No Matter Who's Elected, Christ is Still King

Today was a very productive, restful day. I worked on my business, read some out of Delighting in the Trinity (which, btw, is a book you should read), visited with my host family, filled out my voting ballot, ate dinner, listened to music and a few podcasts, etc.

'Ok Paul, we're all thrilled that you had a great day. But this isn't Instagram, go post photos of your food elsewhere' I can hear you saying. Or maybe you're not. But either way, I do indeed have a grander purpose in telling you all of this.

I'm not pleased with the two front-runners, not one bit, and the funny thing is, I don't think 80% of America really is either. And while I won't be voting for either of them, I think it's a safe assumption to say that we'll either have a power-hungry criminal or a power-hungry business man as our next commander in chief. But that said, Christ reigns. Right here, right now. He's not 'going' to be in charge one day, He won't take control of the planet sometime in the future, He's exercising his authority right now. Even over who is elected president of the US on November 8th.

And it's because Christ is at the right hand of God that I can go about my day today and not fret about tomorrow (Matt 6:34). Does this mean that tomorrow will necessarily be more comfortable than today? Absolutely not. We may experience persecution like America hasn't ever seen, we might see religious liberty curtailed and marginalized. We might see the rounding up of our weapons, abolishment of the 1st and 2nd amendments, it might turn into hell on earth. But we need not fear.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating inaction or passivity We've been given the responsibility to not just vote, but to speak out, to get involved, to influence. We cannot abandon those duties, those privileges, to the hyper-calvinistic fatalism of 'well God's in control, so what can I do?' God is sovereign, but we are responsible to act.

The true King is still on his throne. I love Psalm 37, the whole chapter's so good, but the heart of it is Psalm 37:4-12. I know it's a long section, but I entreat you to read it and let it's truth sink in:

"Trust in the Lord, and do good;
 dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.
 Delight yourself in the Lord,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.
 Commit your way to the Lord;
 trust in him, and he will act.
 He will bring forth your righteousness as the light,
and your justice as the noonday.
 Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him;
 fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way,
over the man who carries out evil devices!
 Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath!
 Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil.
 For the evildoers shall be cut off,
but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land.
 In just a little while, the wicked will be no more;
though you look carefully at his place, he will not be there.
 But the meek shall inherit the land
and delight themselves in abundant peace.
 The wicked plots against the righteous
and gnashes his teeth at him,
 but the Lord laughs at the wicked,
for he sees that his day is coming."

And if we need further reassurance that He is ruling now, Daniel 2:21 tells us "He changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings; he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding." 

Brothers, sisters, friends, whatever happens, whoever gains office, wherever the nation goes, I encourage you, trust God. Love God. Know that He loves us, and has our best in mind. "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear." (1 John 4:18). For those of you who know me well (you know who you are. :) ), you'll know that I'm preaching to myself here more than anything. I have fretted, I have feared, I have wrung my hands over the direction our country is taking (and a million other things). But I've been encouraged as of late by fellowship with my brothers and sisters in Christ, and by reading the Word, meditating on the truth that though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we need fear no evil.

I'll leave you with this one thought, an excerpt from R.C. Sproul's Podcast, Jesus Changes Everything, because he said it better than I ever could.

"And so my hope and my prayer is that as you go to bed tonight and await the election results tomorrow, that you will never lose sight of the fact that Jesus Christ reigns. That Jesus Christ has given us the leader that He’s chosen for us for His glory and the good of His people. We may be chastened, we may be persecuted, we may be driven into the coliseums like our fathers before us, for sport. I don’t know what the future holds. What I do know is that Jesus holds the future."