Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and always to be gentle toward everyone. -Titus 3:1-2 (NIV)

In the United States, yesterday brought the midterm elections. In a year when the President’s approval rating is very low, the results came in as anticipated and the Republicans took control of the Senate and retained the House of Representatives (actually gaining 10 seats there). Some states typically aligned with one party flipped and went for the other major party, including some governor’s races. In the state in which my wife and I live, the incumbent governor won re-election after a very contentious, nasty battle with his challenger. We had hoped for a big change, as our state isn’t doing all that well and figured a change of leadership would help. Recently, I thought (especially after looking at the most recent poll data) that he might win again and determined that if the outcome did not go as we wanted, we must resign ourselves to it and pray for God to reveal His will to him (and all elected officials in authority over us) and empower him to carry it out. This is much better than hanging on to bitterness and living with poisonous resentment that would serve no constructive purpose, anyway. I hope you find yourself with that attitude when things don’t go as planned and the candidate you felt strongly in favor of does not prevail. This does not mean that God does not prevail, as He always does!

All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations will bow down before him, for dominion belongs to the Lord and he rules over the nations. -Psalm 22:27-28 (NIV)