¹ The Lord reigns!
The nations tremble.
He sits enthroned above the cherubim;
the earth shakes.
² The Lord is elevated in Zion;
he is exalted over all the nations.
³ Let them praise your great and awesome name.
He is holy! Psalm 99:1 – 3 NET

Tomorrow is a big day in the United States as it’s citizens go to the polls to elect their next President. No one is certain what the outcome will be. However, regardless what happens tomorrow, for God’s people there will be certain fundamental things that will not change.

My Question Is…

I find myself continually shaking my head at the way Christian people act around the time of an election. So-called “prophets” start proclaiming which candidate is God’s anointed servant for the hour (it gets really interesting when they disagree). Christians of every stripe and color forcast the prosperity or plundering of the nation depending on which candidate is elected. It gets utterly exhausting. My question is, where do you find any justification for acting like this in the Scriptures? We never see Jesus or the apostles acting like this, nor do we find them advocating that we do. We are not the nation of Israel and God is not seeking to install a new king. The early church thrived under a government that persecuted them to the point of feeding them to lions or lighting them on fire as human torches. So why to we get our knickers in such a twist as though the right person in the Oval Office was the key to everything in the nation?

The Right Perspective

Quite some time ago, I wrote a blog post about the perspective we need to keep in mind as God’s people. Here is a quote from that post:

“There is a throne that is firmly established, fixed, and unmovable, in the heavens. The Lord is seated there without rival or equal, reigning in an authority that can never be, and will never be, successfully challenged in any way.”

There is nothing that can undermine this. The kingdoms of men will rise and fall, come and go, but God’s Kingdom will remain. It doesn’t matter who sits in the Oval Office as long as God still sits on the throne. It doesn’t matter if the voice of the church is heard in the halls of government as long as her voice can still be heard in the halls of Heaven! As one saint of another time said, “As long as God still sits on the throne and still answers prayer, everything is going to be all right!” My only response is, “Amen!”

A Beautiful Illustration

E. Stanley Jones was a missionary statesman of international impact. People all over the world were brought into a greater experience in their Christian walk through his insightful preaching and teaching. His devotional books are some of my favorites.

At age 88, Dr. Jones was struck down by a debilitating stroke. It was an event that would have left most men shattered. However, the way Dr. Jones processed it is a vital lesson to us all.

“I had endeavored to be a faithful and humble witness to Christ in every situation. Then suddenly: Bang! I found myself and my future apparently in ruins. My means of locomotion were shattered, and I could not recognize my own voice on a dictaphone. The only hopeful thing said to me was that the brain passages which preside over the intelligence were unaffected. Everything else had been changed.

“But I said to myself, ‘Nothing has changed! I’m still the same person that I was. By prayer, I am still communicating with the same Person. I belong to the same unshakable Kingdom and the same unchanging Person. Nothing has really changed except my means of communication with the outside world.'”*

Nothing had changed for Stanley Jones. His God still reigned, so his life was still intact regardless of what had happened to him physically. Amazing! And regardless what the outcome of Tuesday’s election will be, the ultimate reality will remain that God still reigns as the one true King.

Wednesday Morning

Folks, Wednesday morning the sun will rise just like it always does. People will go about their daily lives just like they always do. God’s mercies will be just as new on Wednesday morning as they were on Tuesday morning or Monday morning. Nothing of ultimate importance will have changed. We will still be God’s people. We will still be the army that advances on its knees. This is the only attitude for those who are living in the Reign.

M

*E. Stanley Jones, The Divine Yes, (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1975), 31 – 32

Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NET) are from the NET Bible® copyright ©1996, 2019 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. http://netbible.com All rights reserved.