I absolutely hate politics. I do talk about many things that many people see as political issues. However, I do not see them as political issues. I see them as spiritual issues and I approach them from that prospective. I do my best to preach and teach God’s Word and I then leave it to the reader or hearer to draw their own political conclusions, based on the Word of God . My allegiance is to God and my hope is found in Him. My allegiance is not given to and my hope is not found in a particular politician or political party. I believe that most of the problems that we face as a nation are spiritual, not political, in nature. We do have a very big political mess on our hands but that is a symptom, not the problem. If we address the spiritual problems, then the political symptoms will eventually solve themselves. If we do not solve the spiritual problems, if we do not seek and see revival, then things will only get worse. I think that concentrating too much on the political symptoms, as we tend to do, distracts us from focusing on actually fixing the spiritual problems.
For these reasons, I very rarely say anything about who I vote for in presidential or any other elections. However, I think there are some things currently going on in the Christian Church which badly need to be directly addressed and doing so requires going more into the political side of things than I normally do. So, here we go.
I voted for Donald Trump, in both 2016 and 2020. Was President Trump a perfect president? Certainly not. I think there were some things that he could have and should have handled much better. However, as I have said, my ultimate allegiance is to God and the things that He has communicated to us through His Word. I believe that there are a number of issues concerning which Donald Trump’s beliefs and actions align with Scripture much more closely than do Kamala Harris’ beliefs and actions. Because of this, I voted for Donald Trump previously and I will do so again in the election of 2024.
The election of former president Donald Trump, as the next president, seems pretty likely, doesn’t it? That’s a good thing, isn’t it? Yes, probably so, but we must be very careful about our attitude concerning him.
I have a question for the followers of Christ. Who do you really trust to help and take care of you? Is it God? Try to answer honestly.
Consider these thoughts and these verses.
God is our helper.
Psalm 121
1 I will lift up my eyes to the hills— From whence comes my help?
2 My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth.
3 He will not allow your foot to be moved; He who keeps you will not slumber.
4 Behold, He who keeps Israel Shall neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The Lord is your keeper; The Lord is your shade at your right hand.
6 The sun shall not strike you by day, Nor the moon by night.
7 The Lord shall preserve you from all evil; He shall preserve your soul.
8 The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in From this time forth, and even forevermore.
Isaiah 41
10 Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.
God is our provider.
Matthew 6
25 “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?
26 Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
27 Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?
28 “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin;
29 and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
30 Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
31 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’
32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.
33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
Even when we don’t understand how, God will work out everything for our good in the end.
Romans 8
28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.
The above Scripture tells us that God is our helper, our provider, the one who takes care of us and insures that everything will be OK. Not any man, not any woman, but God. Do we trust Him to do that? Most of us would reflexively say “yes” but do we really? What do our actions and attitudes say about how we really feel? Do we fully trust Him or do we only trust Him to take care of us when He does it in the way that we would like, by using the people who make sense to us? It is tempting to project our way of thinking onto God. Too often, I find myself doing that. However, we must remember that Isaiah 55:8 tells us that God doesn’t think the same way we think.
Here’s my point. Many Christians plan to vote for Donald Trump. So do I. Many of them believe that he is the candidate that God would have be our next president. So do I. However, as Christians, our allegiance must not be given to and our hope cannot be found in a particular politician or political party. We must remember that our hope is in Jesus the Christ, not Donald Trump. If Donald Trump is our next president and he does do good things for us, then those good things are from God, as all truly good things come from Him (James 1:17). If Donald Trump is not our next president, then God can do what He wishes, through whom He wishes. I think that most Christians would probably agree with that, at least superficially, but, for many of us, I think that Truth needs to make its way from our head to our heart. I think many of us need to spend some time getting in His Word and praying about that. Most of us mean well but Moses’ brother, Aaron, meant well too. However, we saw how God reacted when he made an idol for the children of Israel to worship (Exodus 32). Let’s take a look at that.
This is a very long story. In order to get the full picture, you need to read Exodus chapters 10 through 33 but here’s a quick summary. Moses, led and empowered by God, had just led the children of Israel out of bondage in Egypt. Moses had gone up on Mount Sinai, to talk to God, and had left his brother, Aaron, in charge in his absence. Moses was receiving the Ten Commandments, instructions for building the Ark of the Covenant and Tabernacle, instructions for the consecration of priests, and other things. All this took a while. Moses was gone for 40 days. The children of Israel were worried that he had been killed or something else had happened to him, that he wasn’t coming back. Rather than trusting God and patiently waiting on Moses to come and give them Word from God concerning what to do and how to worship Him, they asked Aaron to make an idol for them to worship, something God had already told them never to do, and Aaron did. This made God very angry. As punishment, He ordered that many of the Israelites be killed. God also told them that He, himself, would not go with them on the rest of their journey to the Promised Land and that He would, instead, send an angel to take care of them, lest He, remaining in their midst, become so angry that He destroy them all.
Regardless of good intentions, God doesn’t do idols. Be careful that Donald Trump doesn’t become your idol. God may have spared Donald Trump’s life. God may work through Donald Trump to help to bring this country back onto the track He would have it be on, to start to bring healing, to begin to solve some of our problems. However, as I’ve said, I believe that most of the problems that we face as a nation are spiritual, not political, in nature. We do have a very big political mess on our hands but that is a symptom, not the problem. If we address the spiritual problems, then the political symptoms will eventually solve themselves. You know Who solves spiritual problems? God does! He is the only One Who does! Sometimes He works through us, in order to do it, and He very well may work through Donald Trump. However, make no mistake, if it gets done, it will be God Who will do it and He will share His glory with no one (Isaiah 42:8). We must ultimately look to Him, and not to any man or woman.
Just some things to think about, as we approach the presidential election of 2024.
