Well, it’s over, and I must confess that I was vastly disappointed with the results. I prayed for the most conservative candidate, and for the first time in my life, I even donated a small sum to a presidential campaign (which I will probably never do again).
Why did I do it?
Well, first let me say that I don’t think Mitt Romney is perfect, and he certainly wasn’t my ideal candidate. He was a Mormon, which I roundly reject. He wasn’t as conservative as I’d hoped on some issues, and a few other minor things.
However, I feel like it is a Christian’s obligation to look at each candidate and ask, “Who is the MOST right, and who has the potential to lead the country in a better direction (both morally and economically).”
I felt that of the two, it was Mitt Romney by a long shot.
Unfortunately, he didn’t win. Bummer.
It seems the majority of people in this country want to head towards socialism. The liberals campaigned on immorality and sin. They cleverly used some of the oldest sins in the book (covetousness—ie, “the rich owe me something for nothing”) to lead the masses against conservatives. They also played the race card in some of the most despicable ways I’ve ever seen it played in my life, and appealed to the immoral views of society (abortion, gay marriage, etc.).
How Should Christians Feel When The Election Doesn’t Go Our Way?
I feel like many people across the country who supported Mitt must have been depressed and frustrated for a time. I know I was, and many good Christians I know were a little disappointed.
However, we must not stay in this state of frustration. God is sovereign, and He is working out His will even when things don’t go so well. Ultimately we need to realize that God is in control, and when things aren’t going well, it may all be a part of His ultimate plan.
America was the real loser on election day, not Mitt Romney. The election is nothing more than a giant mirror which reflects the morality and views of the general public. The public, unfortunately, is starting to sour. It isn’t the first time in history this has happened, and it is far from over. It will get worse.
How the general public can support things like gay marriage, abortion (murdering of children in the womb), and other issues just blows my mind. They have gone so crazy with the “tolerance” movement, that now in many locations a man can claim to be “transgendered,” dress like a woman, and walk right into a public bathroom for women and expose his genetalia in front of women or even little children while using the bathroom. Wickedness!
Perhaps Satan is finally reaping his fruit from the bombarding of sin across the board from the television, movies, and entertainment industry, the secularization of our schools and brainwashing of our children, and the powerful lies given by the mainstream media (which I refer to as the False Prophet).
Yes, it is quite frustrating and depressing—but after all, isn’t this exactly what the Bible predicts? Isn’t the world going to continue to get corrupt, pave the way for the Antichrist, and then end with the Messiah coming back to claim His throne? Of course.
This is the way it is supposed to happen, but nevertheless, it is a bit frustrating living it out and experiencing it.
How To Recharge Your Batteries
When the election was over, I was so drained! My wife and I had watched every debate with enthusiasm. I thought surely after the spectacle of Obama’s first debate, and then Joe Biden’s rude behavior, plus the excellent campaign and debate performance by Mitt, plus his business experience, plus the bad economy, the scandals (fast and furious, Benghazi, Obamacare, etc)—that surely Mitt would win.
A lot of polls even confirmed it. Mitt himself felt like he had it in the bag, and according to many sources, didn’t even have a concession speech prepared. Nevertheless, he lost.
All of this left me feeling frustrated, but thankfully God led me to some AMAZING resources that lifted my spirits right back up, and put the spring back in my step. In fact, I didn’t waste more than a few hours feeling down, and God had me recharged back up.
One great resource was an article (or sermon) written by the great ‘Prince of Preachers’ Charles Spurgeon. The article has to do with God’s Providence. Ultimately, many times things happen that we don’t understand, but God is working all things together for the good of His children. This article was very good in that it reminded me that we need to trust God totally even when things make no sense at all.
Another wonderful resource that greatly helped me get back in a great mood was a sermon by the late Dr. Adrian Rogers titled, “Don’t Let an Election Steal Your Song.” The sermon is still free to listen to for a time, and I’d highly recommend you listen, or even consider buying the MP3 if you don’t catch it in time.
In that sermon, Adrian points out that Habakkuk was also wondering why such wickedness was going on in his time. God answers him, and essentially says that he has heard his prayer and he is raising up a nation to punish Israel. As Adrian put it, “God made a rod, punished Israel with the rod, and then broke the rod when He was finished.” Awesome sermon!
