This past Wednesday evening I combined my class with the one that our Minister Phil Barnes normally teaches for a period of reflection and spiritual re-focusing. The purpose was not to rehash the election; no one needed more of that. We needed a time of healing and reassurance. This election like no other I have experienced was a mini-Civil War. What is even sadder is that that spirit spilled over into the Church. While I didn’t see this spirit so much at Madison, I knew it was happening in the Blog world and through social networking sites. Brother attacking brother, harsh words and in some cases an unloving spirit emerged.
Knowing tensions were high I though it might be good to just spend time talking about what we were feeling and then look at the scriptures that speak of God’s Sovereign Control in the affairs of men. As we began I ask folks to give me one word that described how they were feeling. Words like, fearful, anxious, frustrated began to come forth, just to mention a few. It was obvious that we were on target.
In times of uncertainty we need the reassurance from our Father that it is going to be alright. I remember the times when I was fearful as a child, that is was the knowledge that my earth Father had always been there for us that gave me assurance that everything was going to be ok. How much more do we need that same assurance from out Abba Father . The assurance that comes is not necessarily the removal of the challenge, obstacle or the event that has caused the concern. It is the knowledge that we are not alone and that what is happening has not some how escaped His knowledge. The Christians in New Testament times were not taken out of harms way, they were given the assurance that they would not go through the challenge alone.
And so regardless of whether you are elated or anxious about how the recent election turned out, we must accept the profound truth expressed by King Nebuchadnezzar after he returned to his senses and from a period of time living like an animal because he did not give honor and glory to the God of Heaven.
At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation; all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?” Daniel 4:34-35
Nor should we ever forget the powerful truth expressed by Jesus to Pilot in John 19:11, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above”.
Rabboni...which is to say, Master 