“It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes” (Psalm 118:8-9).
It is finally over, a grueling election season that seems like it has lasted for years instead of months. Along the way we were told by most candidates that their opposition was kin to the devil himself and that if they were elected, they would usher in the end of the United States of America.
I am now old enough to have witnessed at least seventeen presidential elections and at least as many mid-term elections. Along the way we have survived the elections of both Democrats and Republicans. Most recently however, it seems as if we have lost both the grace of civility and the art of compromise, which has made this nation and its two-party system work.
The divisions in the political realm have never been greater, the discourse never more shrill than today. Legislation today is not hammered out at the negotiating table where all parties are more concerned about the good of our nation than the prosperity of their own party or their own personal political agendas. As a result, we now live in a very divided nation. My heart aches when I see and hear the vitriol that passes between individuals who happen to be on the other side of the political divide.
Almighty God oversees the affairs of men and when we cannot together find the needed wisdom and answers in a given moment, we must together turn to Him.
During the Constitutional Convention of 1789, when a log jam of different options had brought progress to a halt, Benjamin Franklin rose and said, “I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth, that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid. We have been assured, Sir, in the Sacred Writings, that except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it” (Psalm 127:1).
“We shall be divided by our little partial local interests; our projects will be confounded; and we ourselves shall become a reproach and by-word down to future ages...I therefore beg leave to move — that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessings on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business, and that one or more of the clergy of this city be requested to officiate in that service."
Following Franklin’s words, the members went across the street to a church for a time of prayer, in which they sought the wisdom that comes from above. And from that day on, each session of the convention began with prayer until their job was complete.
We place all too much confidence in party and candidates. The men and women who make up and hold our elected offices are just that, men and women, finite men and women. Only under the Divine guidance of Almighty God can divisions be mended, suspicions cooled, and personal agendas die.
Do you desire healing for our land? So do I. The key is in the hands of the Children of God, the key is prayer. “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves and pray, seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, from heaven will I hear them, forgive their sins and heal their land” (II Chronicles 7:14).
“Some trust in chariots and some in horses (might and power), but we will trust in the name of the Lord our God” (Psalm 20:7).
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