Some Americans today are upset, angry, disappointed, and worried…while others are elated. Name an emotion and someone surely has felt it within the last few weeks and days following our Presidential election. I personally have tried to remain silent for the most part, giving myself time to process what happened and to look at it from various view points…mostly from a Godly view, as that’s what He expects us to do. No man will ever be completely in charge of politics or our country. I thank God for that…since man can sometimes be his own worst enemy, as we have witnessed repeatedly.
So, the Republicans lost the election and the Democrats are fully in charge…not the end we had hoped for, but a fact. A fact that we must accept and deal with for the next four years. Looking back at how things went the last time we had a Democrat for President, most of us cringe. The images of a Justice of the Peace who refused to marry a gay couple, a baker who refused to bake a cake…the White House lit up in rainbow colors! All this and much more…Lines being drawn, money being paid to our enemies…Benghazi…it goes on and on. No progress was made, only hate being fueled that carried over into the last four years.
With President Trump in office, many of us had hoped our country would return to its roots and things become more peaceful …not just in the Middle East, but here at home especially. However, because so many could not accept Donald Trump as our President, only the hate grew and hindered any progress we could have hoped for in the effort to improve relationships between the left and right. Neither side was ever willing to give an inch or compromise in any way…so here we are again, in the same boat… just with new hands on the paddles. The storm is brewing and only one person can save us…perhaps He is giving us a chance to realize the change we really need.
I wonder, as i write this, if everybody read it, how many would just laugh or shake their heads? Those Christians, they would think, they still believe God is the answer. They thought He would show up and overturn the election too…can’t they see how that turned out? How stupid are they? Why don’t they just give it up? Their God is not real, or we would never have gotten away with half the stuff we’ve done.
Luke 4: 36-40 tells the story of Jesus and His disciples on a ship when a great storm came up. The winds beat upon the sea and the waves tossed the ship about. Water began pouring into the ship and the men were afraid…except for Jesus. He was in the back of the ship, sleeping soundly on a pillow, when they woke him up. “Master,” they said, don’t you care that we are about to perish?”
Jesus arose and rebuked the wind. “Peace, be still,” He said…and the wind ceased and there was great calm. He said to them, “Why are ye so fearful? How is it that ye have no faith?”
Why are we so fearful because the Democrats will soon be in charge? Why were we shocked when God didn’t intervene as we’d hoped He would and overturn the election? Perhaps it didn’t happen simply because we are not at the point in our own relationship with God that He wants us to be. Perhaps Donald trump wasn’t where God wants him to be in the most important race of all. We all know that Trump has a tendency to pat himself on the back and take credit for all good things that happen…he often gives mention of God and thanks Him at the proper times, but we all fall short of being all that God wants us to be. Even the devil admits there is a God, but he would never give God credit for anything. Maybe therein lies the problem.
“We worked hard for this,” we say. “Donald Trump worked hard for this. He deserves a second term as President.” Well, perhaps God sees it as we all deserved what we got…four more years to work and get it right. Another chance to tackle the same old problems, but maybe with a different approach this time. Perhaps, like the Democrats in 2016, we were over confident and too sure of ourselves, and we took too much for granted…even God. We are, after all, working in God’s time frame, not our own. Maybe too, God felt it was time to give us a break from all the Trump bashing and insults our President received daily while serving. I personally don’t see how he withstood it all myself. A lesser man would have broken under the pressure years ago. I believe it was only our prayers that kept him going as long as he has…and we must not stop praying now, that he can accept what happened and rise above it all to fight again.
Whenever I get discouraged, two verses from God’s Word always come to mind: 1 Peter 1:13 Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. and: Psalm 46: 10 Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.
The time will come for God to be exalted. Had Trump managed to overturn the election who would have gotten the praise from those who follow him? Donald Trump most likely. God would have been thanked by many but not exalted above all. After all, it is for God’s glory alone that we are to strive. Therefore, it is time to ‘gird up’ our minds and act as sober, straight thinking men and women with one goal in mind: turn the people back to God and our country will be healed. We must be still and know that He is God…and it is only through Him that we will succeed.