree with, as that is not the way most of the world would behave. 

As far as I can remember, our leadership has never banned praying to God (like in the story of Daniel) or doing any good works. It can be easy to feel oppressed when we feel like our leadership is making bad decisions for our country, but we have so many freedoms that many other countries do not have. One of those freedoms is being able to gather (without hiding) to study the Bible, worship, and pray. Whether or not your candidate won, let’s use our freedom to gather and pray for our leaders. 

Abbi