You’d have to be living under a rock to know that this most recent political season has been a little rocky and unsettling. I would lead with the reality that God reigns sovereign over politics and nations and so total hopelessness is not the appropriate response. On the other hand, we are called as followers of Christ to pray for and be vocal in the political sphere. So in such a time as this, how are we to respond to the foreboding and unsettling political climate?
Interestingly enough, I think we can turn to a 153 year old petition of a former president for both conviction and hope.
On March 30th, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation appointing a day of national “humiliation, fasting, and prayer”. It was the middle of the Civil War, and the nation was in a tumultuous time of unrest and immorality. I am by no means a historian and so I could not attest to Abraham Lincoln’s character throughout his entire service as President, but in this proclamation I see a humble man acknowledging that dependence on God is necessary and that departing from that leads to trouble. I am by no means a politician, so I could not attest to whether or not these were Abraham’s words alone or not (I’m not quoting the entire proclamation, but you can access it in its entirety at http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=69891). All of the parenthetical responses are obviously me.
Whereas the Senate of the United States, devoutly recognizing the supreme authority and just government of Almighty God in all the affairs of men and of nations (Wow. The Senate and The President rightly understood that God is indeed sovereign over all things, over all nations at all times), has by a resolution requested the President to designate and set apart a day for national prayer and humiliation; and
Whereas it is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God (How true this is. This is the crux of the matter. If we depend on God for safety and satisfaction, we will be blessed in that we will have a hope that is founded in our King’s goodness), to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon, and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord (Boom. While I’m still trying to figure out what I believe about God and His being associated with any nation rather than His church, this remains a powerful truth that God blesses those who worship Him as Lord and God);
And, insomuch as we know that by His divine law nations, like individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war which now desolates the land may be but a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people (I like the fact that Abraham Lincoln did not draw a direct correlation between national sin and civil war, however he did attest to the fact that God is just)? We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God (Imagine what he would say today). We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us (This is impactful and powerful on a personal level).
It behooves us, then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.
When I read this for the first time I was honestly speechless, because talk like this about the Lord is very rare in politics these days; equally rare being a leader of men so humble before the One True King.
So in our present hour, I think we can glean a few different truths and responses from this proclamation.
1. Pray for our political leaders
We must as the people of God pray for those in political power. We must pray that they would have hearts for national repentance and a national striving after the Lord. God hears the humble petitions of the righteous, and so we must pray for our leaders with humble hearts.
2. Have Hope
Well, America is still a country 153 years after this proclamation, so in some senses I feel that God answered the prayers of the humble who confessed their sins to him. But regardless of the accuracy of that statement, God does promise in the Scriptures to defend and restore those who humbly confess their sins and return to Him.
if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. – 2 Chronicles 7:14
I know that this verse was written to Israel and not to America, but it is applicable to the current people of God, the church.
3. Be The Light
My faith is in God and thus the people of God more than it is in politics. This nation will ‘return to Christ’ when every follower of Christ and church community seeks to be the light of Christ in their community. May we realize our need for dependence on God and our need for personal confession.
In His Name,
Nate Roach
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