ing women ’ s rights or anything else .”
- “ The mother of my three children came to this country as a political refugee ; she was a green card holder when we met .” When I try to rationalize these thoughts , I look for what I know . We are all being tested . Those who are not Christians , unable to understand we are enduring a time of change , a test , or a trial . What do you do when you as a Christian when you face a trial or a test ? Consider the Book of James , Chapter 1 , Verses 2-4 ,
2Consider it pure joy , my brothers and sisters , whenever you face trials of many kinds , 3because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance . 4Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete , not lacking anything . ( NIV )
We persevere . Christians are tested and face these trials . Their faith is what brings them through . The first quote from Twitter shows that there is an angry , hurt individual speaking out about religious institutions ? What right do they have to influence change ? Educational institutions don ’ t pay taxes . Does that mean they have no right in changing legislation regarding anything ? What do we do for this person ? Well , we pray . We must remember during these times we are facing large trials , and others are too . We do not know their relationship with God . Maybe God is reaching out to this person . And if that is so , we must recall in 1st Timothy ,
“ In fact , everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted . ( NIV )
“ If God is reaching for this person or this person is reaching to God during this trial in his or her life , we must remember as James said , “ The trying of our faith develops patience ,” ( 1:3 ) and as we develop patience we become a person of faith . Once a Christian becomes a person of faith then fear has no power over them . We learn to endure the persecution , the tests and the trials . How do we know about others , though ? How do we understand if the tests we face through their persecution is a God thing for them , or just them acting out in anger against us , because of circumstance ? Well , we don ’ t .
We , as Paul said , “ Walk by faith , not by sight ” ( 2nd Corinthians 5:7 ) because our life is built on hope and faith and it is not a circumstance . It cannot change if it is Godly , for faith will remain the same . We may have lapses in faith , but if we are faithful , we will find our trust in God leads us away from our fears , not allowing fear to take control of our life . What I am seeing are people , believers or non-believers , who have encountered unanswered prayers . One thing I remember reading about unanswered prayers is that desperation forces us to pray , but it also makes us vulnerable to the disappointment of unanswered prayer .
I remember the night of the election ; I stayed up with my daughter , Allyson . She is in those teen years and learning about Government . We spent the day talking about democracy and life under such freedoms . We discussed hot topics and the continued worries over terrorism . We discussed God , her fears , and her views , which I will say are quite a bit different than mine . She could not sleep due to some of her worries over the new candidates , and she wanted to know who would be President . I prayed all day over who to cast my vote for . I finally made my decision , and when the voting polls had started closing , my daughter and I began watching returns . The next morning , I heard many comments in disbelief , others began demanding a recount . Some people said they had cried all night ; others were shocked as they went to bed with HER and woke up with HIM . Even our First Lady Michelle Obama said , “ I went to bed . I don ’ t like to watch the political discourse ; I never have .” What I didn ’ t hear or see was a lot of people saying was I prayed , and God didn ’ t answer my prayer . Oddly enough , most people who never mentioned prayer still spoke as if they felt a sense of entitlement . They felt God owed them the best person to lead , and that was who each voter felt was the best person .
Unanswered prayer , either specifically or indirectly asked , still seemed to leave many with a sense of abandonment . The changes that were expected to come had people speaking as if they were expecting a personal punishment . The blame was heavily heaped onto Christian followers as these were the people who stand against abortion and same-sex marriage . People wanted to know how these people who called themselves