Updated on November 3, 2020
The kingdom of God on a Tuesday in November
They are saying that this is the most important election in history or in a generation or in our lifetime. And I don’t really know who “they” are, but somehow I have allowed “them” enough access to my spirit to make me anxious. Really anxious. Not just about what will happen at the ballot box today, but about what will happen in our neighborhoods, on our streets, and around our dinner tables in the coming weeks and months. How will we talk about it with our kids? How will we handle the boundary lines drawn in friendships and the walls barricading once easy conversations? And how will we treat the people who don’t see things like we do? Because what might be true is that the way we handle the results of this historic election could indeed be the most important thing of all.
I struggle with how to pray. It feels heavy and maybe just a way of bending God’s ear toward what I want. But what do I really know and what in the world can settle the angst that has crept into every inch of this great nation? Can a specific man in a White House really ease the tension or heal all of the broken places that are gaping open in our land of the free and home of the brave? Some of those places seem beyond repair. Problems seem to have no good answers and division is shredding the very fabric of our liberty. And no matter who the ballot box hands the power to, we the people will still wake up tomorrow and do life with someone who wishes it had gone differently.
How are we to respond? I hear Psalm 146 unfold in my heart as I stumble over words to pray.
“Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal men who cannot save. When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing. Blessed are those whose help is in the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord. He is the maker of heaven and earth, the seas and everything in them –he remains faithful forever”(Psalm 146: 3-5).
He remains faithful forever. I say the words out loud. In the face of a country intent on rending itself in to, He remains faithful forever. In the face of adversity, unrest, uncertainty, and hard decisions? He remains faithful forever.
And we are his people; the sheep of his pasture. We are part of the kingdom of God here on earth in the very places where we do life. The kingdom of God lives and dwells in each one of us. It is what Jesus spent his life talking about. “As you go, proclaim these words, the kingdom of God has come near”. He began his public ministry teaching his disciples to preach it. And he gave up his life so that it would indeed happen. God now makes his dwelling place among his people and do you know how he chooses to do that? In you. And in me; in our times and in our places.
The Lord of heaven and earth makes his appeal to his people through us. The kingdom of God is so patient. We run for quick solutions; we search for easy answers and get caught up in the swirl of current events. But God’s ways are not our ways neither are his thoughts our thoughts.
Singer and songwriter Sandra McCracken writes it like this in her song Patient Kingdom, “When’s the last time you felt steady in the chaos? Hear the sound when the seed falls to the earth. Is time to give up your destination? Slow me down, let love do its work … let that patient kingdom come.”
And in this I find my prayer for today:
Lord, let your love do its patient work through us.
“The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it, the world and all who live in it; for he founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters” (Psalm 24:1-2).
You are in control and your kingdom doesn’t always look like we think it should.
“The Lord is in his holy temple; the Lord is on his heavenly throne. He observes everyone on earth. His eyes examine them” (Psalm 11:4).
As we head to the polls today to stand in lines, check boxes and get stickers, go before us. Stand next to us, and come along behind us that we might be assured of your presence. “And surely I am with you always even to the ends of the earth” (Matthew 28:20).
And then as we wait, Lord, wait with us.
As the pundits and the talking heads spin this thing out all day, long into the night and possibly days ahead, remind us of your kingdom in heaven where the last are first, the weak are made strong and the king comes not be served but to serve.
Help us remember the way life works in your upside-down kingdom. It’s what you sent your Son to speak right into your creation. But we are so quick to forget. The patient kingdom works its way into our lives only when we obey.
Our neighbor. That neighbor who is for something we are against, who looks differently, thinks differently and votes differently. May we love them, anyway. May this be how we choose to respond because you are a God who chose us, anyway. A God who loves us into your kingdom, anyway.
May we seek your face and live in your love and walk in your ways in these coming days. May we know that you reign in our hearts and that your kingdom will come and your will be done no matter who sits in that Oval Office.
And may we hold on to the truth in these words spoken by author James Bryan Smith , ” [We] are ones in whom Christ dwells and delights. [We] live the strong unshakeable kingdom of God. The kingdom is not in trouble and neither are we.”
May we live like we believe this.
Alleluia. Amen.
“Blessed are those whose help is in the God of Jacob; whose hope is in the Lord. He is the maker of heaven and earth, the seas and everything in them — he remains faithful forever” (Psalm 146:5).
Oh Leigh! Thank you so much for these wise words today! I too have struggled with how to pray. Thank you for the reminder of God’s sovereignty in all that is happening around us! Thank you for the reminder that it is our responsibility as His Chosen to show Him to the world around us and to proclaim Him as King.
Just what we all needed today, Leigh. I’m grateful the Lord seems to have given me peace today, and I’ll try to hold on to it through tonight and the days to come. God bless you and yours.