American Presidents

Scripture

Our verse for today comes from Proverbs 19:5, ” A false witness will not go unpunished, and he who speaks lies will not escape. “

Background

On this election day, let’s at least all agree on this one thing, and that is that four years from now, we will be living in a very different America. When we go to the polls to elect another national leader, our country will not be better than it is right now in so many ways. Regardless of who wins the presidential election, or who gets chosen by the House of Representatives upon the rare chance that no candidate reaches 270 electoral votes, we citizens may very well be sadder but wiser when we go to choose our next president. Over these next four years, many will become living proof of the adage, ” Be careful what you ask for. ” Others will relish in the direction our country is going and will do all they can to continue its downward spiral. But suffice it to say, anyone who’s head is not buried in the sand these next few years will look back to today with crystal clear, 20-20 vision, and understand how we got to where we are. But we are here today, at another in a long line of starting lines, with candidates promising things that they can never produce, while simultaneously embarking on journeys and causes that will end where they could not have imagined. There have no doubt been seasons where our nation has gone virtually unchanged and unaffected by its leadership. I am far too inferior to convey which were those political administrations, but with so many leaders serving over 225 years, there were bound to be times of stagnation and apathy.

Application

This is not one of those times. As followers of Christ, we’ve heard over and over how God is in control and our hope is not in any election or leader. We know that tomorrow’s results are already written. But we don’t know what God will do with them, nor how we each will be affected. As humans, we respond each according to his own design, and I have no original thoughts regarding the need to trust the Lord. But what would God do if the supposed 90 million evangelical American Christians prayed daily for whoever lives in the White House? Would He turn a deaf ear to that?

Charge

As we seek Him today, cast your future on God as you commit to actively pray for our leaders, whoever he or she may be.