“This…is how you should pray:
“‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.’
The prayer the Lord taught us ought to guide us not only in our praying, but also in what agendas we take up and promote in this world. As well as what we see as important in this world, from what is not as important, and might even be idolatrous, or maybe a waste of time.
And above all, we in Jesus need to be people of prayer. If we are praying about something, then we are at best, entering into a stance of interactivity with God, which means that more often than not, we will be involved in some way in God’s answer. At least we’re to be open to that.
And we do all of this with God’s agenda of the gospel in Jesus in heart, mind, and deed. The good news is of God’s grace, as well as kingdom in Jesus, and so is political, but not of the politics of this world. It might impact this world’s political systems, but it remains separate from them.
What is shocking to me is the notion that politics and the gospel have nothing in common. The good news in Jesus involves one’s salvation and personal relationship with God, yes. But that gospel is as big as all of life, with a promise which involves everything, and in the end, forever.
But concerning the politics of this world, we do well to have the attitude that regardless of how we vote and our own tendencies in regard to that, that God’s answer to it is as we find in Joshua, “Neither. But as Captain of the LORD of hosts, I have come to you.” In other words, we hope for the best for our nation and the world. But we are first and foremost, and in a certain sense exclusively on the Lord’s side. On King Jesus’s side. As we continue to pray, and begin to live out the prayer he taught us.
Jesus community 