The Sun Will Come Out...

In Psalm 46, we can see a passage that testifies to the greatness of our God:

7 The Lord of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah
8 Come, behold the works of the Lord, Who has made desolations in the earth.
9 He makes wars cease to the end of the earth; He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two; He burns the chariot in the fire.
10 Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!

What a wonderful, majestic God we serve.  We can be confident in His control.  We can ponder His power and realize that He reigns.  He has a plan and a purpose, and we can participate in that plan through the selection of our governmental leaders.  We are called to submit to our governmental authorities, but our ultimate surrender is to God and God alone.  We do not look to governments to save us, but to our Savior Who does all things well.

+++++

We read in Psalm 22 about the supremacy of God over all the nations, including our nation:
25 My praise shall be of You in the great assembly; I will pay My vows before those who fear Him.
26 The poor shall eat and be satisfied; Those who seek Him will praise the Lord. Let your heart live forever!
27 All the ends of the world Shall remember and turn to the Lord, And all the families of the nations Shall worship before You.
28 For the kingdom is the Lord's, And He rules over the nations.

That last verse is used in a recent post from Max Lucado, from which I will quote a bit later.

Can you believe it?  November 8th has come - and you know, tomorrow will come as well, unless Jesus decides to come for His church sometime today.  There are polls and predictions, prognostication and punditry.   Everybody thinks they know what will happen; and nobody really does.   The only things we as believers can do today regarding the election is pray and vote.

And, tomorrow - when we wake up, it's highly possible that we will know who will be our next President.  Most of the composition of the U.S. Senate will be decided.  But, there is something that is more certain, and Max Lucado hit on it in a column he wrote several weeks ago.  He wrote:

I have a prediction. I know exactly what November 9 will bring. Another day of God’s perfect sovereignty. He will still be in charge. His throne will still be occupied. He will still manage the affairs of the world. Never before has His providence depended on a king, president, or ruler. And it won’t on November 9, 2016. “The LORD can control a king’s mind as he controls a river; he can direct it as he pleases” (Proverbs 21:1 NCV).

He cites several examples.  He says: "On one occasion the Lord turned the heart of the King of Assyria so that he aided them in the construction of the Temple."  That's according to Ezra 6:22. He continues, "On another occasion, he stirred the heart of Cyrus to release the Jews to return to Jerusalem."  You see that in Ezra 1:1.  Max Lucado also points out, "Nebuchadnezzar was considered to be the mightiest king of his generation. But God humbled and put him in 'detention' for seven years." That's from Daniel 4, verses 28-34. He quotes Psalms 22:28: “The kingdom is the Lord’s, and He rules over the nations." He goes on:

Understanding God’s sovereignty over the nations opens the door to peace. When we realize that God influences the hearts of all rulers, we can then choose to pray for them rather than fret about them. Rather than wring our hands we bend our knees, we select prayer over despair.

Beth Moore wrote this:

We cast our votes prayerfully. Carefully. We plead for wisdom. But the church of Jesus Christ doesn’t rise or fall on the fleshy back an election.

We have our God. He has His people. And we are not a few. We don’t even have to fully agree with one another to be a colossal force for the gospel. All we have to do is agree with God that nothing is too difficult for Him and that no amount of mortal elbow grease can back His throne into a corner. He cannot be overruled. And it is He alone – I cannot say this loudly enough – it is He alone who truly loves the world. To think we care more than He does is remarkable hubris.

Whatever happens in November, the responsibility for the gospel is coming back to us. It’s not the government’s job. Seed spreads best ground level. We are only as powerless as our passivity. We still have voices to raise at deafening volume for the vulnerable. We still have knees to drop in contrition and desperate need for intervention...

So, we vote - and I would say vote for the candidates who best represent your deeply-held Biblical values.  Keep in mind, as Franklin Graham has written, which we find on the BillyGraham.org website:

...But I have hope—not in the Republican Party, nor in the Democratic Party, but in Almighty God. Our trust can’t be in men or princes or presidents or courts, but in a Sovereign God whose blessing has been poured out upon our land in so many ways.

That’s why I’ve spent this entire year going to all 50 state capitals for our Decision America Tour, calling on God’s people to spend time in prayer and confession, seeking God’s face for His mercy and healing upon our land. More than 200,000 people have come to call on the Lord and intercede for our troubled nation.

I believe that God hears and answers prayer, and I know that His hand is not so short that He cannot save. There are still millions of fervent Christians across America who care for their country and who can make a profound difference on Tuesday.

He continued:

Christians are called upon to “seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you” (Jeremiah 29:7). This means believers should engage and be involved in earthly matters of government and politics, working for the good of their communities.

So when you go to the polls on Tuesday, I urge you to cast your ballot for those who will protect the religious liberties of Americans, who will defend the traditional definition of marriage between one man and one woman, who will appoint conservative judges who will protect our fundamental, constitutional rights, who will defend the right of the unborn, and who will listen to the voices of men and women who love their God and their country.

So we vote, we participate, and we pray for God to bless and use the results for His purposes. Things will change tomorrow, electorally speaking, but our God never changes.  The sun will rise tomorrow morning, and we can be assured that God is still on the throne, He reigns and will reign forevermore.

So for those that have already voted, we now await the results and look forward to having a Christ-centered mindset for the days to come.  For those who have not voted, you can be encouraged to cast your ballot as an act of worship, confident in God's direction for you, then allow the Lord to shape your viewpoint as you process the results.  And, for all of us, we can be confident of God's hand on the Church to be the true change agents in our culture.