Politics & Faith

This election year is really taking a toll on me. I get so overwhelmed thinking about what the future could bring and how the morality & philosophies of this county are quickly spiraling downward. I fear what changes this election could bring as I see very little chance of any changes being for the better. And although it has blown me away that so many Christians seem to think that the faith of the candidates is fairly irrelevant in choosing who should be leading us...I recently realized that I, myself, was not seeing clearly what an important role faith plays in this election. But it is NOT the faith of the candidates that is the issue here...it's mine. This election is not solely in the hands of the voters. And my hope for our people should not rest in whether a certain person gets elected or not elected...my hope & my faith should remain in Christ alone. God's will indeed shall prevail even if he allows an ungodly person to win. God has placed me and my family here during this time in history for a purpose and even if we as a nation are plunged more quickly into wickedness. I know that He is my savior and that His time will eventually come and that I will have the privilege to stand with Him. I have nothing to fear. My faith is not in man but in Christ. Today in Church we were studying the last chapter of Acts where Paul, as a prisoner, gets shipwrecked on an island & bitten by a poisonous snake...but in all those "bad" things it was God's will that prevailed for His purposes. The soldiers planned to kill the prisoners...God didn't let it happen. The locals normally would kill but instead they help them. Paul gets bitten by a poisonous snake and all the locals thought he was going to die...he lives. And to top it all off, as a result of all of these things happening...the people of Malta get to hear about Jesus and are converted! Paul was a prisoner because his own people were rejecting the message of Jesus that he preached but Paul's faith for his people never faltered...he still had hope for them. In Acts 28:10, Paul says that it is "for the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain." If it should ever come to that for us as Christians in this country, I want to be able to say that my suffering is for the hope of the unbelievers. Because as long as Christ has not returned there is still hope for them. So as this election continues and I cast my vote for the person I feel is better suited to the presidency, I will be keeping in my mind the words to the song we sang in church this morning that inspired this blog, "In Christ Alone, my hope is found. He is my light, my strength, my song: this Cornerstone, this Solid Ground firm through the fiercest drought and storm. What heights of love, what depths of peace, when fears are stilled, when strivings cease. My Comforter, my All in All, here in the love of Christ I stand.In Christ alone, Who took on flesh,
Fullness of God in helpless babe!
This gift of love and righteousness,
Scorned by the ones He came to save.
Till on that cross as Jesus died,
The wrath of God was satisfied;
For ev'ry sin on Him was laid—
Here in the death of Christ I live.

There in the ground His body lay,
Light of the world by darkness slain;
Then bursting forth in glorious day,
Up from the grave He rose again!
And as He stands in victory,
Sin's curse has lost its grip on me;
For I am His and He is mine—
Bought with the precious blood of Christ.

No guilt in life, no fear in death—
This is the pow'r of Christ in me;
From life's first cry to final breath,
Jesus commands my destiny.
No pow'r of hell, no scheme of man,
Can ever pluck me from His hand;
Till He returns or calls me home—
Here in the pow'r of Christ I'll stand."