Election season in the United States has dominated the daily news cycle for years.
No matter where you go you are bombarded with a never ending stream of fear, anger, and even hate.
So is it possible to find true peace when everyone tells you that the future of your country hangs in the balance?
In this video, Phylicia Masonheimer discusses finding peace as a Christian during election season, emphasizing prayer for all leaders, and trusting in Christ’s sovereignty and promises of peace.
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Transcription:
You are to pray for your kings and all those in high positions. He doesn’t say only pray for Christian kings. He doesn’t say only pray for kings who have good character. He doesn’t say only pray for kings who are, you know, considering protecting you or who are in the best interest of the church. He says, pray for the kings and all in high positions. Why? So that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. Welcome back to Verity podcast friends. I’m Phylicia Masonheimer, your host, the founder of Every Woman A Theologian, and we are in our Beginner Believer series.
But this week we’re going to take a little break from that series to talk about the concept of peace, the peace that Christ provides for those of us who are walking through uncertain times. As I’m recording this, it’s a day before the national election in the United States of America and I know that a lot of my listeners, a lot of my readers are experiencing much anxiety around this election. Now last week’s episode was all about anxiety itself. So if you want to learn more about how to walk through anxiety as a believer, head back to that episode and take a listen. However, this week I want to talk specifically about the peace that God offers us when it comes to politics because I think this is something that is so vital to understand as a Christian. In fact, I would even argue that the peace Christians should have in the face of election seasons should be one of the signs and wonders of our faith in this world. Now I can tell you that certainly as someone who is politically minded, there are concerns that I have about this election. There are things that I could be worried about and things that I care a lot about and that I’m voting for.
At the same time though, Christ is on the throne and he is our first and true king. And that should guide how our hearts center themselves in seasons like this. So in this episode, we’re going to look at what scripture says about peace in a few passages of what scripture says about politics and the context in which those sections on politics were written. I want to start by looking at first Timothy 2:1 through 2 because it kind of connects these two concepts for us. Now when first Timothy was written, the apostle Paul was writing to this young pastor, Timothy, who most likely was serving in Ephesus. And when Timothy was serving in this capacity, he, of course, was working within a culture that was under the Roman regime. Now in Rome, there was the possibility of voting if you were a senator, if you were wealthy enough or privileged enough or had access to be a part of that political realm. But for the most part, the common people didn’t get to participate in politics the way that many Americans get to do today.
And yet, this is what first Timothy 2:1 through 2 says. 1st of all, then I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. Wow. There’s a lot here. So let’s break this down. So in context, we’re looking at the pastor of a church in a highly divisive city. In fact, if you go to the book of Acts, you can see some of what happened in Ephesus, some of how, the culture there, the goddess worship of Artemis specifically, had divided the city when the Christians started to preach the gospel. Timothy was pastoring in a divided culture and in a divisive time under a pagan emperor.
So his culture, his context was not one where there was a Christian leader who was friendly to Christians or he somehow had it easier politically when he was trying to minister to these people. In fact, there were many parallels in Roman culture and 1st century Rome that line up to what we’re experiencing today as Christians in America and more so as Christians around the world. And so when we read passages like this, we should not read it thinking that somehow Timothy had it easier than Christians in America or Christians in the United Kingdom or Christians in Australia or Christians in Africa and in Asia, in South America, we should pay attention to the context where Timothy was having to be faithful because it was just as challenging, maybe more challenging than it is for many of us today. And even in light of that, Paul, Timothy’s mentor, tells him he needs to pray in 4 ways, not just for all people, which most of us would say, for sure, I can do that, but also for kings and those in high positions. Interesting. Let’s look at what those four things are. He says number 1, to have supplications, to pray supplications. You might remember from the episode on anxiety that supplications are your requests, making your requests known to God.
And so when you are being a supplicant, you’re asking for something and we can offer up our supplications to God for the things we want for our nation. We can say we are invited to say, Lord, this is what we know based on your word is righteous and this is what we want. This is what we want for the unborn. This is what we want for the immigrant. This is what we want for the underprivileged, and this is what we are going to pray for. Prayers. Now you might think what’s the difference between prayers and supplications? Some commentators may differ on this from me, but I wonder if the prayers that are being offered up are psalms. So written prayers in scripture, prayers that would be familiar to the church.
