After election

An election inevitably leaves a percentage of voters with favorite office-seekers who were not successful. Should these voters now yield to disappointment and stop their support of the offices that were filled?

One's country needs, after an election, fully as earnest support as it did before the voting. And that support includes prayer -- prayer that the functions of the office be exercised with intelligence, patience, and wisdom. The Bible comforts us with the assurance, "There are differences of administrations, but the same Lord." n1

n1 I Corinthians 12:5;

The existence of groups that would try to influence government is well known. Some of them are good, and help to alert officials to the wide variety of needs in their country. Others overstep the bounds of legitimate self-interest, however, and become merely self-serving, forgetting the need for a broader perspective.

We can help spare elected officials from manipulation by realizing the actual powerlessness of evil. Man is God's own offspring, ever expressive of His will. All-powerful divine Love, the only true Mind, is the real government of man. And we can affirm that All that is right and good is of God, and as we see this clearly we will know that His government is never influenced by egotism or passions.

Christian Science gives confidence that governmental responsibility can be trusted to God, the all-knowing, unerring, divine Mind. Such faith in Mind can be developed as we come to understand that the true universe is spiritual and that Mind controls this universe in perfect harmony. And as we ourselves live under Mind's government, not that of personal will, we will not weigh down elected officials with a false burden that they, personally, must save the country.

How exactly can we, through prayer, support government? By praying in the way Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, counseled her followers: "Pray that the divine presence may still guide and bless our chief magistrate, those associated with his executive trust, and our national judiciary; give to our congress wisdom, and uphold our nation with the right arm of His righteousness." n2

n2 Christian Science versus Pantheism,m p. 14,

We can pray through affirming the truth of man's inalienable citizenship under God's benevolent law and government. In different countries the names given to government offices and bodies vary, but the same truth, the same universal law of God, can be proved to be operating to bless and direct. Divine Mind is the source of all intelligence. God's law, acknowledged and lived, ensures an unlimited supply, universally, of the thoughts needed to guide governments wisely.

Many of us doubtless acknowledged before the election that God is the ultimate government of man. Now, after the election, let us continue to acknowledge that we are in reality subject to no influence but God's, therefore we all express integrity and peace in our true being. God's representative -- spiritual, true man -- is motivated eternally by God, divine Principle. A basic rule for anyone wanting to work on the side of Principle is Christ Jesus' Golden Rule: "All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them." n3

n3 Matthew 7:12.

When the citizens of a country have elected someone to serve in a vital capacity, these citizens should be faithful in supporting through prayer the important work required by the office. Thus we can all help to guarantee that God as well as country will be faithfully served. DAILY BIBLE VERSE His kingdom ruleth over all. Psalms 103:19

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