The votes have been cast, and the 2016 election decided, but deep divisions still remain in our society. How should Christians react in the coming days? How can we begin to repair our fractured people?
Carmen LaBerge says the first step is to remember our top focus:
“Christians need to recognize today, just as yesterday, and just as would be true if the outcome had been different in the election, this is the day that the Lord has made. He is sovereign in it and over it, and we are His ambassadors in the context of it.”
“Keeping our minds focused and set on the things that are above, recognizing that we are witnesses to who Christ is and what He desires, much more so than we are participants, advocates, or even citizens of kingdoms of this world. I think that that we ought to keep the primary thing primary, no matter how we’re feeling today about the outcome of the election.”
Before any other reaction, LaBerge asks believers pray for those Americans who feel disenfranchised, even lost or left out:
“I think we need to be praying for people who woke up today…dismayed…fearful…they woke up in a country that they don’t even feel like they belong to anymore. And that range of people is really diverse. That gives the church an opportunity: we recognize the sense of feeling dislocated and not living in a place that we belong.”
“This is an opportunity, I believe, for the church to genuinely reach out with a message of reconciliation. The country’s never been more polarized or divided. We are the people who know what reconciliation is; we know what it has to be based on. I view this as a prime opportunity for the church to lean in to a divided and broken country, and really lead toward reconciliation…”
And if our interests are reconciliation across political and social divisions, we must be motivated by a spirit of humility–especially among those Christians whose chosen candidate won:
“We need to be, as Christians, very humble today.”
Carmen LaBerge is the host of The Reconnect with Carmen LaBerge radio show. She seeks to bring the Biblical worldview to bear on whatever is happening in the world and help people cultivate an understanding of critical issues from God’s perspective.
Reacting to the Election with Carmen LaBerge
