When Your Side Wins

Sometimes winning an election tests our spiritual maturity more than losing one.

I spent my second Saturday night in a row watching election results. (What can I say, I'm living life in the fast lane!)

As it became clear that the BC Conservatives were about to form government, I began seeing Christian friends celebrating the result as an answer to prayer.

On the one hand, I'm thrilled that so many people prayed about this election. On the other hand, I have a long memory. I remember how some Christian friends responded when the federal Liberal Party was returned to power in April 2025. Rather than acknowledging that God was still sovereign and still answering prayer, there was anger and disdain. At least one person declared 'Ichabod' (the glory has departed). I'm pretty sure Jesus doesn't pack up and leave when an election doesn't go the way we wanted.

After that election, I wrote When Your Side Loses. It seems only fitting to write When Your Side Wins.

Losing challenges us to trust God when things don't go our way. Winning presents another temptation: assuming the result confirms God's approval of our political preferences, perhaps even suggesting that those who disagree with us oppose his purposes.

For more than 20 years, I've had the privilege of praying for and walking alongside political leaders across the political spectrum. I've prayed through victories, defeats, controversies, and more than a few moments that left me wondering what on earth was happening.

I don't consider myself an expert on prayer. Some of the most important lessons have challenged my assumptions about Jesus, politics, and the Kingdom of God.

Jesus isn't on your political team.

He invites people from every political team to follow him.

As much as I'd like to think Jesus agrees with my worldview and political preferences, experience has taught me to be a little less certain about that.

Consider Matthew, a tax collector working within the Roman system, and Simon the Zealot, best described as a Jewish nationalist. They came from different worlds, yet Jesus invited both into his closest circle.

Jesus didn't build his kingdom around a shared political ideology. He called people to follow him. Be wary of anyone who suggests that following Jesus requires allegiance to a particular political party.

Jesus doesn't change sides when governments change, either. He doesn't become more sovereign when our preferred party wins or less sovereign when it loses.

Elections matter enormously. Good government can help communities flourish; poor decisions can have devastating consequences. However, we should be careful not to claim to know God's intentions simply because an election produced the result we wanted.

There's a difference between thanking God for an outcome and claiming that God endorsed our choice.

Gratitude is appropriate. Humility is essential.

Love doesn't follow party lines.

We describe Leading Influence as non-partisan because we don't endorse parties, candidates, or platforms. Lately, I've also been thinking about the word pan-partisan.

Non-partisan describes our independence. Pan-partisan describes our intentional engagement with people across the political spectrum.

I think there's something profoundly Christian about that. Jesus is pan-partisan in his love for people, but not indiscriminate in endorsing their choices.

He cares about justice, mercy, truth, and how we treat one another. No party has a monopoly on those values, and none embodies them perfectly.

Perhaps the better question isn't whether Jesus is on our side, but whether we're allowing him to shape how we see people on every side.

Pray for them anyway.

Politicians will disappoint you. They'll make decisions you dislike, say things you disagree with, and occasionally leave you wondering what on earth they were thinking.

Pray for them anyway.

Scripture tells us to honour the king (1 Peter 2:17) and pray for those in authority (1 Timothy 2:1–2). Those instructions weren't written in an age of democratic elections. Christians weren't told to pray only for leaders they supported.

Sometimes that's easy. Sometimes it's soul-stretching. Do it anyway.

At Leading Influence, prayer isn't primarily about advancing a political agenda.

We pray for people.

We pray for wisdom, courage, integrity, compassion, and the families and responsibilities leaders carry. We pray for government and opposition alike, because both serve important roles.

Over the years, Leading Influence has published more than 16,000 prayers for political leaders and during election campaigns. We've prayed through changes of government, leadership contests, and political controversies. That consistency has earned credibility and respect across party lines.

A former Premier said of us, “They won't say a bad thing about anyone in this room!”

I took that as a high compliment.

Your commitment to prayer shouldn't change when governments change, either.

When your side wins…

Celebrate. Be grateful. Give thanks. Dance like David or jump around like the Premier Designate!

Then keep praying.

Pray when leaders make decisions you support and when they disappoint you. Pray for the Premier, the Leader of the Opposition, cabinet ministers, and backbench MLAs.

Pray for their success in serving the people entrusted to their care.

Across Canada, thousands of people from all sides of the political spectrum are praying together through Leading Influence's provincial and national prayer networks. I'd invite you to join them, whether through PrayBC or one of our networks in another province.

Together, we can ask God to bless those who serve in government and opposition, give them wisdom and courage, and help them lead in ways that let our communities flourish.

We pray for good government because we care about the people government serves.

After more than 20 years, I'm more convinced than ever that prayer matters—and that we need to approach it with humility.

We can be confident that God hears our prayers without claiming to know precisely how he intends to answer them.

Whether our side wins or loses, Jesus is still Lord.

The invitation to pray remains the same.