Do you plan to vote, or have you already voted? I have. If you did why did you vote? How did you make your decision on who to vote for? What factors do you consider? Do you consider only economies? Do you consider only social issues? Do you consider the character of the person you are voting for? Do you consider their political party affiliation? Let me tell you what God has told me about how change bring hope.
I have thought about this a lot for many years. I spent many years working to encourage pastors and churches to vote. I did this because of 1Timothy 2;1-6, “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, 2 for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. 3 This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man[a] Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.” (ESV) So my thinking went like this. God wants us to pray for our leaders. Well in those days the people did not choose their leaders so for the same reasons that we should pray for them should apply when we get to choose them. So the logic goes like this by choosing God fearing leaders helps us to be able to live a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. Try that in Russia or China. Secondly and more importantly it is good and pleasing to God Last it allows us to share the Gospel more easily.
The other point I have learned is that God uses His People to accomplish His purposes. He has used murderers, Moses and David, He used a prostitute, Rahab. He used an adulterer, David. He used a Christian persecutor, Saul who was renamed Paul. Genesis 1:26 confirms this conclusion, “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”’ (ESV) Romans 14:8 proclaims that we belong to God we are not our own. “For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.” (ESV)
Romans 13, Daniel 4 make it clear that it is ultimately God who chooses our leaders, but I have found that He chooses leaders based on what His people might deserve. One of the most quoted scriptures by people who are lost and rudderless is Jerimiah 29:11, “ For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare[b] and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” (ESV) I love this verse, but I have been careful to understand it in its context. Jeremiah 29:10 says, “For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place.” (ESV) The context of Jeremiah 29:11 is verse 10. This promise was given to Israel after God chose to use Babylon to give Israel a course correction. I want to avoid a course correction and therefore I choose to vote. Hoping that others who believe like I do will do the same and we will avoid any further course correction. So, by voting for the imperfect person just maybe God will give me what I want instead of what I deserve, this brings me hope. Pastor Troy Dobbs from Grace Church Eden Prairie gave a great message on this a few weeks ago.
I pray that you vote in this election because I believe that God wants you to vote because as I have said God uses His people to accomplish His will sometimes. Let God use you because you are His to do with as He pleases. I have found that when I choose my candidates based only on how well their policies and their party’s policies line up with Scripture. Most importantly we all need to understand that “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” Romans 5:8 (ESV) It is this forgiveness that brings me hope and it is in granting others forgiveness we know for certain that we too are forgiven. The knowledge of being forgiven brings me hope. Remember though that all sin is forgivable except the sin of unbelief in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ on the cross satisfied the penalty for my sins and yours as well. It satisfied all my sins from the past, in the present, and in the future. My penalty and yours were satisfied on the cross by the death of Jesus, God’s greatest act of love and wrath, who became sin for me and you. It was also God’s greatest act of faithfulness because “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8 (ESV) Because wisdom shows us, we need to believe in Jesus. I hope that you join me in helping others to choose Jesus.
If you have not read my previous blogs, you can find them here. You can watch a book trailer about my book. You can find my book, Hope Amid Hopelessness: Our Abba Father Provides a Way Through Mental Illness here. eBook or Audiobook versions can be found at Westbow Press
