Post-Election Day Madness Withdrawl

Okay folks, are we all over our Election Day hysteria? You've gone out to do your civic and patriotic duty. Now let the chips fall where they may...and lets get on with our lives. God puts the people in charge that are in charge. He puts them in charge either to help and prosper a people or...curse and punish them. The Bible is quite clear on this.

Daniel 2:21 ~ "He changes times and seasons; he deposes kings and raises up others. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning.

Romans 13:1-7  ~ "Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended. For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also as a matter of conscience. This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing. Give to everyone what you owe them: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.

If you think you have it bad under your current government in 2012 United States you clearly do not know your history. Have things gotten worse in recent decades in terms of morals and ethics? Of course they have but things are not like they could be. This being said I continue to pray for a Godly outcome for my nation.

The problem is that our media has made men "cults of personality" on which we rest all of our hopes when the Bible has clearly stated we are to depend on God, not men to fix our problems. Jesus even said this of Himself when discussing the Father...

John 5:19 ~ "Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does."

Psalm 62:5 ~ "Yes, my soul, find rest in God; my hope comes from him.

In being dependent on God it makes us independent of the world. We struggle with the whole idea of being dependent because it is seen as a weakness or something is wrong with us. However, being dependent on God is what makes us right, and we become stronger for it. The image of Jesus being dependent on the Father dispels this myth made by sinful men. If Jesus is dependent on the Father, who am I to do any different? Without God I am nothing. I hold little value in the man-made political systems because even the greatest of them have been scattered into the dusts of history. Our once great nation will be no different. Sin has its way of eroding from underneath until there is no longer structural support to hold up the edifice...and then it collapses. Right or left...it all ends the same. Without God at center it is a fool's errant to place one's trust in another human no matter how well intended. Do I vote? Of course I do, it is my God granted right and people died to give that right to me. I just don't see the point in getting worked into a lather over who did or didn't win a dopey election. In the end God's in charge and all things work to the good of those who love God. This doesn't mean everything is going to be a primrose path!

So...

Jesus was our roll model and we are to imitate Him (discipleship). If the Son of God had to learn dependence on the Father, then so must we. The Bible says God has stored up good works for us to do.

Ephesians 2:10 ~ "For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."

If this is the case it stands to reason as James 1:17 says that every gift comes from the Father. If we are to do the good works the Father has stored up for us, we must learn to pay attention to what we see and hear the Father doing, therefore we must learn how to depend on him, not men.

How do we practice this dependence? How did Jesus do so? We know that the Father rescues the lost, heals the sick, and sets the captives of sin free. We might begin by asking the Father for his heart of compassion. Then we might ask him where he's working and how we can join him. This might require that we see other people's points of view and why they think the way they do...or vote the way they do. We humans are so limited in what we can achieve. We think that being a Congressman/Congresswoman or the President of the United States is the most important thing we can do in this life. That is a laughable goal. It would be the same as wanting to be the Pharaoh of Egypt in 2012 or the King of Assyria in 2012. This American Empire will eventually crumble just as those empires did. Eventually all empires will need to make way for the ultimate rule of God in the Kingdom of God anyway..all kings will cast their crowns at His feet.

If we really want to place our "vote" and make it count, it should be a vote for God. We vote with best intentions and even if it seems as if our vote is wasted on a task that led to failure or on a candidate that did not win in relation to other men, we can know that we did the right thing in the long view and this will be a treasure stored up in Heaven for having been obedient to God in the over arching picture.

We as human's think way too small. If our candidate wins or looses we allow it to affect us too much. These candidates are nothing more than pieces on a divine chessboard, remembered today and forgotten tomorrow. Who did FDR compete against in his 1936 election? I'm betting few if any remember because in the long view...it doesn't matter. Place your trust in God and do the right thing when it comes to choices you make in life by always putting God first and you have never wasted your choice or vote! Be dependent on God and always put him at the forefront of very decision and you will never go wrong. When it comes to God, every vote or choice counts as God takes stock of all of them....even if your candidate looses.

For a Christian, it is wise to take the long view...the eternal one, the salvation-based one. Anything else is a pale comparison and amounts to nothing more than a watered-down form of idol worship and distraction from the only One that matters...the One that gains the elect their salvation.

Romans 9:16-23 ~ "It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. For Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden. One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist his will?” But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’” Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use? What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction? What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory— even us whom He also called...