Finding God’s purpose in political chaos

In Romans 8:28, we learn, “All things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose.”

During his speech in his first public rally on the campaign trail after the near-miss assassination attempt, Donald Trump alluded to the fact that if he had not turned his head slightly to the right at precisely the right moment, he would not be speaking to the crowd in Grand Rapids, Michigan, that day. He said he was specifically grateful for that “open border chart.”

We who know down deep that God exists, that He loves us, and that He is still involved in the affairs of men and women, as well as nations, must appreciate the times in which we live.

America’s daily tragedy of a wide-open southern border, where an estimated 11 million illegal aliens have flooded our nation, prompted the creation of the chart. If Biden administration officials had not created the southern border crisis through their unconscionable actions, there would be no chart. Without the chart, Trump would not have turned his head to view it. This could have been catastrophic not only for Trump but for the nation.

Although open borders are terrible for any nation, and we seem to be the only one among 200 nations to have them, this situation resulted in something positive. Trump has repeatedly thanked Almighty God for His protection on that fateful Saturday in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Recently, many terrible schemes have been devised to eliminate Trump from the political arena, culminating in the assassination attempt a couple of weekends ago. Despite numerous legal trials, some seemingly concocted from thin air, the former president has remained unbent and generally stronger in the eyes of the nation.

All this recalls a story from the Old Testament where the tables turned on the brothers who sold Joseph into slavery in Egypt (see the full account in Genesis 37-50). Eventually, Joseph rose to become second in power only to Pharaoh. He used his power to help save many nations during a time of great famine. When Joseph confronted his repentant brothers, he made this keen observation: “You meant evil against me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives” (Genesis 50:20).

Events in life sometimes unfold in domino fashion — one thing leads directly to another to another to another until we reach the final result. But as I point out in my new book, “Obvious: Seeing the Evil That’s in Plain Sight and Doing Something About It,” it also seems much of life is like a Rube Goldberg contraption:

Instead of things falling domino-style in precise order, A into B into C into D and so on — life is more like A hitting G falling onto C popping up H accelerating M ... all the way to Z. We take an action, start the ball rolling, and through many unseen and sometimes quirky circumstances, incredible results materialize.

The events in our individual lives often mirror this. We sometimes play roles in the lives of others, whether within our families, among friends, or on national and even international stages. Romans 8:28 might also shed light on the 2020 election and the disastrous effects team Biden has had on America over the past three and a half years. Could this period, this specific “all things” situation, have been necessary to wake up enough citizens to the precarious state of our constitutional government? President Ronald Reagan emphasized that "Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction."

We have witnessed two stark choices now over these past eight years. Do we want a constitutional republic originally designed by America’s founders to empower “We, the People”? Or will we settle for a phony democracy in which certain elites decide how and by whom we are controlled?

America has roughly three months to decide its future. Might it not be time for those who “love God and are called according to His purpose” to pray for His continued intervention in our lives and in the life of this nation?

Irving Berlin wrote a powerful prayer that should be applied to just such an opportunity. Originally written in 1918, during World War I, but revised in the lead-up to World War II, Berlin’s opening lines lay the groundwork for his heartfelt, inspirational plea to heaven:

While the storm clouds gather far across the sea,
Let us swear allegiance to a land that’s free.
Let us all be grateful for a land so fair,
As we raise our voices in a solemn prayer.

Of course, what follows this preamble is a simple yet powerful request to God Almighty and is applicable to our current national crisis. (And I hope you will excuse me making a few slight tweaks to the lyrics to bring the prayer just a bit more into focus):

God bless America, land that [we] love
Stand beside her and guide her
Through [this] night with [Your] light from above

Adding this prayer to our heartfelt petition through the “Our Father,” in which we pray “deliver us from evil” (where the “us” can include our nation as a whole), we can “fight the good fight” now, on Election Day, and beyond. And this fight certainly includes being involved patriotically, but with the Holy Spirit's leading, in politics for the good of our nation, and by extension, all the nations of the world.

We who know down deep that God exists, that He loves us, and that He is still involved in the affairs of men and women, as well as nations, must appreciate the times in which we live.

Yes, we certainly were “born for such a time as this,” and we must solemnly take our role very seriously.

Editor’s note: A version of this article appeared originally at The Stream.