After nearly two years of enduring endless news of campaigns and election predictions, today is the day we the voters finally make our choice.

Since it is now November, I have been thinking again about the topic of gratitude.  It happens every year as I begin thinking about and preparing for Thanksgiving.  And in light of the elections today I realized afresh how remarkable it is that we as Americans really can choose our leaders on the federal, state, and local level.  We are so accustomed to this notion that we forget that ours is the first nation that has been governed this way.  For thousands of years the people of this planet have been ruled by kings and queens, dictators and tyrants, tribal chiefs and military leaders.  Most of those who ruled were born into that responsibility or they took that position by force.  And in many cases they were not benevolent.

Wayne Grudem, in a class on biblical ethics, stated that democracy is a form of government that is more in line with Scripture than other forms that have existed previously.  Our system is designed to serve the people and is for our good.  It has an inherent balance of power and built in restrictions against any one leader becoming a monarch.  And the bedrock of our system is our belief in personal liberty.

Regardless of the outcome today (or tomorrow if it is extremely close) we must remember to give thanks no matter who wins.  We also need to pray faithfully for this person in the days ahead.  It’s easy for me to be motivated to pray at the beginning of a new administration, but to become lazy as the months go by.  But as the Bible encourages us in I Timothy 2:1-2, we must be diligent about this discipline: “I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, in order that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity.”

May God’s will be done in our land today and may He find us faithful and grateful in response to Him.