“Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the Earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the Earth.’ So God created man in His own image, in the image of God, He created him. Male and female, He created them and God blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the Earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the Earth.'”
– Genesis 1:26–28
As a reminder for this month, for 31 days, we are praying specifically each day according to God’s word in light of the presidential election in the United States and the country where I, and most listeners on this podcast, live. We want to pray continually according to God’s Word in this important time in our country.
In the midst of such a divisive season, we must remember that each and every person has been created in the image of God.
These verses are breathtaking, awe-inducing, humbling, sobering, encouraging. Just think God has created you and me in His image. What does that mean? You and I are created in a sense like God. Obviously, we are not God. We are not little gods. But we are created in such a way that we have the capacity to relate to God, to be in relationship with God in a way that trees and oceans and mountains and animals cannot. You and I are created uniquely in God’s image with the capacity to know Him. Enjoy Him and relate to Him. Walk with Him, worship Him. And in this, and it’s not just you and me, it’s every single person. Created with equal dignity, with equal beauty in this way, in the image of God.
Reflecting Christ in Political Elections
Oh, there’s so much that flows from this. But as we think about presidential election. All of the discussions and debates about and from political candidates and parties, there is a tendency to miss this reality and to speak about others, to think about others, to relate to others in ways that betray this glorious reality from the very beginning. We are compelled by these verses to treat all people, think about all people, speak to all people, about all people with dignity, as image bearers of God.
So God, we pray for that. Even as we think about all the personalities in this election. As we think about leaders of different parties. As we think about other people around us who we know. Who may have different opinions or convictions than us. Even non-believing friends, family members, coworkers, whose ideas are totally contrary to God’s Word. Who aren’t even thinking through your Word. Who are actively rebelling against you.
Genesis 1:26–28 Thanks God for Creating Us in His Image
So God, we pray that his rethink about every person. Every personality around us who we know, who we don’t know, who we see on the news, who we see reporting the news, help us to see everyone as wonderfully created in your image. And to honor, just like 1 Peter Chapter Two, Verse 17 says, “To honor everyone.”
So God, we pray for that across our country, help us to honor people with equal dignity and all that that means. God please help us in this way. So we pray for political candidates to honor all people with dignity. As image bearers of God, for party leaders. And God, we pray for this in the church. Just so grieved God over how even in the church during these days, there can be such division in speaking, talking to, about people in ways that don’t celebrate the beauty of what it means for each other to be made in your image.
Genesis 1:26–28 Prays for our Hearts to View Others as God’s Creation
So God, help us to honor everyone around us and in the process to point them to you as their creator. To point people to you as their designer. To point people to you as the one who has made them to enjoy you and walk with you and worship you. So God, we pray you’d help us to love and honor people well, as we point them to you as the one who has made them wonderfully.
So God, we pray for this in our hearts and we pray for this in the hearts of people around us. Oh God, we pray for this in each one of our hearts. Help us to live and perceive everybody we see in view of Genesis 1:26–28. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