We know that they were reading and reciting prayers, that prayers were written. There were liturgical prayers that began to appear very early in the church. And I wonder if perhaps these are Psalms that are being read. So you’re actually praying scripture over all of the people of your nation, but also over the kings and over those in high positions, your congressmen, your state representatives, your senators, your mayor, your city council, you’re praying over them the scriptures and the Psalms that apply to their situation. The third is intercessions. What does it mean to intercede for someone? It means to stand in the gap before God. This is powerful. How many of us are simply angry about our voting options or angry about intercede for these pagan people.
Remember, Timothy’s being told to to pray his request, to pray prayers, scriptures, but then he’s being told to stand in the gap for pagan kings. The emperor of Rome, the Caesar, was not a godly man by any stretch of the imagination. And yet here, Timothy is being asked to intercede for him before God, to to stand in the gap and to say, lord, what should I be praying for this person, and how can I be faithful to stand in the gap before you on their behalf? And we’ll get to why that matters so much in a second. The 4th kind of prayer we’re to be praying over our politicians is thanksgivings. Thanksgivings. Wow. Now that’s a wild one. How do I thank God if the person who I don’t want in office ends up in office? How do I thank God when I have 2 really bad options or 3 really bad options or I feel like I have no options? How do I thank God, and what do I thank him for? Now I’ve said this over and over again, especially on my Instagram, but you always have something to thank God for.
There is always something to thank God for. There is always a gift. There is always a promise. There is always a faithfulness that you can thank God for. And the more you open your eyes to that, the more peace you will have. And I shared part of our story. I won’t get into that today. But with the year that we’ve had and what we’re walking through as a family, I have had to practice that thanksgiving of looking for all the goodness of God in the land of the living.
And you can do that in an election season. And I promise you, if you do, it will change everything for you. Because when you see god’s faithfulness and you thank him for it and you even thank him for the small ways, the small freedoms, the small privileges that your country does afford you, even as you see and acknowledge the evil or the wrong, you will begin to see this train of god’s faithfulness in your life that continues to open more and more doors, more and more opportunities for you to thank him again. And not just to thank him, but to actually enjoy his gifts, to enjoy what god has given and the ways God is working spiritually even in an imperfect nation and through imperfect and sinful people. So we are to participate in supplication, prayer, intercession, and thanksgiving for all people. Let’s note that all people, so that means the people that you love and who are in your life and the people who you disagree with and you find offensive, you are to pray for both, not just pick and choose. And then here’s the hard part, you are to pray for your kings and all those in high positions. He doesn’t say only pray for Christian kings.
He doesn’t say only pray for kings who have good character. He doesn’t say only pray for kings who are, you know, considering, protecting you or who are in the best interest of the church. He says pray for the kings and all in high positions. Why? So that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. I love this last part but it’s kind of hard to understand sometimes because when we look at it, we’re going, okay. We’re praying for them so that we can lead a peaceful and quiet life. And Paul is not saying he wants us to have a peaceful and quiet life for our own pleasure but so that the gospel can be furthered without opposition. When Paul goes to prison, he continues to minister but he is limited by his chains.
A peaceful and quiet life allows the gospel to continue to go out and influence people for righteousness and goodness. And so when we pray for our leaders, we are inviting that spiritual protection, that spiritual influence of good. Remember, prayer is spiritual war. You’re inviting the Holy Spirit of God to work in powerful ways by participating with him in the spirit realm for these people whether or not they are believers, and many of them are not. Many people in American politics at least are not. Now some are, but I would say the majority probably aren’t. So you’re praying for the Holy Spirit to work in their lives even as secular people to work in the legislative process so that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life. Now, of course, when that doesn’t happen, when we don’t receive a peaceful and quiet life, God is still faithful.
