Thursday, November 06, 2008

Sigh of Relief

The election is finally over (can you hear the sigh of relief?). And while the outcome is not what I wished for, life does go on.

I read two posts yesterday filled with good advice. I want to encourage you to read them too.

The first one I found on Lysa TerKeurst's blog. I'll let Lysa speak for herself, because she does it so well. Just don't forget to insert my hearty Amen at the end of her post.

The second was written by Michael Hyatt, President and CEO of Thomas Nelson publishers. At the end of his post Mr. Hyatt encouraged his readers to make the following commitments. I am posting them on my blog because I am challenged by his words. He said:

"I want to do my part. Therefore starting today, I am publicly making four commitments to President-Elect Barack Obama:
  1. I will pray for him and our country.
  2. I will assume his motives are good, giving him the benefit of the doubt.
  3. I will not speak ill of him, even if I don't always agree with him.
  4. I will cast off the spirit of cynicism, and be a positive force for good."

These posts remind me that regardless of who our leaders are... Regardless of whether we agree with them and the policies they put in place... our roles as Christians do not change.

We are called to show grace and mercy.

We are called to fight for truth.

We are called to make a difference.

We are called to be holy vessels used for the noble purposes of our God.

Earthly leaders change. God does not.

(sigh of relief)

8 comments:

hubergal said...

those are great thoughts. thanks, megan.
~shar

Heidi Klopfenstein said...

Amen.

you may like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFvlfc2VkN0

Anonymous said...

Great post Megan. I love Lisa's thoughts.

I feel like we are already seeing the Body of Christ get stirred up to know what we believe and whom our trust is in - that is exciting.

I felt torn over the election - it is so amazing to see a black man achieve such a postion in our country that not all that long ago had slaves and did not allow blacks to vote, BUT I certainly am very discouraged by Obama's liberal views.

I just think of our Bible Study and Nebuchadnezzar and how his heart was turned to God eventually. I am committed and excited to pray for our new president...nothing is impossible with God!

Love, Jill

Unknown said...

A good friend of mine stated before this election was over that....God will get us to our knees one way or another!!

My son Eli was visibly upset this morning when he realized and then said to me "Momma, the people WE voted for didn't win". I told him that I knew it and he then asked "what do we do now Momma"? (It was at this point that I realized that I had been so outspoken on this event in our history that I had impacted my child) Seeing his true childlike concern I told him that all we could do now was pray and that God would take care of us. Eli stated very matter of fact that "Prayer did not work". (There again I realized that we had been openly praying for God to work in this election and it "Appeared" that God did not answer that prayer). Scrambling for an answer I told him that Prayer Does Work and that God ALWAYS answers prayer....Well, Eli is only six years old (tomorrow he will be Seven) and he asked me HOW I know that God answers prayers, stumbling I stated that we just KNOW(realizing that my young son needed a real answer because "Faith" at this point is something that he is just learning to understand). I had to ask God for a little guidance and explained to him that sometimes God answers "No" to our prayers and other times he says "Wait", and other times he just answers them. Eli still wanted to know "HOW we know". Again, asking God for guidance I told him that well sometimes we pray for a baby and Eli stated "like you prayed for me and Emma Jo" and I said yes and that God will give us what we ask for, so I got Eli and Emma Jo....then I said sometimes we ask for a baby and God says "NO", but then God gives us Mary Ashytn and Reece (for those who don't know my niece and nephew are adopted, but Wholly and Fully ours)...Eli looked at me and smiled and then said "Yes momma, we will just have to pray that God will take care of us" and off he went to finish getting ready for school.
Never before have I realized what true impact I have on my children and how I MUST show them HOW to live for God and how FAITH works and never before have I realized that WE (people of Faith) must fall to our knees and pray that God will protect us and HEAL OUR LAND. So please help me to show my precious son that Prayer does work and GOD IS STILL IN CONTROL AND HE NEVER LOOSES!!!!
--
Concentrate on this sentence.
'The will of God will never take you where the
Grace of God will not protect you.'

Taylor said...

good post megs! I certainly have mixed feelings as well, but no doubt agree with your 4 commitments!

Lysa TerKeurst said...

Wow Meg... I am humbled by your kind words and for the link to my post.

You have touched my heart.

Thank you...

Janie S. said...

Great job Megan! No matter what anyone thinks the role of government is or should be, the role of Christians is ALWAYS different because we have a Christ agenda. We are called to live and care and help no matter what. BTW, You are a great personification of this goal in my humble mind...

hubergal said...

i know that this is an odd place to contact you, but my email is not working to send stuff to verizon.net users. jaret set up a gmail account for me, which i tried to respond to your forward with, but it's not sending correctly. :( anyway, i tried to respond to you about your pampered chef party (that i didn't need anything) and it seems several other things that have probably never reached you. i'm not ignoring you, i promise!
~shar