If you find yourself praying that God will do something about this immorality, be careful!! He may do just that in a way you could never have imagined. Sometimes the only way to get through to a stiff-necked and stubborn people is to bring enormous suffering to them to break down their pride.
Pride is one of the hardest sins to overcome, and it is one of the worst sins you can commit. Pride is what made a beautiful angel turn into a devil (Satan). Pride is the sin many “secular bloggers” suffer from, choosing to trust in man’s wisdom over God’s wisdom.
Pride has permeated this nation. People don’t want to hear God’s word, they want to hear man’s word. They don’t want to hear God’s commands on how to live our lives, they want to live them as they please. When a hurricane strikes, they don’t repent—they blame global warming.
Many people today would gladly allow for little babies to be butchered in the womb so long as they get a cut from uncle Sam in the form of food stamps or social security. They are modern day Judas Iscariot, selling out God for 30 pieces of food stamps and government welfare. They’d give up their freedom to live on foodstamps, or sign up their overall rights to gain gay rights.
Instead of relying on God to meet their needs, they rely on the government. Instead of repenting for their sins, they pop a xanax or take pain killers to ease the anxiety.
How Christians Should Treat the President
Like it or not, Obama is our president for 4 more years. As Christians, we have a mandate from God concerning our leaders, including:
“Do not blaspheme God or curse the ruler of your people.” (Exodus 22:28)
and
“Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.” (Romans 13:1)
These two verses tell us that we should not speak evil of Obama. Yes, we can speak out against wicked laws or policies. Many of the prophets did the same thing, and I’d go as far as to say God even ordains us to be the conscience of our leaders and to hold them accountable to His laws.
But we must NEVER disrespect him directly or speak evil of him personally. This is an area I have certainly fallen short in the past, which was a sin for sure. However, we must not allow ourselves to do this, as I see many conservatives falling victim of this sin in the comments on conservative news blogs.
Secondly, we must remember that God, for reasons we may not understand now, has ordained this presidency. It may be to punish our country for sin. It may be to usher in the end of times soon. Or Perhaps God will break our economy and punish us that way. We do not know. But we must recognize the authority of our government, and obey it in all things that do not contradict God’s laws and commands.
That means paying your taxes, and so forth. You may only disobey government if they force you to directly go against God’s command (ie, if they made a law to stop sharing the gospel, we may disobey that law).
Finally, we need to pray like never before. Pray for Obama. Pray for our country. Pray for the lost to be saved.
How to Win America Back
The last bit of advice I would say is this: Elections, in the grand scheme of life, don’t really matter anyway. Making a law against abortion will not stop all women from killing children. It just deters some of them. Making laws against gay marriage will not stop homosexuality, it just prevents its recognition on a national scale.
If we really want to change America, we need a different strategy.
Politics attempts to change things from the outside-in. God works to change things from the inside-out.
We need to change the hearts of America if we want to change the course of America. If we want to elect Godly leaders, we must change the hearts of voters so they can recognize a righteous leader.
If we want a Christian nation, we must work to win people over to Christ by letting the Holy Spirit work in us and through us.
One thing that really struck me during the peak of the election was this: People everywhere were going to rallies, putting on bumper stickers, calling homes, donating funds, putting signs in their yards, and having discussions to win people over to one party or another.
What if we could do the same thing, with the same level of participation and enthusiasm, only make it 100% about God?
What if Christians everywhere started to put signs in their yards with a gospel message saying, “I’m saved by the blood of Jesus.” What if we hastened to call people’s homes and share the gospel in an enthusiastic way?
What if we all put bumper stickers on our cars for Christ? What if we all committed to knock on a few doors?
What if Christians who don’t tithe now decided to give 10% of their income to start dominating the airwaves with messages of repentance and salvation?
What if all of the Christians in America made a commitment that no matter what, we’d work day and night until we got at least X number of people to know about Jesus in 2013?
What if every celebrity came out and endorsed Jesus Christ as their savior, boldly and unashamedly?
I suspect there would be a mass revival in America. It may not happen overnight. It may take a year, two years, a decade. But if we did it, I think it could work–God willing.
Let us pray that God sends His mighty Spirit to all of us, to empower us to do His work.
Stay positive, and keep fighting the good fight!