He still redeems that as we see all throughout the Bible and through the history of the early church that God still redeemed persecution and used that persecution to bring many people to know him, a peaceful and quiet life is still a good and god blessed thing and we should pray for it. Now what’s the fruit of that? If we can live a peaceful and quiet life, what are we supposed to do with that? We have a responsibility. And we’re not supposed to use it for our own pleasure, our own abuse of our privilege, but we are to be godly and dignified in every way. Dignified is an interesting word. It means to be queenly, to have, like, a royal kind of bearing about you. And I think it’s interesting that as we’re praying for the kings and leaders, we are in fact to lead lives that look like what a godly king or leader would be. Isn’t that interesting? We’re praying for our leaders, and yet we’re also acting as leaders. These 2 go hand in hand because we are leading our nation, one street, one city, one state, country at a time towards righteousness by how we behave in those relationships.
Now, I don’t have this mastered. I am a flawed and sinful person. My gift is my words. My curse is my words. As in the way that I communicate, the way that I think can also make it very hard for me to not get angry at what I see in the political sphere, because of the extent of reading that I do, my love for history, my love for communication. It can be very hard and I fail with my words and I have to repent to people. I have to mend relationships sometimes because of how I have not been godly and dignified in every way. I think we all at times fail, especially during an election year.
And yet we have a responsibility to go back to this model of life where we are praying supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings for our leaders, for those who think differently than we do all while standing on what is true and what is righteous and what is good, being godly and dignified in every way. So this is this is the basis for how we are to look at our leaders even when we strongly disagree, even when we’re angry, even when we think there’s a lot at stake and there is, as Christians who stand for for the holiness and the sanctity of life, as Christians who care about people who are in need, the widow and the orphan and the foreigner, when we’re looking out at all of that, it can be easy to get angry, to to feel like other people are the ones that are keeping our nation from what is true. And in a sense, yeah, people are participating. That’s why the Bible consistently tells us to walk in righteousness. But, ultimately, it’s about sin and evil and a spiritual war that is taking place. And you have to remember that the battle is a spiritual one first, and that’s why prayer matters so much. When we lose sight of the fact that our battle is spiritual, we start to war against people instead of warring in the spiritual realm. That is what prayer is.
Prayer is war. And if we do not take that seriously, we will be over in the highways and the hedges fighting wars with people in the Instagram comments and DMs instead of fighting for our nation in prayer. And that’s a conviction, for me as well. Now let’s shift a little bit and let’s look at what the bible says about peace because we know that Christ promises us peace. But in an election year, we can start to think if so and so wins, I am devastated. There is no hope. Living in fear, living in, a constant anxiety about what’s gonna happen. And I will be honest with you.
I can make this video for you because I have peace about this and I have a lot of personal opinions. I have my own stances and I I have been honest about those, on social media but, at the same time, I have peace that no matter what, Christ is king and he is on the throne and we can trust that He will redeem and restore all things and that He has not stopped being at work in our nation, in our world. John 1633 says, I have said these things to you, that in me, you may have peace. Jesus isn’t joking around here. He’s not saying, you know, there’s me, and maybe you’ll have peace. He’s saying in me, you may have peace, but it’s an option. He can’t force it on you. Here’s what he says.
In the world, you will have tribulation. You will have persecution. You will have trials. But take heart. I have overcome the world. One of my favorite verses in the entire New Testament. I have overcome the world. I’m over it.
I’m beyond it. I’m so far beyond it. I see the end from the beginning and I am going to redeem it and you get to participate in that. You get to be my hands and feet in this world. You get to pray in the Holy Spirit for the word of the Lord to continue to go forth. I have overcome the world. That is why we take heart or have courage. Other translations say, you can have courage because he has overcome the world.
2nd Thessalonians 3:16 says, may the Lord of peace himself himself give you peace at all times in every way. At all times in every way. That means that all times, you may have the peace of God. And it’s not just peace that’s given to you. It’s the lord of peace himself. He is the lord of it. He owns peace, and he’s going to give it to you. I think sometimes we think peace is something that we get after the fact.
Like, if I just get through this season, then the peace will be afterwards. But, no. With Christ, the peace is during the season. It’s part of the season. It’s in the season. It’s with you. And that’s why Paul can end this little epistle, 2nd Thessalonians, he can say the Lord be with you all because Immanuel is God with us. The Lord is with us in Jesus Christ and that is why we have peace.
