Praying, Voting, Remembering
God has established on Earth three ongoing institutions for the physical, moral, and spiritual well being of humanity. These institutions are 1) marriage and family founded in the heterosexual monogamous relationship, 2) civil government, and 3) the New Testament church. Furthermore, God has provided in the Sacred Scriptures, consisting of the Old and New Testaments, the revelation of content which includes divine principles that guide relationships within each of the above institutions (cf. Psalm 19:1-14; 2 Peter 1:2-21; 3:14-16; et al.). Correct thinking results in respect for these institutions and leads to honoring God’s revealed principles that guide and strengthen the institutions (cf. Genesis 2:18-24; Matthew 19:4-12; Ephesians 5:21-6:4; Mark 12:17; Romans 13:1-7; Proverbs 14:34; 29:2; 1 Peter 2:13-17; Matthew 16:13-18; 1 Timothy 3:14-15, et al.).
Presently, however, we are seeing in America agendas which are anti-marriage and family, anti-pro life, anti-law, and anti-true religion. These agendas are weakening the moral and spiritual fibre of the home, civil government, and the church. The first president of the United States, George Washington, called religion and morality the indispensable supports of a nation’s strength. He described these elements as the foundation of the fabric of a nation. Until recently, social scientists of the family recognized the stability and social benefits of the two parent (opposite sex) married household. However, in recent years we have been observing government leaders at the highest level who defend both same-sex marriage and a transgender crisis that is destroying America’s youth. Additionally, a so-called critical race theory rooted in Marxist philosophy is attacking the family, education, and religion. All of the above, and more, grow as moral and spiritual cancers in a culture of death produced by millions of babies killed through the process of abortion.
What Shall We Do? FIRST, WE SHOULD BE PRAYING. The greatest person in human history taught “that men always ought to pray and not lose heart” (Luke 18:1). One of His most influential followers wrote, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7). These powerful words were written by Paul, the apostle of Christ, while he was under house arrest for two years—bound in chains and guarded by the watchful eyes of the Roman palace guard (cf. Acts 28:30-31; Philippians 1:12-14). Following release from this imprisonment, Paul wrote the following:
Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority [all who are in high positions, ESV] . . . For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God, our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. (1 Timothy 2:1-4)
Regardless of mis-guided present-day freedom from religion movements that misrepresent our intrinsic freedom to pray, and to pray publicly, this wonderful freedom is of a certainty evidenced historically by legislative prayer before, during, and throughout the founding and ongoing of the American republic. As James P. Moore, Jr., in his definitive book, One Nation Under God: The History of Prayer in America, says, “To dismiss prayer in the life of America is to embark on a fool’s errand. Prayer has been and always will be an integral part of the nation’s character . . . a subject that must be explored in far greater depth if anyone is to understand the people who have made the United States what it is today and what it will be tomorrow” (xxii).
Prayers on behalf of civil government authorities are not only for “all who are in authority” but such prayers are also on behalf of private citizens to the end “that we may lead a quite [tranquil] and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence” (1 Timothy 2:2).
What Shall We Do? SECOND, WE SHOULD BE VOTING. Those of us who live in America have been blessed to live in a nation with a government process that allows us to have a voice. We, the People, choose those who represent us. This government is of the people, by the people, and for the people! We may think our voice is only one voice, but history reveals the fact that one voice can make a significant difference when it comes to the destiny of families, nations, and churches. Noah was only one in the midst of a generation described as corrupt and violent (cf. Genesis 9:11-13). However, his willingness to live and preach righteousness saved him and his family (cf. 2 Peter 2:5). Esther was only one, but she spoke up with courage that said “If I perish, I perish.” Her courage conjoined with the providence of God saved her nation.
The society in which you and I live is in deep trouble. Various historians and philosophers have noted that when past civilizations have reached the present moral condition of our nation they eventually collapsed. Those of us who understand and respect biblical teaching, and appreciate the freedoms we have enjoyed, should be alarmed when we give thought to the future of our society in light of the present state of affairs morally and spiritually.
The salt of the Earth and the light of the world needs to be in the voting booths of America (cf. Matthew 5:12-16)! If there ever has been a need for Christians to live right and speak up for right, it is NOW! Regardless of the price we pay, let us make our voices heard. Regardless of whatever this honorable price must be, even if it be death, let us never shrink from our duty—yes, our privilege—to speak up for truth and right! Say nothing, and we will give victory to evil without a contest.
This is a year in which major decisions will be made that will affect millions in our country. Let your voice be heard. VOTE! Speak up, Christian, before it is too late. Your vote should say you care about the shape of the future, because you support policies that are in harmony with biblical teaching that will strengthen the home, civil government and the church. You are voting to limit the influence of agendas that are evil morally and spiritually. This is not about personalities. This is about biblical worldview principles.
What Shall We do? THIRD, WE SHOULD BE REMEMBERING. We should remember great Bible texts that help us keep things that matter most in proper perspective—our mental view, vision, and outlook. For example, remember the text of Isaiah 40, perhaps one of the greatest descriptions of God to be found anywhere. Isaiah wrote,
Behold, the nations are as a drop in a bucket, and are counted as the small dust on the scales. . . . All nations before Him are as nothing, and they are counted by Him less than nothing and worthless. . . . He brings the princes to nothing; He makes the judges of the earth useless. Scarcely shall they be planted, Scarcely shall they be sown, Scarcely shall their stock take root in the earth, when He will also blow on them, and they will wither, and the whirlwinds will take them away like the stubble. . . . He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, but those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:15, 17, 23-24, 29-31)
We are praying. We are voting. We are remembering God is in control. We remember the affirmation of Daniel: “This decision is by the decree of the watchers, and the sentence by the word of the holy ones, in order that the living may know that the MOST HIGH rules in the kingdom of men, gives it to whomever He will, and sets over it the lowest of men” (4:17; cf. 4:24, 26, 31). Thus, we remember: “Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord, or as His counselor has taught Him? With whom did He take counsel, and who instructed Him, and taught Him in the path of justice? Who taught Him knowledge, and showed Him the way of understanding?” (Isaiah 40:13-14).
I am reminded of the Cambridge historian Herbert Butterfield (1900-1979) who wrote about how the details of the “wars, and the revolutions and overturns” of the 1940s “made us feel sometimes that the civilized world was dissolving around us. The overthrow of a customary order of things . . . a younger generation under conditions that give them no chance to grow up into the values of a civilized world in the way we grew up into them . . .” (Christianity and History, 139). As Butterfield concluded his volume based on a series of seven lectures he had delivered at the request of the Divinity Faculty at the University of Cambridge in 1948, he said,
Christianity is not tied to regimes—not compelled to regard the existing order as the very end of life and the embodiment of all our values. . . . I have nothing to say at the finish except that if one wants a permanent rock in life and goes deep enough for it, it is difficult for historical events to shake it. . . . [R]emember a principle which both gives us a firm Rock and leaves us the maximum elasticity for our minds: the principle: Hold to Christ, and for the rest be totally uncommitted. (145-46)
“Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).