For many college students in the United States, this year’s presidential election will be the first time they ever cast a vote. That can be exciting to many but daunting to others. If you’ve never voted before, you might be nervous about wielding this power you’ve now earned. Especially if you’re undecided and struggling to make up your mind.

Voting is an important privilege in a democracy. Those of us who have the right to vote should do so—even if we are fearful about voting or worried about the outcome of the election. Voting enables each of us to register our choice and make our voices heard. Voting is the most powerful practical step we can take to influence the result of an election.

Yet as important as voting is, our participation in our democracy shouldn’t stop there. I believe we should also contribute our prayers.

Praying is perhaps the most meaningful way we can serve the greater good. But to be of service, prayer should be genuine, sincere, and deep, addressing the fears many of us feel.

Prayer that is truly helpful and effective goes much deeper than a surface level plea for a particular candidate to win. Such a prayer would be asking God to let our human will come true. God doesn’t pick presidents (the people do). But God’s spiritual government, which is infinite, is always operating for our individual and collective good, regardless of who may oversee human government. Prayer helps us to know God better and trust that this divine government exists and works.

Perhaps one of the best things our prayer can do is keep us humble. When we pray, we are not asking God to take our side, but instead should be asking to be on God’s side. That kind of prayer takes humility—a willingness to put our personal will aside and recognize that God, the divine Principle, Love, really has all power. Then we can know it’s okay if our candidate loses the election because God is the ultimate authority anyway—and God’s voice and wisdom can always break through to anyone.

When Jesus lived, the Jewish people wanted the Messiah to lead a mighty war that would overthrow the Roman government that was oppressing them, ushering in the reign of God. Jesus didn’t do this. His kingdom was not of this world. His work was to usher people into the kingdom of God by helping them discover its presence and power.

That is what prayer can do for us today. And such prayer has tremendous impact. The discoverer of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, wrote about prayer: “You have simply to preserve a scientific, positive sense of unity with your divine source, and daily demonstrate this. Then you will find that one is as important a factor as duodecillions in being and doing right, and thus demonstrating deific Principle. A dewdrop reflects the sun. Each of Christ’s little ones reflects the infinite One, and therefore is the seer’s declaration true, that ‘one on God’s side is a majority’” (Pulpit and Press, p. 4). When we find our unity with God through prayer, we are inevitably on God’s side. Even if we were to be the only person taking God’s side, we would still have the majority. A right sense of prayer, then, can bring remarkable healing to whatever is troublesome or disturbing in politics.

The country needs us to vote. It also needs us to pray. More than anything, the country needs us to do our best to be on God’s side. Not all of us will see eye to eye politically. But as fellow children of God, we all reflect “the infinite One” regardless of how we vote. We can pray to stay united to God, knowing that divine Love prevails and brings harmony in all things, including the election.

Roger Gordon is Director of Spiritual Life and Chaplain at Principia College. He has worked at Principia since 2022.