I have a confession. I’ve never donated money to a political campaign. Even if I love a particular candidate, I’d rather my charitable dollars go towards, well, charities. With that said, I have no problem with donating my voice and offering my prayers. With the South Carolina primary coming up, I strongly encourage both regardless of your chosen candidate. For me, my voice is going out for Ted Cruz.
My prayers, on the other hand, are going for God’s Will. While I don’t believe there’s anything wrong necessarily with praying for the success of a particular candidate, I find it difficult to ask the Lord to favor one over another because only He knows their hearts. As a conservative Christian, I can look at Ted Cruz’s history, listen to his words, and believe with my heart that he’s the best chance for America to recover from the damage that has been done for the last couple of decades and the acute damage that has been done the last seven years. I can also look at Donald Trump and hear the insincerity in his voice when he discusses himself as a great Christian. I can read about his liberal perspectives on many issues and cringe. However, I do not know either man’s heart and I definitely don’t know what God’s Will is for this country or the next leader.
All I know for sure is that I want with all my heart for God’s Will to be done in all things including the political structure of the United States.
This may sound like a weak perspective. As an ardent supporter of Cruz, one might expect that I pray for Cruz regularly, but I do not. It’s beyond our scope to pray for any political outcome in particular that goes against God’s Will and since we cannot know God’s Will, we must be careful with our prayers. There’s one thing that Christians can definitely pray for from a political perspective that doesn’t run contrary to a proper Biblical worldview. Praying for discernment for voters is something that we can and should do regularly.
Anyone who uses social media or reads comments sections on political articles has probably come to the conclusion that Trump has a lot of supporters and they seem to be pretty darn set in their ways. The attacks I see on Cruz and Marco Rubio from Trump supporters are often very insulting to anyone’s intelligence, let alone the candidates themselves. Of course, the same can be said by Trump supporters about those attacking him. The loudest in the comments sections or social media are often the most polarizing, but they don’t necessarily represent the sentiment of the general electorate. I’m mentioning this so that you don’t fall into despair. It can be depressing to see so many attacks.
Pray for voters to have discernment. This article is being written days before the South Carolina primary, but it holds true for future primaries and caucuses as well. To those who support anyone other than Trump, the odds seem stacked against us. It’s so inexplicable to see seemingly intelligent conservative Christians falling for Trump’s sales pitch that I’ve wondered if Ephesians 6:12 is in play in this very situation.
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Use your voice in the world to educate voters. Use your voice online to guide them. Most importantly, use your prayers to hasten God’s Will so that voters can see the candidates for who they truly are.
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