Today may be the inauguration, but it looks anything but routine for our country. The military presence and precaution calls to mind more of a Russian “president’s” installation than a free country’s ceremonies that we are used too.
Like any president I can remember, Joe Biden has published what he wants to accomplish in his first 100 days. As with any president I can remember, there’s things to be worried about on that list—but that’s not really shocking news. But, right now, I think the Church needs to choose exactly this moment of fear, panic, worry, anxiety, questioning, tension, and disagreement, to begin to take its role of salt and light seriously. We have forgotten what it means. We have been cozy to the idols around us, and it’s the perfect time to be free. So rather than spending 100 days fretting and worrying and fighting and arguing and reacting, let’s decide to act, pray, sharpen ourselves, sharpen one another, and be salt and light. Here is the agenda.
Pray. And Pray. Every day. Every day.
If the only thing we accomplish in the next 100 days is 100 days of faithful, dedicated prayer, then we have accomplished much. We need to stop thinking of prayer as something so trite—tossing a few wishful thoughts God’s way. Prayer is a weapon. Prayer is a sword. Prayer is mightier than we know, and we wield that weapon more like it’s a nerf gun than the 400-megaton bomb that it is.
So pray. And pray until you are really praying. Until your heart is truly lifted up towards God. Call upon the name of the Lord to act. Pray for our government in general and our governors in particular.
Pray for the salvation of Joe Biden, Donald Trump (not the president anymore, but likely still an important cultural actor), Kamala Harris, Chuck Shumer, Mitch McConnell, your governor, your mayors, your city council members, our new secretaries, our new directors, etc. Pray for them, that God would save their souls. Pray for them, that God would reform their hearts to know His name and to fear it.
Do we really and truly believe that the best blessing a nation could have is godly leaders? If we don’t believe that, could there be any other reason for our disbelief than our being too influenced by the world? What could be a better blessing than leaders that fear and know the true God? At the very, very least, wouldn’t it be better than the dishonesty, childishness, pragmatism, and rancor that rules our rulers now?
Beyond that, pray that the church would be able to live peaceable lives among them, regardless of the spiritual state of the rulers. Pray for peace. Prayer for opportunity for the church.
If you have any issues with praying like this, see 1 Timothy 2:
Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
Pray Specifically
Sometimes I think we like to offer up vague prayers because if they don’t come to pass we are shielded from ever having to have exercised true faith. So pray specifically. Pray specifically for victories in your life, in your local church, in your family, in the global church, in the salvation of specific people—high and low. Pray for specific things, and exercise specific faith. Your God is powerful. We can not ask too much of Him.
So make a checklist and make alarms and timers on your phone and calendar. Let’s hit our knees and pray for 100 days.
Memorize Scripture
Ensure that you are dwelling mainly on God’s word, and not the political world, by memorizing scripture in the next 100 days. Whether it’s 1 Peter 1:1-9 or Psalm 139, or Psalm 20, or Revelation 5, go for it. Memorizing scripture is powerful because we can only memorize that which we meditate on. And when we have it memorized, the scripture truly has become a part of our mind—and hopefully also a part of our character and soul.
Focus on the psalms. Note how they remind us of God’s ruling over rulers, deliverance for His people, and justice exercised over all. Let the Psalms dry up the river of fear you might feel as though you are drowning in.
Refuse Fear and Despair
The church must refuse fear. The devil, the one prowling around like a roaring lion, has two paths to making the Church ineffective: fear and apathy. He would love for us either to be asleep to our calling in the world or too afraid to set our face to the flint and go for it.
It’s simple, but it’s not easy. Refuse fear. Tell the enemy that it will not have your mind—the worst nightmares you can imagine will not render you fearful, backed into the corner. Even in China, right now, the persecuted church is not truly backed into the corner. It is conquering. Even in muslim countries it is overcoming and taking ground. Banish fear and despair. I’m not suggesting you refuse reality and fail to be discerning and recognize the conditions around us, but I am telling you that we don’t need to be controlled by them.
We do not need to be in submission to apathy or fear or despair. Refuse sleeping and refuse sulking.
Meet your neighbors
I’m not great at growing relationships with my neighbors, but I believe it is a huge tool that we fail to leverage. Want to make an impact in the world? Want to be a witness? Want to simply be a voice that calms the cultural tenor and restores some semblance of country-unity?
Meet your neighbors. Meet your ultra-local politicians. Show care for them, share the good news with them, and demonstrate, in some small way, that some of the caricatures they may see in the news media are not true. When you meet your neighbors, you will notice that most of them are not the riotous, racist, communist mobs you see elsewhere.
Take your home seriously
We need to start witnessing next door, and we need to start discipleship indoors. In the next 100 days, sharpen the discipleship inside your home. Take the care of your spouse, your kids, the people closest to you, seriously. They are your primary calling, and there is no one better on which to spend your time. Take family worship seriously. Read the Bible in your home together. Pray together. Be at Church together. Make your family meals joyous and always in view of God’s goodness. Take your home seriously.
Remove your idols
Stop trusting in politicians. Stop it in the big ways and the implicit, small ways. Examine your hearts, and wonder if your conceptions of politicians and their duties are more shaped by the Word or the world. Stop trusting in the world. Stop loving the things of this world. Stop following the pragmatism of the world—in your voting, your living, your beliefs. The Church needs to remove pragmatism, which is idolatry, from our midst. Let’s clean house and truly become the Church. Let’s pray for God to uncover our idols, to make our hearts soft to His correction. Ask God to remove idols from our homes, from our governments, from our churches, from our hearts. Read and pray Daniel 9.
Then we can truly say, with no duplicity in our hearts, “We have no king but Christ.”
Remember, Church, your God has reigned for far longer than 100 days, and He will continue to reign for far more than 100,000 years to come.
AMEN, AMEN and AMEN!
Feeling challenged and convicted all at once. Thank you for sharing wisdom from above.