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Obama Won: Putting our Hope in God Alone

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This blog entry was written by Jordan Pepin, an Elder at Glory of Christ, his wife's name is Jen. 

“Jen. Obama won.” That was the text my wife received from a friend last night. With just a few words, there was much said; anxiety, fear, concern for her young children, lack of hope. I knew her feelings because I had the same feelings. Like many others I’m sure, I did not sleep well last night, mostly tossing with different thoughts of what could transpire in the next four years. Mostly, there was fear for what my kids would have to go through. I spent the night tossing. 

This morning I woke with the same dark cloud over my heart. I began to preach to myself (saying things like, “God is in control”, “God is the one that sets up rulers”, etc.), but the preaching was dry and not impacting my heart. But, God by the Holy Spirit began to preach to me, and He is a much better preacher than I am. His preaching impacted my heart significantly. That is why I am writing right now. My desire is that God would encourage others with the encouragement that He gave me. It wasn’t so much a revealing of facts that changed my heart this morning. It was a transfer of hope. 

Without me knowing it, over the last months of all that led up to this election (campaigns, debates, constant talk of important societal/moral issues), I had gradually been shifting my hope to man. Hope in a conservative government. Hope in amendments to protect marriage. Hope in a conservative president to help to protect the unborn. Hope in a president that would protect the economy so that my kids could have an enjoyable life. Hope takes energy, and if we put it in the wrong things we are left empty and weak, and this is how I felt this morning.

But, by the grace of God, as I am writing this, I am full of hope and peace and even excitement. What brought about the change? By God’s grace, my hope was transferred from this world to God and His kingdom. God helped me to shift my eyes from politics to His kingdom. He gave me a renewed zeal for the church and for evangelism. There is real hope in these things because in Christ we have great strength, real power, for after all we are “more than conquerors”. The more we transfer hope from this world to God’s kingdom, the more we will have joy, energy and zeal that cannot be shaken by even president Obama. May God, through the Holy Spirit lift the eyes of our soul to see the eternal things that cannot be shaken. For His glory and our joy. 


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