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(0)Politics has never been a real interest to me. However, I do understand that government is God ordained and a portion of the means by which He works His will (Romans 13). Frustration, though, abounds in my mind when it comes to politics, especially this year. There is no perfect candidate. Each candidate has his (her) own valid faults and failures contrary to what pundits may tell you.
I have a problem with people who seem to complain about the candidates and yet they do not vote. Yes, I realize "not voting" is making a statement. And this is what I can not reconcile in my mind; how can "not voting" be a valid option for the believer? "Not voting" is a passive response (I use that phrase loosely). If government is a God-ordained means of grace, how can we sit idly by? (I still can not get passed the issue in my mind that "not voting" is actually voting for the winner, is it not?)
Apart from this, though, many self-proclaimed Christians would rather complain and critique but not pray repentantly about our political government. This, by far, is the more crucial issue. And if Christians do neither, they have lost the right to critique. More so, if a Christian does one and not the other, the right to critique still is lost.
But this is where we must preach the Gospel to ourselves. But, you may ask, how does the Gospel relate to our political system?
The Gospel reminds us that God uses the weak things of this world to confound the strong. The Gospel reminds us that it is the foundation and means by which God is renewing all creation. And the plans of man can not thwart the will of God (Proverbs 21:1). The Gospel reminds us that whoever wins the Presidency is the man of the hour, of God's own choosing (Romans 13:1). The Gospel proclaims to us that even though our worst choice of candidate gets the Presidency, we know God will rule and overrule and His purposes will not be thwarted (Job 42:2).
This is our comfort. That God has ordained the means of grace we call government. He has further ordained how our system works, namely by voting. And by "not voting" we resist the authorities - what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment." In other words, when we make the hard choices in politics, we are essentially proclaiming, "I trust God." Why? Because He ordained our government and the means by which it is run. We then trust Him that His purposes will be fulfilled by our active involvement- and sometimes inspite of our involvement.
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