It is the week before election Tuesday. I am pretty sure we are all tired of election fliers. I know I have issues that I hold as values that I judge the candidates by, but I’ll try to keep that to myself. Thomas Jefferson said, “The government you elect is the government you deserve.”
I’m not going to say who or what issues in this missive, but I have a few scriptural principles I can share and then leave it to you to make up your own mind.
Our challenge is we say we want change and we need something different, yet it seems to me that all the candidates promise that. The real issue to me is that we are facing the challenge of, do we get the candidates we need or the ones that we deserve? “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.” (Proverbs 14:34) If righteousness, right living, is what makes the difference, I fear we might have a problem. The news reports are by far saying we are not living very godly lives in our current society. I used to read the verse that said: “When the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8b) As I read that, I marveled, since so much of our society was once based on biblical principles. I don’t see that as much as was once the norm.
Another text reminds me that God puts the leaders in place. Sure, we vote but God directs hearts and minds at the end of the day. “Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.” (Romans 13:1)
In another place the psalmist puts it this way: “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people He has chosen as His own inheritance.” (Psalm 33:12) The bigger challenge is we expect our politicians to be our saviors and to guide us to some kind of paradise and perfect world. But that can never happen, as they are human and with a realization that, “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23) They, like each of us, have feet of clay and will not always choose the godly way to live or legislate. My desire is to find a way to trust God no matter what. Psalm 20:7 says, “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we will trust in the name of the Lord our God.”
One final verse is this: “I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live.” (Deuteronomy 30:19) Choose what represents righteousness living and God bless America and Montana.
So go vote, then win, lose or something else, and let’s continue to live life as friends and neighbors.
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