Donald Trump has lost his campaign to regain his seat as President, and as of tomorrow, Joe Biden will be sworn in as the new president. Now what?
Sure, Biden was Vice President of the US for 8 years, but he’s never been THE President. Roles and responsibilities are vastly different between VP and President, and by all accounts, this is a new thing for him. This is new territory for him.
As a Christian, there are certainly things to be concerned about. His parties platform has a lot of things that leave a lot to be desired for Christians. Things like abortion, gay marriage, the normalization of things we would consider sin, and a lot more. So of course, as a believer, there is some trepidation as we approach this new season of American life.
Aside from Biden there are concerns about Kamala Harris, who will be serving as his Vice President, as well as the various individuals that Biden will put forward to serve in his administration.
All of these are legitimate concerns.
But now what? What do we Christians do?
Trump was supposedly the hero of the Church in America according to many professing believers and even pastors and prophets, and now he’s not going to be president. To top things off, Trump got impeached a second time last week, and many many Trump supporters (including those waving around Jesus Saves banners and Christian Flags) made a fatal and dare I say stupid move to break into the Capitol building while the electoral college votes were being counted.
2021 started off in a massive whirlwind of insanity in DC along with COVID19 ramping up as various new strains of the virus are beginning to take off. Countries around the world are shuttering their doors again. Shoot, I started off the New Year myself with COVID and know countless others that are close to me who were going through it as well.
So it doesn’t appear that 2021 is going to be any better of than 2020. It might even be argued that it could be worse.
But now what? What do we Christians do?
Our lives are seriously in upheaval. Politics is in upheaval. Our nation is more divided than it has been in many many decades. Families, friends, and church members are pitted one against the other over viruses, politics, and more. It feels like the world is turning upside down.
It’s as if we can’t catch our breath before the next wave of chaos breaks out.
An article recently posted by Dr. Michael Brown titled, Why a Biden Presidency Could Be Good for the Church, Dr. Brown made the assertion that the “election of Joe Biden might be in the best interest of the Church of America.” His reasoning behind such a statement? Dr. Brown says, “it is because too many of us Christian conservatives put too much trust in a man.”
I actually agree with him. 100% agree with him.
I have watched over the last 4 years (and slightly before during the 2016 presidential campaign) as Christians and Church leaders alike fawned over Trump and touted him, and I quote as “The Trump of the Lord”. Many very literally looked to him a some sort of messianic figure. In their eyes, Trump could do absolutely no wrong. They would argue that everyone just misunderstood Trump. Or that Trump was just being attacked because he was doing the work of the Lord.
Did Trump do some good over his 4 years? Sure. Did he do some bad? Absolutely.
What I witnessed was idol worship, for the lack of a better word. A man was being worshipped alongside of Jesus. It was heart breaking, and to be perfectly frank, sickening to watch.
But now his time over, and we are faced with Biden as our President.
Like Dr. Brown, I see this as a fresh start for the Church. For many in the Church, the idol of Donald Trump has been removed, just like for many of us the idol of church buildings, and specific worship times were removed because of COVID.
Sadly, the church by-and-large missed their opportunity during the early stages of COVID to embrace the test God was giving us, and rethink the Churches focus. Instead they spent the majority of the time pushing back against governments and decrying “persecution”. And yes, I put persecution in quotes, because let’s face it…the Church in America is anything but persecuted.
We are now facing a new test. Trump is gone. Biden is here. Where do we go from here?
I think there are two major things we can do to start moving forward and in the right direction.
Let’s start with the most obvious – stop living in fear and seek God’s face.
Seriously, as believers, our hope is not in a man. It is not in a government. It is not in a political party. It is in Jesus and Jesus alone. And guess what? Jesus had this to say to us in John 16:33 ESV, “I have said these things to you, that in ME you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world!”
Did you catch that? Jesus said our peace is found in HIM. Not only that, but he promised we’d experience troubles in this world, no getting around that, but that we should be courageous because…why? HE has already overcome the world.
In other words, Jesus has already overcome Biden. He has already overcome Trump. He has already overcome communist China. He has already overcome persecution. He has already overcome any trial that lays ahead of us. After all, he is the beginning the middle and the end. He’s eternal. He’s already been there.
In addition to that He promises us that we can have peace even in the midst of those trials.
But Church, we need to understand that so long as we keep looking to Trump, or Republicans, or Democrats, or Biden, our pastor, or anyone else on this earth for our source of peace…WE ARE NEVER going to find it.
Peace is only found in the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ.
This doesn’t mean our troubles suddenly vanish. It just means that we can face our troubles knowing that the God of the Universe is right there beside us, and that He is in full control of the situation.
So that’s number one, STOP LIVING IN FEAR and SEEK GOD’S FACE.
Number two is this, refocus our attention on the things that we were commanded to do.
Before Jesus left this world, and before he sent us the Holy Spirit to empower us, we were given a job to do. That job was this according to Matthew 28:19–20 ESV, which says, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Our attention has, for too long now, been focused on trying to correct our nations woes through politics. When in reality, what we should be doing is going about the Father’s business of making disciples. Politics is important as it relates to the policies that govern our lives.
But you know what? If our nation is filled with unbelievers, then the people making our policies are inevitably going to be unbelievers, which means our policies and laws will inevitably reflect a non-Christian worldview.
But if we spend our time actually focusing on leading people to Jesus and then engaging in real discipleship, the hearts of the people around us are going to be changed and molded in the likeness of Jesus. This will ultimately impact our society, and then our policy makers, and ultimately the laws and policies that govern our lives.
The sad truth is, discipleship isn’t one of our strong suits as the Western Church. In fact, I would even argue that this isn’t something we’ve successfully done in our nation…perhaps ever. Which I firmly believe is part of the reason our nation is so backward right now.
Can we honestly be surprised at the direction our nation has gone when our churches have effectively stopped making disciples in America? No. No we cannot.
In addition to discipleship, we were commanded to “Love God” and “Love others”.
We love God through our daily worship. This is more than music and preaching at a 1 hour Sunday gathering. Worship is very literally the act of bringing honor to God in all that we say or do. So we must refocus our worship. We have to stop limiting our worship to our Sunday gatherings, and start seeing it for what it is – an all encompassing act carried out in all that we say and do every single day of our lives.
But the Bible also says that we cannot truly love God if we do not truly love others. 1 John 4:20 specifically says, “If anyone says, ‘I love God’, and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.”
From what I have seen over the last several years, the Church isn’t doing a great job of loving those who make up the church, much less those who are outside the church. I believe this is because we have focused for so long on the wrong things, and neglected the things that the Church ought to be engaged in, and therefore we find ourselves more divided, and more angry with one another than I personally can remember in my lifetime.
If we cannot love those in the church, or those outside the church, how can we possibly love God?
According to John…we can’t.
So number two is to REFOCUS OUR ATTENTION on the things we were COMMANDED TO DO.
That’s really all there is to it, my friends.
If we will simply stop living in fear and seek God’s face, and refocus our attention on the things that we have been commanded to do, we will find a way forward in this new world.
I say simple, but simple doesn’t mean easy. It won’t be easy at all. But if we work at it, and pray for the empowerment of the Holy Spirit to give us the strength to do this where we lack it, God will be faithful to supply that for us.
Because frankly, I see no other way forward if it doesn’t involve God.