Well, we have just voted
President Barack Obama to a second four-year term in office as President of the
United States. To those who voted for him, congratulations! To those who did
not vote for him, my condolences! I recognize the bewildering disappointment
that some feel when elections, whether for a president, senator, congressman or
congresswoman or a Proposition goes in a different direction than we voted. I
have to acknowledge that I still don’t fully understand how someone can win the
popular vote and lose the Electoral College vote (not that this was the case in
this recent elections). Some States though smaller in size seem to have more Electoral
College votes, I don’t understand this either.
On the day after the Presidential elections, as I was beginning my
day in prayer with the Upper Room, a devotional magazine I use to direct my
Bible reading, I was led to the book of the prophet Isaiah, chapter 26. I was
reminded that God is indeed the Hope of any nation and that men will come and
will go whether kings or presidents (Democrats or Republicans or any other party),
they are just mortal men, fallible and finite. Only God is immortal, infallible
and infinite.
Isaiah writes a song that Judah is to sing about “that day” in
which a new Zion/Jerusalem (God birthed not man built) will come and a new
nation will spring forth, a “righteous nation”. “Open the
gates that the righteous nation which keeps the truth may
enter in. You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on
You, because he trusts in You.”
In two places we are told what we are to do, in verse 4; “Trust in
the Lord forever, For in YAH, the Lord, is everlasting strength.” The
strength of the new city is God. The Lord of this new righteous city “is
everlasting strength.” The strength of our city/nation is rooted in
the strength of our God and our trust in Him alone. In verses 8 and 9, the song
continues: “Yes, in the way of Your judgments, O Lord, we have waited
for You; The desire of our soul is for Your name and for the remembrance of
You. With my soul I have desired You in the night, Yes, by my
spirit within me I will seek You early; For when Your
judgments are in the earth, The inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.” These
verses remind us that prayer for our nation, and all who govern our nations
should be lifted up “in the night” and “early” in
the morning. Our eyes should and must be set on our God who is our “everlasting
strength.”
St. Paul makes the same recommendation to the Christians in Ephesus in 1
Timothy 2, “I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers,
intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who
are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all
godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of
God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the
knowledge of the truth.” Please notice the missional and
evangelistic character of Paul’s exhortation, there is a reason and purpose
behind the need to pray for leaders. We should heed attentively the call of
Isaiah to “trust in the Lord forever” and the exhortation of Paul
to keep our leaders covered in prayer.
I pray that whether you feel a winner or a loser in this election that you keep
your eyes on the Lord and that we all learn to trust in Him and Him alone.
Let’s Blog!
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