Election Day is nearly upon us. Oh my goodness! I admit that my emotions have vacillated a lot throughout this whole drama, from hope to anger to fear to faith…and back. I feel now that I really want to write something that will bring peace to people’s hearts, to offer just the right preventative “medicine” to keep worry at bay. Whether it’s concern over the media-saturated presidential race, a state race or ballot measure, or any of a myriad of other issues, there are plenty of opportunities for us to fret and few resources to help us combat our fears. We have to be intentional in seeking peace in the midst of this political storm. I guess that’s always been true but, for many of us, the pressures of the ever-present news coverage--most of which is negative--have seemed to crank the heat up to a near-boiling point.
The best I can think to do is to remind us all that our minds are precious real estate--kingdoms, really--that, unseen in our physical world, are being constantly battled over by royalty. Both the prince of this world (John 14:30) and the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6) desperately want dominion. One of these rulers seeks to steal from you, kill you, and destroy you; the other seeks to give you life. (John 10:10) The choice should be so obvious and immediate for us but we fail to make the connection between the events in our natural world and those in the supernatural. While, as saints, we died to this world, we continue to live in it and, unfortunately, to be deceived by it. We maintain dual citizenship both on earth and in Heaven but we typically live more in submission to the governing authorities of the former than the latter. Much of our daily lives is consumed with our vision of the seen rather than the unseen. Because of this, our emotions are often more dominated by fear than by faith. Church on Sunday proves a respite of hope and good news because, for that brief period of time, our eyes and ears are filled with references to and reminders of Heaven. However, after the pastor dismisses us and we finish our conversations and head back into what is often referred to as “the real world,” our environment changes and so does our perspective. We become blinded to the truth that the spiritual realm is actually more “real” than the physical.
Maybe it’s because our lives are so busy that we often fail to be proactive and instead default to simply being reactive. We lack the time, mental focus, and stamina to mount a fight against the pressing and depressing influences threatening to consume us. Even if we try to make a conscious effort to avoid distractions, we are literally surrounded by them. As we log into our email or social media, we are confronted with subject lines and headlines that incite our emotions. We lose track of our initial intents and fire off responses, engaging in mini-battles in an effort to win people over to our way of thinking. I believe this is all part of the enemy’s plan to derail us, to keep us confused, offended, and unproductive. It takes our minds off the things of eternal value and ensnares us into the immediate and temporal. We rationalize that these things are important--and they certainly are to some degree. However, it is a lie from the enemy that they are more significant or should take precedence over our focus on God Almighty. Our comments on Facebook do not have more impact than our prayers in Heaven!
We are God’s precious ones and He is not insensitive to our cares. Hebrews 4:15-16 tells us, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses…Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” I like that we are told to approach God’s throne with confidence. We should always be humble, of course, but because we are His beloved, we can be honest and forthright with our Savior. We are told to present our requests to God (Philippians 4:6) and to cast our cares on Him because He cares for us (1 Peter 5:7). He cares about the things that burden our hearts, whether it is the mundane concerns of our personal daily lives or the anxieties that many of us feel for the future of our country. While God doesn’t share the anxiety, He shares our love for others and for righteousness. After all, it’s His heart that beats inside of us.
My pastor recently mentioned that many people have said that, “God will judge America.” I challenge you to flatly reject this view of God. While He is certainly not pleased with the flagrant sins and signs of evil evident in our country, remember that He is not the one hell-bent on our destruction. Rather, it is the plan of the deceiver to destroy us…and then to pin the blame on God! In the 18th chapter of Genesis, Abraham pleaded with God to spare Sodom on account of 50 righteous people. God agreed. Abraham then lowered the number to 45, then to 40, and finally succeeded in talking God down to 10. (Genesis 18:23-33) Think about it: if God was willing, based on His old covenant relationship with His people, to spare a whole city based on the goodness of a relative few, how much more protected are we who live in Christ under the new covenant, which exists between God and Jesus? As Christians, our righteousness is not based on our own merit, but on that of the sinless Son of God. Now, God did end up destroying the city of Sodom, but we learn in Genesis 19:4 that it was because not one righteous man could be found! It says: “Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom--both young and old--surrounded the house.” By contrast, while statistics report that the number of Christians in the United States has dropped, there is still a very large remnant present. Since “righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe,” (Romans 3:21) that means there are still many righteous people in America. And God can see us. He hears our prayers and He loves us. He has not thrown up His holy hands in exasperation. Many Americans have been praying for our country--not just for this election, but for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit and for a revival the likes of which this world has never known.
At other times of great moral crisis in our nation’s history, God has shown up in amazing ways. Jonathan Edwards, a minister involved in the first Great Awakening in America, contended that God provides light when darkness is the greatest. Few would argue that America is currently in a dark time of moral crisis. I challenge, encourage, and even plead with you to pray for our beautiful country--that we can once again become “one nation under God.” Pray not from a position of weakness or fear, but with the confidence of knowing your position with the King of kings and the Lord of lords. Pray believing that you have a God-given power over the enemy. Jesus told His disciples, “I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy.” (Luke 10:19)
Be bold. You absolutely have the authority to call out and condemn the enemy. You can command him to loose his hold on our country and to return everything he has stolen. Then, praise God. Thank Him for His goodness, His promises, His blessings. Thank Him for His Son. Thank Him for being our only true source of hope. And ask Him again: “God, please bless America.”