By Ps Vernon Quek
Election fever is upon us! Our newsfeeds, social media feeds, chat groups and daily conversations are filled with not only the campaigning of those running, but everyone else’s thoughts and opinions about them.
It is a good thing for us as Christians to be invested in the elections – a right thing for us to listen to various viewpoints and consider carefully who we should vote for. But in the flood of all these election thoughts and opinions, we should remind ourselves that One Person’s viewpoint matters above all. How has God’s view of these elections shaped your thinking so far?
We’ll be getting into it in more detail later in our sermon series, but a helpful reminder of what God thinks about our elections can be found in Romans 13. May His thoughts motivate and inform our prayers in the coming week:
Romans 13:1
13 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.
Firstly, we should be in constant prayer this week for God to institute the right authorities. Acknowledging His sovereignty and His right to choose who should govern our small country, we can pray that He will install the right men and women to lead this nation according to His will and not ours.
Romans 13:2-4
2 Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, 4 for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer.
Secondly, we can pray for God to institute authorities who will be instruments of His just character – who will reflect His perfectly righteous nature. I often find myself thinking a lot more about the failings of our human authorities, rather than praying for their character and integrity. This also leads me to take for granted the justice that our country does enjoy – especially relative to the many countries across our world today where grave injustice is rampant.
Romans 13:5-7
5 Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience. 6 For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. 7 Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honour to whom honour is owed.
Thirdly, while we’re praying this week for God to institute authorities that we already respect and honour, we should also pray for our hearts next week to honour God’s appointed authorities no matter what we feel about them – simply because He has appointed them to be instruments of His will.
Finally, the wider message of Romans reminds us why these elections matter. God’s Gospel, the Good News of King Jesus who is the ultimate Authority that all nations need to know, is still the priority. The Apostle Paul is saying all the above about governing authorities because the Gospel is the priority. So most importantly, we need to be praying for authorities who govern Singapore well so that Gospel growth flourishes both within Singapore and through us to all nations!
Let’s keep praying throughout the week for these things, and for us to constantly remind ourselves and each other to see all present earthly authorities in light of God’s ultimate authority Christ Jesus!
