“Where there is no vision, the people perish….” “Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint….” “When people do not accept divine guidance, they run wild.” (Proverbs 29:18 KJV, NKJ, NLT)
My last column, published about two weeks before our national elections, declared that “Jesus is the Lord of America”. This column, published about two weeks after those elections, urges Christians to take advantage of that truth. Ask the Lord of America to guide America.
Donald Trump, a celebrity billionaire real estate developer, will be our next President. He will begin his term with a cooperative Republican Congress. Opinions vary widely on how this happened.
Many political pundits say it was, as always, about the economy, coupled with an attitude of rebellion toward “business as usual”. Some Democratic leaders blamed it on the FBI director’s handling of the private e-mail server controversy. Others suggested the Russians tipped the scales by releasing hacked Democratic staff emails through WikiLeaks.
I believe our November 8 election results were God’s answer to a united Christian prayer effort led, in part, by Franklin Graham’s “Decision America Tour”.
Please understand. The prayer tour did not propose any individual candidate, and overall, this united prayer movement included both Christians who supported Donald Trump and those (including me) who were deeply concerned about his character, temperament and history.
The prayer movement was about party platforms, not candidates, and in opposition to a Democratic agenda that would: (1) increase the number of abortions in our nation; (2) eliminate the biological distinction between “male” and “female” that has existed since God created mankind, male and female, in His image; and (3) appoint “progressive” justices to the Supreme Court who would rewrite, rather than honor, our U.S. Constitution.
I have dear Christian friends, black and white, who supported Democratic candidates, and I respect some of the reasons they did so. But the Democratic “transgender” agenda would allow adults who are biologically male to use the same restroom as my granddaughter. It would allow boys who are biologically male to join her gym class and compete on her girl’s track team. That is cultural insanity.
Our Constitution is our nation’s foundational document. To protect the stability of this foundation, a constitutional amendment requires legislative ratification by 75% of our fifty states. Wonderful constitutional amendments since 1789 have been done the right way, including the abolishment of slavery (13th), the right to vote regardless of race (15th) and the right of women to vote (19th).
Regardless of your personal stance on gay marriage, the Supreme Court ruling that made it “the law of the land” in 2015 involved five unelected political appointees who effectively amended our Constitution on their own. If they can do it on one issue, they will do it on other issues – a violation of our government’s separation of powers that equates to constitutional insanity.
As a result of God’s answer to concerted prayer, we will now have justices appointed to our Supreme Court who understand their role. We will also see a revocation of President Obama’s invasive executive orders on transgender rights. But while this is a step in the right direction, it is only a step.
President-elect Trump is, in my opinion, a “wild card”. He has no governmental background, nationally or internationally. He is neither strongly conservative nor liberal. Yes, he loves the limelight, but he also loves to achieve. How well or poorly he leads our nation will, in a nutshell, depend on whose advice and counsel he hears and what guidance he accepts.
Proverbs 29:18 says that without divine revelation and guidance, the people will “perish”, “cast off restraint” or “run wild”. In other words, without divine guidance, we run helter-skelter down the broad path of destruction. (Matthew 7:13-14)
This is why the Lord commands us, “first and foremost”, to pray for those in authority over us. (1 Timothy 2:1-2) Our prayers can be used by the Lord to provide President-elect Trump and our other national, state and local leaders with the divine guidance they so desperately need. They can receive discernment as to whether the advice from all those people around them is good or bad. They can receive the wisdom to make good decisions that provide fair and effective solutions to our problems. (James 1:5)
November 8 demonstrates that concerted, united prayer works, but if we stop praying, it stops working. We have been woefully unfaithful in praying for past Presidents. We cannot afford to make that mistake again.
Finally, as emphasized last month, the biblically grounded, Jesus-loving, people-loving Christians of America must come together in this hour – black, brown and white – not just for prayer, but for listening, fellowship and godly, united purpose. For far too long, we have been politically divided as believers and politically yoked to unbelievers, including some anti-Christian groups on the far left and some lingering racist groups on the far right. (2 Corinthians 6:14)
Donald Trump has demonstrated high respect for the Christian leadership of our nation, both black and white. Post-election, he has expressed an interest in repairing both our national security and our inner cities, and in addressing the interests of all Americans. He has selected a devout Christian to be his Vice-President and the leader of his transition team. If we work together, we can have the President’s ear as well as the all-important ear of the Lord.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, what I propose is something we have sung together for almost one hundred years. “God bless America, land that [we] love. Stand beside her and guide her though the night with a light from above.”
Let’s begin singing it every day.