The day after

Well, we have a new president-elect. I know a lot of people are upset, and probably rightfully so. I voted against him myself. However, today the verse that's been going through my mind is Ephesians 5:20:

"always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Yep, it says "for everything." So I found myself thanking God that President-elect Obama is our next president. As a lot of Christians have been trying to remind themselves today, nobody gets elected and God goes, "Ohhh.. shoot! That was today??! Should have been paying more attention." Our ways are not God's ways, nor are our thoughts His thoughts.

So how could I thank God that Obama won? Well, there are a couple of things I thought of.

1) The purpose of our lives on earth is to glorify God, right? Well it could be that the things that are about to happen in our country will cause people to fall on their knees and glorify God.

2) Maybe God is showing us just Who is in control here. We Christians sometimes think we know more than God. Maybe this is a wake-up call that there is a big picture at work, and that we don't know every part of it.

3) Maybe it's time for Christians in America to face some persecution. Doesn't the Bible tell us in Philippians 1:29, "For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him"? I would hazard a guess that not many of us have been truly suffering for Christ lately. Many are very afraid of liberties that could be taken away under Obama, but we were never promised an easy life. In fact, quite the opposite. So instead of fearing persecution and suffering, I propose we try to be thankful for it since it identifies us with Christ.

4) And lastly, it might be to show us Who we need to rely on. I think we all say we rely on the Lord, but when the rubber hits the road, do we really? What if all of us start getting taxed like crazy and we have no money left to feed our families? What if the health care system becomes totally socialized and turns into an utter failure? What if we get attacked by terrorists again? If any or all of these things happened, would we still rely on the Lord? We may have a chance to find out. I don't think it would be a bad thing for our faith to be put through the fire. I pray we'd come out refined and more emptied of ourselves than ever.

These are just a few of the thoughts going through my head today, the day after. Yesterday I was all about standing up for the Lord and opposing evil. Today I'm faced with what I thought was the worst possible outcome, yet I'm asked by my Lord to be thankful for it. Praise God that this world is not our home.