In the United States, there is a political divide that is palpable. Left and right spend little time in real dialog and a lot of time shouting across the divide. Sadly, the church has not been unaffected by the rancor.

It may be hard for you to get your head around the fact that you may go to church with people that voted for the other candidate, the one that you strenuously opposed. You might be tempted to doubt the sincerity of the faith of someone who voted against who you think was the better candidate.

Perhaps Paul offers us an antidote in the verses quoted below.

“First 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. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy 2:1-4, ESV)

We are to pray for “all people”, even that candidate that is so disagreeable to you. We are to pray for those who voted differently that we did. We are to pray for our elected officials even if we did not support their candidacy and especially if we disagree with their political agenda.

It is so easy to get caught up in the labeling of other people. Adjectives like liberal, conservative, progressive, left-wing, right-wing, etc. carry so much baggage, always oversimplify and are not very helpful. The fact that I have encountered this type of rhetoric in the church is lamentable.

In the church, we must keep in mind that we are not called to support a political agenda. Our agenda should be defined by the command to make disciples of Jesus Christ. We may disagree on what the government should be doing with regard to any number of issues, but every Christian should agree that the government is limited in how much good it can do.

The government is limited in how much good it can do because it can only alleviate some of the symptoms of what is wrong with the world. But one does not cure the disease by seeking relief from the symptoms. To cure what is wrong, the disease itself must be attacked and conquered. It is only the Gospel of Jesus Christ that can transform a heart. And heart transformation is the only thing that will begin to address the problems we see around us.

Rather than getting all worked up about your Christian brother who has a different idea about what the government should or should not be doing, why not offer to pray with him. If you are both believers, what you have in common should be so much more powerful than the issues over which you might divide.

By praying together, you will stop seeing your brother as the enemy and become unified in confronting the real Enemy.

I must confess that I am sometimes intimidated about praying in a church gathering such as a prayer meeting or small group. My brain is not wired to call up Old Testament images about restoring what the locusts have eaten or calling down mighty angels. These references make those adept at praying sound so . . . so . . . spiritual and powerful.

I am not poking fun at them, I really am impressed with some people’s ability to think of these things to spice up their prayer. Such eloquence is a gift, it just happens to be a gift that I do not possess.

But some encouragement came to me during a recent reading of Exodus 5.

That chapter records that Pharaoh increased the workload on the Israelites as a result of Moses’ request to let the people of Israel celebrate a feast to God. The Israelites, in turn, confronted Moses blaming him for the increased hardship.

Moses then brings this to God. Notice the language of his prayer:

“O Lord, why have you brought harm to this people? Whey did you ever send me? Ever since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done harm to this people and you have not delivered your people at all.” – Exodus 5:22-23

That prayer contains no flowery language. It is short and honest. Moses asks the questions that are on his heart and tells God why he is asking. There is no hiding behind excess words here. Moses comes to God and directly tells him what is on his mind.

This encourages me that prayer does not need to be eloquent to be effective. It is OK to come directly to the point. It is OK to be honest and straight-forward.

I suppose the lesson is that there is no best way to pray. The important thing is to do it.