The run-up to the US presidential election has been pretty awful. It's been rancorous, sordid, vicious and embarrassing. Whoever wins will come to office facing active resistance from large numbers of the population who don't think she or he ought to be there. Many Americans are voting with a sense of national embarrassment.
US Christians are as invested in the result as much as anyone – more so, because they have a sense that they should be seeking God's choice, not just their own. And for various reasons, this year that choice is problematic. But Christians are always called to be hopeful and to pray. So what should we pray?
1. Pray for courage. One theme that's dominated this election is the politics of fear, with each side forecasting the most dire consequences if the other wins. And the rhetoric has stoked up a sense of deep uneasiness about the world, about America and about people's safety and prosperity. But fear is unChristian. David says in Psalm 23:4, " Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me." 1 John 4:18 says, "There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love." If we make decisions based on fear – for ourselves, or for our nation – we aren't seeing clearly. All the decisions Christians make should be out of love.
2. Pray for the candidates. It's been sad to see how each candidate has been demonised by the supporters of the other. Neither is perfect, but each of them is made in the image of God. It's not fair and not right to paint them as the embodiment of evil. Each is a spouse and a parent, part of a loving network of family and friends. Each is a unique human being, loved by God and cherished by him. Each is accountable for his or her mistakes and sins, as are we all. Christians ought to be able to pray for them both, whatever our political views, asking God to bless them and to reveal Himself to them as their loving saviour. 1 John 2:9 says, "Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness." There's been too much hatred in this election.
3. Pray for reconciliation. America is bitterly divided. Its problems are not as great as fear makes them out to be, but it has mountains to climb. In the richest nation in the world, many are terribly poor. Race is a running sore. Gun violence claims thousands of lives each year. And instead of being able to debate together for the common good, the different sides have retreated to their trenches and lob slogans at each other. Any attempt to move toward greater income equality is denounced as 'socialism'; the statement that "black lives matter" is met with "all lives matter"; anyone who dares to suggest any kind of gun control is met with frenzied appeals to the Second Amendment.
This isn't how God intends societies to work. Jeremiah 29:7 urges God's people to "Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf; for in its welfare you will have welfare." We are to work together for the good of society.
4. Pray for the future. A lot of what's been said in this election campaign paints a very bleak picture of the future. If the opponent wins, it's game over for America. But that isn't how God works. He doesn't give up on an individual, or on a nation. Faithful prayer, patient witness and joyful trust will in the end bring blessing. Micah 4:4 speaks of the time when "Everyone will sit under their own vine and under their own fig-tree, and no one will make them afraid, for the Lord Almighty has spoken." It's a vision of God's great future. At a time of heightened language, heightened fears and lowered expectations, it's good to remind ourselves of the faithfulness of God.
