In a prayerful mission to help Christians navigate the complexities of an ever-contested election cycle, Allen Jackson offers advice on how to respond if the elected candidate loses.

Jackson, pastor of World Outreach Church in Nashville, Tennessee, saw his church hold a 48-hour prayer event over the weekend, encouraging believers to lift America up to God.

“We’ve been praying for our nation for weeks and weeks, but we wanted to make a little more focused effort as we get closer to the election,” he recently told “Higher Ground with Billy Hallowell.” “So we took out a 48-hour window.”

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The World Outreach Church then invited people to come together to pray for the nation and encouraged them to come together to seek God and take action.

“We don’t want to stand by and watch what’s going on,” he said. “We want to participate in what God is doing on Earth.”

Listen to his explanation:

Jackson also responded to reports that tens of millions of Christians will not vote in 2024, expressing his belief that not voting would not be beneficial.

“Some of us have been trained that our duty is to pray and God does everything else,” he said. “And I am a tremendous advocate of prayer, but I think it is an inadequate understanding of Scripture and our role in our journey through time.”

Jackson continued: “I believe that God provides everything we need for our lives, but if I sit in my house and pray for food and don’t plant the garden, I will probably starve. If we want a civil government that honors God, then we need to get involved in the process.” I am thinking.”

The preacher compared the dynamic to praying for healing but still seeking a doctor for treatment.

“I think Christians should vote; there are no excuses,” Jackson said.

The preacher offered some advice on how believers and all Americans should respond if the election does not go their way.

“It would be better if we processed it early rather than waiting until real time,” Jackson said. “And if you are not satisfied with the outcome of the election (whatever the outcome you imagined or preferred), I think we need to recognize that we still have a duty.”

He added that Christians “have a future beyond time” and a deeper mission beyond mere electoral victories.

“I like to think about elections…it’s like a stress test when you go to the doctor for an exam,” Jackson said. “You get on the treadmill and they hook you up to an EKG and maybe monitor your oxygen intake or output. It’s a snapshot of your physical health. It doesn’t make you … less healthy or sick. It’s just an assessment.”

In the same vein, he said elections are an assessment of the moral health of the nation and the person elected serves as a representative of values ​​and policies. After all, some Americans and Christians may not like the results of some of the elections for which Jackson made some recommendations.

“To Christians, I say this: If you are disappointed with the election results, this is not the time to panic,” he said. “It’s time to start seeking the Lord in a new way. We have to change some behaviors, we have to change the way we relate to the culture.”

Jackson encouraged believers to seek “greater influence” in their God-given spheres of influence.

“The election is really an assessment of where we are,” he continued. “This is not the beginning of the end. God is still on the throne and the sun will rise tomorrow. We may not like the results and the results may be difficult for a season, but that is the nature of our journey through time.”

This article first appeared on CBN’s Faithwire.