“Remember what I accomplished in antiquity! Truly I am God. I have no peer; I am God, and there is none like me” (Isaiah 46:9).
We are meant to look back to what God has done in the past so our faith is set aflame for what He can do in our future. The gospel didn’t come to us in seats of government. It came to us in a stable reeking to high heaven with cow manure. God didn’t plant the Savior of the world in the womb of a governor’s wife. He planted the Christ in the womb of a peasant-girl in the middle of nowhere. The same one who’d get to bear the reputation that she’d done something naughty and gotten herself pregnant.
Jesus never once sat on a throne here. The closest He got was the back of a donkey. God did not blaze a trail with the gospel galloping on a horse through the halls of government. He did it through sandals flapping on the grass. Through the mouths of ordinary, law-abiding citizens.
It is the world’s way to associate power with people at the top, but the power of the gospel is at the bottom. In God’s hierarchy, the way up is down. The kings and queens of Planet Earth still have to bow low for power from the loft.
We cast our pleas prayerfully. Carefully. We plead for wisdom. The church of Jesus Christ doesn’t rise or fall on the backs of men. We have our God. He has His people. We don’t even have to fully agree with one another to be a colossal force for the gospel. All we have to do is agree with God that nothing is too difficult for Him and that no amount of mortal elbow grease can back His throne into a corner.
God cannot be overruled.
And it is He alone – I cannot say this loudly enough – it is He alone who truly loves the world.
To think we care more than He does is remarkably prideful.
The responsibility lies not on anyone else. Responsibility begins with us. We are only as powerless as our passivity. We still have knees to drop in contrition and desperate need for intervention. Paul didn’t tell the government to overcome evil with good. He told US to.
We are convinced that those in ‘power’ have the power to gag God while 2 Timothy 2:9 says the word of God cannot be chained. Difficult days are ahead. We cannot endure them faithlessly. Opposition is inevitable in any arena. But at some point we’ve got to quit looking to leaders to fight for our faith. FAITH WE HAVEN’T FOUGHT FOR IS FAITH WE DON’T POSSESS.
‘At the top’ is not the only way we effect change. We seek it. We fight for it. But, if we don’t get it, it has never been God’s only means to a change.
God can turn Pennsylvania Avenue into the road to Damascus, for crying out loud. He can soften the hardest heart. Transform the vilest offender. Thank God no sin is too great for the power of the cross. Oh for grace to trust Him more.
We need our faith back.
Without it we cannot stand.
Without it we cannot please God. (Heb. 11:16)
Without it we can’t grasp joy.
He still counts our faith as righteousness. (Romans 4:23-24)
We live by faith. We love by faith. — Not by sight.
“Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see. Through their faith, the people in days of old earned a good reputation. By faith we understand that the entire universe was formed at God’s command, that what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen. …” (Hebrews 11:1-3)
It was by faith that Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him. Abraham, who had received God’s promises, was ready to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, even though God had told him, “Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted.” Abraham reasoned that if Isaac died, God was able to bring him back to life again. And in a sense, Abraham did receive his son back from the dead.” (Hebrews 11:17-19)
God foresaw this day and scheduled our births and our deaths within it.
Keep praying for change.
Keep the faith.
Run valiantly by faith drenched with hope because this race, dear friend, ends well.
