How Can God Guide If We Don’t Understand His Guideposts?

The Christian Post recently released an article titled, “Will Democrat and Republican evangelicals put Gospel before party for 2020 election?”

The article focuses on an attorney named Justin Giboney who says, “And “the right way” for evangelicals to vote, he argues, is with the principles of their faith dictating the way they engage with politics.” H/T The Christian Post

This is where Christians often miss the point about politics and voting. It isn’t about faith. It’s about God and His word. How much do we know about God? How much do we know about His word, doctrine, principle and precepts? Most Christians have plenty of faith but are ignorant of what they have faith in. We don’t vote faith, we vote with the knowledge of God’s word, doctrine, principles, and precepts.

“Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend to know understanding. For I give you good doctrine, forsake ye not my law. Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth. Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee: love her, and she shall keep thee. Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding. (Proverbs 4:1-2,5-7)

There is a difference between spirituality and knowledge. Most folks have their faith in their spirituality, but don’t know what they are being faithful or spiritual about to any real depth or degree.  They feel the tug and hear the call of the Holy Spirit but tend to be completely ignorant as to the who, what, why, where, when, and how of the Spirit.

Case in point. In 2017 Life Way Research did a study that found 90% of the US households have a Bible in their home, but only 11% have read the Bible in its entirety.

In that same year, Pew Research found that only 36% of all Christians attend church once a week while 64% say they attend once or twice a month or nearly never.

Only 11% of Christians have read the Bible and 2/3’s of them sparsely or rarely attend church. So, the question is, with such poor reading of God’s word and low church attendance, what do these people know and in turn, what do they have faith in?

Don’t misinterpret what’s being said here. Faith is not being questioned. We’ve got plenty of that. But what do Christians have faith in and how do we use it to make things such as political decisions when we don’t know what it is that we faith in?   

How can God guide us if we don’t know what His guideposts are or what they mean? We can’t apply and utilize God’s precepts and principles when we are ignorant of them.

Faith is like love in that they are applied to people, places, and things. Both faith and love are like a bridge that connects us with something else. So, when we say we have faith in God and the Bible or love for God and the Bible, what we are saying is that we have established a connection between us and them. But what are we connecting to? Without knowing the what, then we have a bridge from us to nowhere.

Yes, God and politics do mix. Who do you think established law, order and the proper system of government in the first place? If we are to do the wish and the will of God, then we better know what it is before we cast a vote.

One final comment. Pray. Prayer is a lot of things, including being a testimony of our faith in God. As you go about getting wisdom and understanding, pray for guidance, especially when it comes to casting your vote and deciding who and how our country will be run.

Bill Hitchcock