Greetings!
This may or may not resonate with you; but it did with me. That is why I have chosen to write a short blog about it.
We are entering presidential election season - yipee! And due to that, I am reminded how I have been tricked many a time by putting my hopes in men. [I am using that term generically, not simply because all Presidents to this point have been men.]
I am a political science major. I got my B.S. in Poly sci and I have always been politically active. I am now 49 years old; and I have seen people come and go - as have you - in office. I do believe who we elect to be an office holder makes a difference in our lives. I do believe that the character, integrity, and beliefs of those running for office matters greatly. I have often said that just because a man is a man of principles does not automatically make him a good leader; it all depends upon what principles he holds!
However, I have been tricked time and again in putting so much hope in political leaders. And of course it is not simply political leaders. We place our hopes in money, earthly power, our own abilities, etc... I am writing this blog for me more than anyone else.
Beloved, the answer is not in man - it is in God. Really and truly - it is in God.
Psalm 146:3-4 reads this:
Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation. When his breath departs he returns to the earth; on that very day his plans perish.
I can remember one particular time I was sucked in badly. I was very disheartened by the direction of the country and I thought to myself, "as long as this person is elected, everything is going to turn around!" So I knocked on doors, I gave out pamphlets, and I really believed it was going to be different.
They Won! I was so happy. I remember calling my grandmother during the inaugural and she said to me, "doesn't the air just smell cleaner now..." Thinking back on it it is funny. But I believed it!
Then...things kinda kept going as they always have. What a let down....
1st Corinthians 3:1-7 reads this:
But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? For when one says, "I follow Paul," and another, "I follow Apollos," are you not being merely human? What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.
It even happened religiously at the time of Paul~! People were saying, "I follow this preacher...I follow that one!" But again, it is not about the preacher. It is about the God the preacher talks of: He is the only one that can save. V.7 reads it, "So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth..."
Beloved, truly, place your hope in God and His Son Jesus Christ. He is where our hope comes from. If we put our hope in men, we shall be doomed. For men, all men, are sinners and all will perish, but Christ is all in all.
Your friend,
Christopher Ogne
