Votes are still being counted, and across miles and miles of lakes and freeways and suburban hideaways, millions of people wait in their kitchens, home offices, and tents under the shadow of uncertainty. Crippling anxiety couples with a culture fraught with this sense of inevitable doom. Where can clarity be found? Can it be found?
I was talking with a brother the other night, and the Holy Spirit had put His power and drive of intercession upon us. We know that regardless of the election's outcome, there will be many who will suffer the pangs of panic and disappointment; because of the extremity of division and polarization in our country, we know that despair looms ahead of many. And as my brother and I shared what the Lord had put on our hearts, one thing did become clear to us:
The Church is being called to be first responders in this aftermath. As the Hands and Feet of Jesus we are to be quick to comfort those who will be hurting, quick to be gentle, quick to intercede, quick to look to Scripture and the Holy Spirit for aid in proclaiming God's truth in a manner pleasing and wise to the Lord, quick to pray into relationships and demonstrate an active and Christ-like love for those around us regardless of their political affiliations.
Rather than judging and condemning, we are to beg that the Lord send out His light and His truth to set many free of the shadow of despair or the poison of hopes too highly set on political idols. We are to have compassion, to ask for the Holy Spirit to save people in the streets and bring healing and revelation and revival and awakening; the Lord is at Hand, and He is greater than the outcome of any regime change or election, for He is the hope of nations and He has sovereignly and perfectly controlled the destiny of many civilizations past as well as the destinies of His Beloved.
We are to ask God to awaken His Church in America and call her to repentance for her willingness to set more of her hope on national leaders and policies and parties than on her King, to repent for holding fast to the wisdom of cultural "truths" as absolutes irrevocable rather than to God's heart and commandments, to repent for choosing blind allegiance to a partisan concept over a desire to love their neighbors and serve first and foremost the kingdom of Heaven. We are to repent of our choice to ignore the fullness of God's truth and to cherry pick for the sake of tricking our conscience into ease that we may continue to live in the comforts of our favored candidate or our favored political alignment. We are to repent of our pride, of our belief that somehow we know better than God or we have a better sense of what is right or wrong or best for His Church and for the lost. We are to repent of believing we could justify choosing in our hearts to embrace or excuse "lesser evils" as if God had ever commanded us to choose any kind of evil, as if that might ever go well with us or bring us closer to Him Who knows no sin or evil. We are to repent for falling into despair, as if our God in His sovereignty would abandon His adopted children or fail to do good to them, as if He had lost control or had somehow been overcome by the swing votes of man or unwittingly allowed evil to overcome His designs, as if His designs were evil in themselves. We are to acknowledge our helplessness and invite God to be all of our sufficiency, all of our strength, all of our wisdom, all of our power, all of our desire, all of our ability, all of our love. Apart from Him, we can do nothing. Yet He is faithful to His sheep, and holds true to His promise of sanctification.
The entirety of the truth of God's love, of His heart, of His will, of His designs are not only illuminating but they bring peace to the soul, sweetness and delight to the spirit, and revival and life to the inner being of a person. The truth of His promises to us, of His absolute victory, of His gentle and lowly nature as shown in Christ Jesus, these do not fail or pass away or ebb or fade or weaken or lean onto the back-burner. God is ever present and working, and there are so many who need His freedom and the rest He provides in His role as our caretaker and perfect Father. There is power in the name of Jesus, and He will do mighty things in the midst of the darkest hours. In our wickedness and wretchedness, did He not love us and save us still? Did Jesus not come to save the sick? The Lord has prepared good works for His church, and we should beg that He open our eyes that we might not miss out on sharing in His pleasures, on sharing in the joy of being loved by Him and seeing Him love others.
Be ready for the aftermath. Be strong and courageous, and do not be afraid. The Lord is at hand, and He is faithful. He is love. He will open the eyes of our hearts, of many hearts. And we find refuge and perfect peace in the shadow of His wings.
A Prayer: Yahweh! Abba Father! Elohim! Jesus! Holy Spirit! Come and glorify Yourself in Your love for us, in Your powerful and holy love, which transforms us from the inside out. Reveal Yourself to us that we may behold You, delight in You, that we may become more like You, and taste and see that You are good. Help us, though we are so weak, to not only surrender to Your ways but to delight in them, knowing Your heart accomplishes the good it desires for us.
How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”
Isaiah 52:7