Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled

People are hurting in our nation, in our communities, in our churches. Each week we seem to hear of more people losing their jobs, of co-workers filing bankruptcy, of neighbors struggling to make ends-meat. Despair is all we get from Wall Street, empty promises from our political leaders, and bad news from the media. We look to November 4th as a day that will either doom us for years to come or redeem us for the future.

Some democrats see Barack Obama as “the One”, others see McCain as the only one in the race able to defend our nations freedoms. Our nation is looking to a man, whichever one, to save them from these hard economic times, but no man can do that, not a great orator nor a military hero. No salvation is from God alone, and He determines who will sit on thrones and who will not.

It is He who changes the times and the epochs; He removes kings and establishes kings. Dan 2:21

In 1 Corinthians, Paul says that Jews look for miraculous signs and Greeks for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Greeks. The cross is a stumbling block to the Jew because they thought the Messiah would come as a conquering King and defeat Rome.

Instead, He came as a humble peasant. He died for the sins of the world and
was killed by the ones He was suppose to set free and by the ones He was suppose
to defeat. The cross is foolishness to the Greek because they couldn’t understand why anyone would follow someone, who came to the uneducated and the weak. Why would anyone do that if He was a great leader? What would Paul write today about our nation, our people?

Jews demand miraculous signs, Greeks look for wisdom, and Americans what do
we look for? (MONEY, MONEY, MONEY). We call Christ crucified foolishness because:

He held no property,

He had no wealth,

He wasn’t famous,

He died teaching that we should die to ourselves.

We don’t want some guy to come to save us who is going to tell us we have to do anything. We want him to solve all our problems, to make everything better, so we can have everything we need….

The Jews were looking for a political leader. Someone, who would not just set them free from Rome, but someone, who would also provide them with an endless supply of bread. Sound familiar???

In this trying time, it is easy to start looking to men to save us, to make everything better, but in the end “The One” has already come. He wasn’t real concerned about making us comfortable here on earth. He didn’t lower taxes, instead He said give to the government what belongs to the government. He didn’t give affordable health care to everyone, He didn’t even heal everyone He came into contact with. He didn’t kick the Romans out, instead He submitted to their authority. What Jesus did come for was to seek and to save that which was lost. He came to save our souls.

Sean Hannity always says, “Let not your heart be troubled.” And I would echo those words. Jesus is more than enough to meet our ever need, even if the guy you don’t want to be president is elected. He can bring good out of just about any situation.

All things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purposes. Romans 8:28