Isaiah 26:3, you keep him or you keep her in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you because he trusts in you. I have this verse on my wall in my kitchen as we go up the stairs. You keep me in perfect peace when my mind is stayed or fixed on you. I actually like the verb stayed because it means you’re not straying to the left or right. You’re staying in one place. Fixed reminds me too of almost like nailing it down, like you’re fixing it in place. My mind is just nailed down to the cross of Christ. It is pinned on Jesus.
And I know that the god who made this world, who made me, who made all human beings through all of history. I know that he’s with me. And I also know by looking at Christians in history that they’ve been through times like this. They’ve been through worse times than I have, and they made it out faithfully. This last week on All Saints Day, which is November 1st, I posted a series of stories of Christians in church history who lived faithful lives in extremely hard times from 100 AD to 19 40 AD. They lived faithful lives in times that were divisive, in times that were violent, times that were full of war and bloodshed, natural disaster, they were righteous, godly, and dignified in every way. If they can do it, so can we. John 1427 says, Jesus talking, peace I leave with you.
My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. Over and over in the Bible, God says to his people, do not be afraid. He says, do not be afraid, and then he often says right afterwards, I will be with you. So it’s not just this part where God is this absent figure who’s like, don’t be afraid. Just, you know, cut it out. You know, pray more, and your anxiety will go away.
That’s not what God is doing. He’s saying don’t be afraid because I am with you. That’s the whole reason we don’t have to be afraid because he has not left us because he is Emmanuel. He is God with us. That is the advantage of being a Christian. You have the person of Jesus Christ with you who has overcome the world, and because of that, you can have courage. That no matter what happens, he’s with you. He has seen it.
He knows it, and He will redeem it. Now, of course, this doesn’t mean we don’t have a responsibility. We still must listen to the Holy Spirit and obey in our societies, stand up for righteousness, and sometimes you will be persecuted for that, and yet He will still be with you like Daniel in the lion’s den, like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego when they stood up to Nebuchadnezzar. There may be times when that’s the case, when we must stand up to our culture and its idols. And when that happens, he will be the 4th person in the fire, Emmanuel, God with us. I want to conclude this with Colossians 3:15 which says, and let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. The peace of Christ has to rule in our hearts.
What’s ruling your heart in election season? Do you have a specific candidate ruling in your heart? They’re your ruler, maybe more than Jesus even is. Do you have anxiety ruling in your heart? Worry? Are you making politics your God and finding that it is a really bad savior? Christ alone can save. Christ alone can preserve. Christ alone can carry you, and Christ alone is the point of trust. And if you fix your mind on the truth of who he is, you focus in on his never ending love, his affection, his favor, his care, his kinglyness that he has overcome sin and death and the devil, and that the war that’s being fought is going to end eventually and it’s going to end with god winning, you can have much more peace in seasons like this. God’s sovereignty is a comfort for those who are living in divisive times. It was a comfort for those in the 1st century, for those in 88131517, 18 40, 1940, and 20 24. No matter what era of time it is, God has not changed.
He is still faithful. No matter what nation you are in, God has not changed. He is still faithful. It may be hard to trust at times. It may be a daily or even hourly choice, but you can have the peace of god in seasons like this. Much of it comes back to how much time we’re willing to spend learning his character in scripture. And that’s a good question to ask yourself is, have I spent as much time in scripture as I’m spending on the news? Have I spent as much time in prayer as I’m spending on the news? Have I spent as much time praying for these candidates as I have been researching them or debating them or trying to convince everyone around me that my opinion is right? These are the questions we should be asking as we look towards this week and we have a new president who will be the winner of the election. There can be peace.
There can even be joy. There can even be thankfulness when our minds are fixed in the right place. Thank you for joining me on Verity podcast. Once again, we are so grateful for those of you who subscribe, who watch us on YouTube, and also who listen on Spotify and iTunes or wherever you like to listen to your podcasts. We will be wrapping up the Beginner Believer series very soon. If you have a question you’d like me to address, please email me at felicia phyliciamasonheimer.com. I would love to cover any of your questions for the beginner believer series before we wrap it up and we start a new series. As always, you can also check out our full range of books and bible studies at phyliciamasonheimer.com/shop.