Many are rejoicing at the newly elected president of the United States today … many are not.
For those that voted for the winning president, you may be feeling a sense of relief, hope, and excitement as a new president takes office to the most powerful seat in the land and all the opportunity that comes along with that.
For those that voted against the winning president, you may be feeling afraid, discouraged, or even apathetic as your hopes have been dashed and your anxieties heightened … perhaps especially so if you are a woman, or a minority.
For those of you that abstained from voting at all, you may be feeling regret ... perhaps you could have made difference? Perhaps you are feeling vindicated, justified, and relieved in your abstinence … that you didn’t pick between the “lesser of two evils”.
For those of you that prayed for the election and its outcome … please don’t stop.
But don’t be deceived, whether you won, lost, or abstained, for all of us as Christians, we indeed have won … no matter who sits in the oval office of the United States of America. In fact, the American nation, and all of her presidents, will one day be a footnote in the history of the world. For our lives are fleeting and momentary (2 Cor 4:17; Ps 39:4; Jam 4:14) and in the vast landscape of time, so are the lives of nations and civilizations.
Our allegiance as Christians is aligned to another, above and beyond the president of the United States. Your allegiance and hope is in a kingdom, and a king, that cannot be shaken (Heb 12:27-29).
And yet, this is not to make light of your possible fears or anxieties, or sweep them under the rug with some stroke of spiritual cliché. No, this is to remind you that nothing strange is happening to you. In fact, it has been happening to believers for a very long time (1 Pet 1:3-9). Remember that Jesus already told us that we will have trouble in this life, but take heart … for he has overcome the world (Jn 16:33)!
And what is our allegiance to the unshakable king and kingdom supposed to result in? Praise, awe, glory, honor, reverence, and living hope.
So whether you are rejoicing over the new president, or are in mourning, or perhaps somewhere in between … remember to be alert and sober minded with your hope set on the grace to be brought when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming (1 Pet 1:13). Your hope is explicitly not to be in the rulers of this world or this nation, and our allegiance is never to be to them over our Lord Jesus.
Trials will come, whether at the hands of a new president, the work of Satan and his cohorts, or even from within our own sinful nature … thank God that our hope can be in something unshakeable.