Today, I am being led to remind myself and all of us that the Lord our God is over all — all nations, all leaders, all political systems, all ideologies — God is God. There is none like Him. He is self-evident. He does not need to be ratified by us. “He is not served by human hands, as if He needed anything. Rather, He Himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else” (Acts 17:25). We do not vote Him in or out. We could try, but it would be ridiculously irrelevant, since He is in all, through all and over all.
And you and I? We fail miserably. How do you think you would compare with the righteousness of Job in the Old Testament? Even God was impressed with Job. He was walking around heaven bragging about him to Satan in the beginning of the story. And Job’s impressive righteousness stood the scrutiny of three of his witnesses. He was still standing tall after all their allegations against him. But something happened with his last witness, Elihu, and then when God himself speaks at the end of the book, Job is reduced to a blubbering mass of unworthiness.
“Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know… My ears have heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:2-6). This is “righteous” Job. I don’t know about you, but I do not want to compete with him on any level, and yet he ends up at the same place as all of us.
So here we are, once again, throwing ourselves on the mercy of God and finding grace to help in time of need. This is what God does. He reduces us to dust and ashes and then showers His grace on us, so that we, at all times, are gratefully walking humbly before our God. No religion here.
Remember this today as you make your way in the marketplace. There are those who have staked their claim — hitched their “Christian” wagon — to an unhealthy political alliance and the result is that Christianity has been reduced to a religion we can supposedly vote in or out. It’s preposterous to think this way, but we will be hearing from those who think we can. First and foremost, following Christ has never been nor ever will be a religion. We do not follow a religion that is subject to any human courts or processes. We follow God as revealed through His only son, Jesus Christ our Lord. You can hijack religion, but no one can hijack God. Not by anyone or anything; especially something as petty and inconsequential as politics.
Keep your eyes on Jesus, and don’t let anyone talk you down to religion.
[If you missed our Catch our interview with Rob Stutzman, DON’T MISS IT NOW.]
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