Is There Reason for Hope?
29 January 2007In my post, A Little Honesty, I said:
In truth I’ve become somewhat disillusioned. I see our once great country heading inexorably down the tubes and there seems to be nothing I can do about it. I’ve always believed that superior ideas will, in the end, win out over inferior ideas. I’m not entirely certain I still believe that. It appears that most of America either doesn’t have a clue what’s going on around them or just doesn’t care.
This has been pretty much how I’ve felt lately, like there is little hope for America. That’s what has caused me to become more introspective lately and less inclined to write about politics.
This morning our pastor preached a sermon entitled The Decisive Nature of Hope. You can listen to it here. In it he pointed out the absolute hopelessness of this world. If we are placing our hope here, we are lost. Politics is not going to solve our problems. More money or a better job aren’t going to make us happy. The right man or woman isn’t the answer. As long as we are focused on this world we are going to be hopeless.
Pastor Brown defined Christian hope as the continual looking forward to the eternal world, that which is best to come. He went on to say that for the most part, our culture has abandoned any hope in the eternal world. He said that even Christians rarely think about the eternal. But without the hope of heaven we are left with despair.
Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes that everything was vanity (meaningless). Solomon was lamenting the meaninglessness of working and toiling for the things of this earth. Certainly few if any ever achieved the level of success that Solomon achieved. Yet he considered all his work, all his success to be meaningless.
My tendency has been to place my hope in reason and sound arguments. I think many Christians have this tendency. We lean that way regarding politics and evangelism. When it comes to telling others about the gospel we think that if we just have all our arguments polished, others will be convinced by them. We don’t leave room for God to work, we take on the full responsibility ourselves. Of course, when pressed we will all admit that only God can save someone but from a practical perspective we still place our faith in our own ability to convince.
The same is true of politics. For years I’ve believed that if the right political ideas could prevail, this country could head back in the right direction. The only question was, how do we frame our arguments such that others buy into them and support the right policies, candidates, etc. That approach ignores the sovereignty of God. It assumes, at least implicitly, that God is just an observer and it’s up to us to change the world. The reality is, God is in control, not us.
I don’t want anyone to think I support abdicating all things political to God and the rest of the world. I am not. Evangelical Christians took that approach decades ago and much of the progress of humanism has resulted. I still think that, as Christians and citizens we have a responsibility to be engaged in our society and that includes having an influence on the political process. But along with that must come our dependence on and hope in God. We have to trust that, even when we don’t understand, God is in control and He knows what he is doing.
I will still work to elect good candidates. I will still work to support the right policies. But at the heart of that work and support will be prayer. Like many, I’ve neglected to pray for our elected officials. I’ve neglected to pray about my own involvement. I’ve taken on the responsibility for myself and left God out of the equation. That, ultimately leads to disillusionment and despair. Whether or not the candidates and policies I support prevail, God is still in control and His plans WILL be fulfilled.
I’m not jumping on the bandwagon of claiming that this or that catastrophe or bad outcome is God’s judgment but I will say that God has used events in the past to judge and punish nations, both those that called themselves His people and those that did not. What we as Christians can do is what Jeremiah told the Israelites to do when exiled in Babylon.
Jer 29:4-7
4 “Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. 6 Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. 7 But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.
ESV
Jeremiah pointed out that the Israelites now lived in Babylon and their prosperity and future was inextricably tied to it. They need to do what they could to improve that future and that meant praying for Babylon and its leaders.
We must engage in our society on all levels, including political, as Christians. But we must, first and foremost, trust in God and pray to him for our country and our leaders and, ultimately, trust that He is in control. There lies our hope.
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Tags: Christianity, Conservatives, Government, PoliticsRelated Posts
February 1st, 2007 at 8:15 am
I really like the turn your blog has taken! Blending politics and religion is such a touchy subject in today’s society, but in the end it WAS Christian values that made this country great – the more we lose those the more we will hear the death knell of our country. It really is our duty to pray for the “healing of our land”.