HOW NOT TO PRAY FOR THE U.S. ELECTION
Dear Friends,
I usually write a blog every Friday, and it appears in your inbox the next day. I am going to do something a bit different over the next couple of weeks. The U.S. election will be held on Tuesday, November 3rd. Please pray for this! Today October 23rd, I am going to write 3 blogs on how to pray for the U.S. election. In other words, I want to talk about how to pray for the election, and the winner, regardless as to whether my, or your, preferred candidate wins or loses. I think this is generally a wise course to follow, to think about how to pray for elections and rulers with some “distance” from the specific outcome. The Bible tells us to pray for our leaders, regardless of how good or bad these leaders are in God’s eyes. In each of these blogs I am going to be informed by the English Reformation, using prayers dating from the mid 1500’s and found in the 1662 BCP. Today is the prayer entitled “A Prayer for the Queen’s Majesty”. Here it is:
“O Lord our heavenly Father, high and mighty, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, the only Ruler of princes, who from Your throne does behold all the dwellers upon earth; most heartily we beseech You with Your favour to behold our most gracious Sovereign Lady, Queen Elizabeth; and so replenish her with the grace of Your Holy Spirit, that she may always incline to Your will and walk in Your way; endue her plenteously with heavenly gifts; grant her in health and wealth long to live; strengthen her that she may vanquish and overcome all her enemies; and finally, after this life, she may attain everlasting joy and felicity; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”
First, the 1662 BCP may be generally very wise and insightful, but it is not the Bible. The Bible is inerrant because it is God’s word written. Every other piece of writing, including mine, including the 1662 BCP, is not inerrant. Even the wisest err, make mistakes. In this case, there is much that is wise and helpful in the prayer. However, it seems to go far beyond the biblical teaching in praying that “she may vanquish and overcome all her enemies”. The Bible tells us to honour the ruler, but it does not tell us to pray that our ruler will always vanquish all of his/her enemies.
Second, it is a remarkably modern prayer, but this is not a good thing. It is very easy to picture Biden/Harris supporters praying this prayer with great feavour - of course putting “Biden/Harris” in place of the Queen. They desire that God would empower Biden/Harris to not just win, but to “vanquish and overcome” their enemies in the election and in the years to come. Of course, the exact same thing is true of Trump/Pence supporters. Doesn’t the mere fact that both sides could pray their version of this prayer against the other side show there is a Biblical problem with the prayer?
Third, the rest of the prayer is very helpful and wise - a concise theology of prayer in the realm of politics. In fact, I believe that as you grasp the meaning of the wonderful opening lines of the prayer you realise it is inconsistent to treat “your choice for ruler” as if they were, well, almost god-like in their closeness to Jesus, and as such, deeply deserving to have God vanquish and conquer THEIR enemies.
In divided times like this, it is very good to be reminded that in Christ, you have a Heavenly Father who sits on THE throne. That He alone is high and mighty. That He alone is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the only Ruler of princes. That He alone beholds all the dwellers upon earth. So no matter who wins the election, the Triune God alone is sovereign over all the earth. You are the beloved child of God the Father by the powerful working of the Holy Spirit. He brought you to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and adoption as God’s child and the gift of eternal life became yours. All because of His grace and mercy to you.
This is our Father’s world. Jesus is the Saviour. By the power of the Holy Spirit pray for the election in the U.S. Pray for Canada. May He have mercy upon our nations and give us better leaders than we deserve.
George+