God's Sovereignty Over the Nations

I was thinking this week about how God works in governments and political processes in ways we often don’t understand. We need to pray, obey and vote but yet we can not forget there is also the invisible hand of God guiding history.

In the years leading up to the American Revolution, pulpits throughout the colonies were boldly declaring that succession from Britain was God’s will – with many encouraging armed resistance. However, there were also many pastors who felt such preaching of succession was simply rebellion and thus a violation of God’s clear command to honor authority in Romans 13.

Which side was God on?

In the Civil War, the South had a God-fearing, praying and humble general named Robert E. Lee, while the North had a hard drinking, arrogant, and secular general named Ulysses S. Grant. The North had the right cause but the South had an overtly Christian general.

Which general was pleasing to God? Think about it.

When I hear someone categorically declare that such and such candidate is God’s man or woman, I remember both biblical and secular history and realize we must always say such things with humility.