Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.2 Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, 4 for he is God’s servant for your good.  – Romans 13:1-4

Is a trumpet blown in a city, and the people are not afraid? Does disaster come to a city, unless the Lord has done it? – Amos 3:6

Draw near, O nations, to hear,
    and give attention, O peoples!
Let the earth hear, and all that fills it;
    the world, and all that comes from it.
2 For the Lord is enraged against all the nations,
    and furious against all their host;
    he has devoted them to destruction, has given them over for slaughter.
3 Their slain shall be cast out,
    and the stench of their corpses shall rise;
    the mountains shall flow with their blood. – Isaiah 34:1-3

For not from the east or from the west
    and not from the wilderness comes lifting up,
7 but it is God who executes judgment,
    putting down one and lifting up another.
8 For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup
    with foaming wine, well mixed,
and he pours out from it,
    and all the wicked of the earth
    shall drain it down to the dregs. – Psalm 75:6-8

Daniel answered and said
“Blessed be the name of God forever and ever
to whom belong wisdom and might.
21 He changes times and seasons;
    he removes kings and sets up kings;
he gives wisdom to the wise… – Daniel 2:20-21

As I have pointed out elsewhere, it is my objective in this site to inspire people to a more intimate, more passionate, and more accurate knowledge of God. For our knowledge of God to be accurate, it must be practical.

Life with God is not a cloistered activity but is found in the stuff of everyday life. Right now in the United States, politics is a big deal and is dominating the news cycles. Some don’t believe our new President is legitimate and are vowing to oppose him at every opportunity. How is a Christian to understand the faith in this environment?

In my mind, the key concept is one that some of us have difficulty with; the absolute sovereignty of God in all things, and in this case especially, politics and elections.

For the past eight years, God’s man to head the United States was Barak H. Obama, whether you voted for him or not. He was God’s man. How do I know he was God’s man? Because he was elected to be President and Daniel 2 tells us it is God who “removes kings and sets up kings.” Yes, I know we have a President, not a king, but the principle is the same. God establishes the executive leadership of nations regardless of the human mechanism that brings him to power. This is true whether we like the “king” or not.

Presently we have a lot of noisy protestors and rioters in the streets of many U.S. cities. Those who are rioting are not acknowledging the sovereignty of God. They are putting forth a call for anarchy. Scripture instructs us to submit to our governing authorities. The Bible is anti-anarchy.

So, if a Christian is really unhappy about the outcome of the Presidential election, what is he/she to do? Can’t we protest and riot? Well, no. Can we ever oppose the government? Yes. Without going into all of the Scriptural grounds for this statement, civil disobedience for a Christian can be rightly implemented when the state forbids us to do something the Lord commands or the state commands us to do something he forbids, then and only then, are believers called upon to not submit to the decrees of the authorities. Until then, we are called on to be subject to the governing authorities.

Our instructions are to pray and to live quiet a peaceable lives. We are to share the gospel with our friends and families. We are to love one another. All of this under the sovereign hand of God and look to him to bring about another Great Awakening, if he will. Then the people of the United States will elect by default a more godly government. Until then, we continue to look to our sovereign God as our joy and delight.

Our hope is not in our human leaders but our sovereign God. Our ultimate hope is not in this world’s governmental justice but in the complete justice of the New Heavens and New Earth in which nothing but righteousness dwells.

My encouragement today is to delight in our sovereign God and not be bothered by protestors and rioters. God says,

“Why do the nations rage
and the peoples plot in vain?
2 The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers take counsel together,
against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying,
3 “Let us burst their bonds apart
and cast away their cords from us.”

4 He who sits in the heavens laughs;
the Lord holds them in derision.” – Psalm 2:1-4