As a follower of Christ you have a responsibility to vote and to participate in government as a practice of your faith and an expression of your love.
The United States was built to be a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, so if you don’t show up, don’t make your voice heard, and don’t cast a ballot based on your personal conscience and faithful pursuit of God’s will, then you will be depriving people all over this country of the influence of God that you bring into this world.
“You are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor? Can you make it salty again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless. You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden.” – Matthew 5
In the last election it was reported that 25 million Christians who were registered to vote, never showed up at the polls, never pulled the lever, and never cast their vote. 25 million believers stood in silence and allowed others to choose the outcome for the future of our nation.
So let me ask you this. We are one nation under God, but what will happen if we choose to be one nation apart from God? There are certainly plenty of voices in our country today who are telling you that the decision is too hard, that there are no good choices, and that your vote won’t make a difference anyway. But I’m here to tell you that, that is not a God honoring belief. God invested you with a perspective and with a voice for a purpose. God is calling you to stand up and be recognized, to exercise your God given rights to share His blessings with others by prayerfully asking His guidance and then pulling the lever to make your voice heard across this great nation and receive God’s promises on behalf of a grateful nation.
I’ve heard a lot of Christians say that we don’t have to worry about the upcoming elections because regardless of who wins, on the day after the election God will still be sovereign, God will still be in control.
So let me debunk the myth that God being in control means that our nation continues to prosper — because the fact that God is sovereign does not necessarily mean that we are choosing to receive God’s blessings.
God is the actual and only true sovereign regardless of who wins our election. Which is why our nation needs God’s blessing and presence and provision. But, if we walk away from God, deny God, and create a system of laws that is opposed to God — if we reject God’s will for our nation and support corruption and decay — we will experience much the same that the nation of Israel and then Judah experienced in the Bible when they made a similarly ignorant and short-sighted choice to ignore God’s guidance and reject God’s Word because of the supposed short term benefits they thought they could grant to themselves.
Now, in case you haven’t read it all the way through, let me tell you that it didn’t work out well for them. As they persisted in corrupting God’s laws and ignoring God’s guidance, they were conquered by a foreign super power and taken into captivity as a nation.
It is essential to see that in the Bible God didn’t walk away from the nation of Israel and Judah, they walked away from God. And walking out from under the protective cloak of God’s will was the worst decision they ever made because they lost their nation as a result. And yet, God was still sovereign, God still was with them in captivity, and God still cast a vision of restoration for them even in their darkest hours. God never gave up on them, and God will never give up on us. However, we should not underestimate the negative effects on our nation of refusing to stand up and represent God in the voting booth, in the courts, and in our public lives.
Jesus said,
“Everyone who acknowledges me publicly here on earth, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. But everyone who denies me here on earth, I will also deny before my Father in heaven.” – Matthew 10
In the United States, we have experienced great prosperity, justice, and freedom as a nation because we collectively chose to defend the rights of people of faith to worship God and live according to God’s ways. We believed in the freedom of religion, not the freedom from religion. This is not something we should give up or walk away from as a nation, and God’s blessings are not something we should take for granted or assume will persist if we reject them.
We are free to pursue God (which is the very definition of true freedom), but we are also free to pursue captivity if we reject His salvation.
So, when faced with a challenging choice this November, how can you be a responsible voter? How can you practice your faith and exercise your love in the voting booth and so acknowledge God and bring His presence more powerfully into our nation?
The answer is simple. To be a responsible voter:
- collect the facts.
- consider the facts.
- ignore the rhetoric and characterizations of both candidates.
- discuss the facts with others.
- study the platforms, issues, and positions of the candidates in light of God’s priorities.
- read the U.S. Constitution to remind yourself how our country was designed to work.
- read U.S. history, particularly over the last century or so, to see broader trends and what the major influences coming into this election cycle are.
- don’t fall for language like _____is evil, _____is un-american, _____ is dangerous, _____is a loose canon, or any other smear, gossip, slander, or libel promoted by either party.
- eliminate fear — open your eyes, your ears, and your heart to seek the facts, the data, the evidence, the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
- consider the long term effects of your choice and how it aligns to God’s plan, not just the short term benefits of proposed solutions.
- consider the reasonableness of solutions proposed by candidates. For instance, is it possible for them to do what they are suggesting, do they have a viable plan to pay for the benefits they are offering, etc.
- evaluate candidate positions in light of the core values and foundational principles upon which our great republic is built, including:
- the sanctity of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all.
- equal protection under the law for all, not special protection or special privilege for this or that type of citizen.
- equal rights for all, even those we disagree with or don’t like.
- justice for all regardless of whether they are powerful or weak, practiced by those who love the law and remain impartial and blind to outside influence or external factors beyond the facts of each case.
- the rule of law and no one being above the law.
- due process of law, even when we believe we know the conclusion before we start or want to expedite an outcome because we believe it to be just.
- the protection of private property.
- the balance of power between the three branches of government, not the granting of special powers to the executive branch in place of the others or using the judicial branch to legislate from the bench.
- freedom of religion and individual conscience, including the rights of churches and believers to speak out in public and pursue social justice for all.
- freedom of speech even when it is not politically correct or in agreement with the current socially acceptable perspective.
- freedom from all corruption that would make our government of the money, by the money, and for the money instead of, of the people, by the people, and for the people.
- the balance of power between the government and the people as protected by the right of citizens to bear arms.
- and all of the other key freedoms and rights granted to us by the U.S. Constitution that allow us to live in peace as the land of the free and the home of the brave.
- And MOST IMPORTANT – PRAY. Ask God to give you discernment, judgment, vision, and purpose to know God’s heart, support God’s priorities, and see clearly how to vote your conscience, your faith, and your values to make America a country that God can and will continue to bless.
- And finally, REGISTER TO VOTE. SHOW UP. CAST YOUR VOTE on November 8. Make your decision. Make your voice heard. Practice your faith in the voting booth. And help God bless America.
On the day following this election God will still be sovereign, God will still be in control. But it is up to you whether or not God will still be able to preserve and to protect this great nation of ours for ourselves and our posterity. Freedom is never free, it rests in the hands of each one of us to stand up and make our voices heard and participate in the government with wisdom, love, liberty, and justice for all.
clarkechols
I want to highlight a key point you make: A Christian will definitely vote because of a faith that God is working through them. Not to vote interrupts the very process of His sovereignty applying to our nation and its life. Vote!!!