Two Thoughts Post Election...Church: This is Our Calling!!

This question came on election night to a panel of hosts: Can a President Trump heal wounds opened by this election?

I don't know what the panel suggested. I really didn't hear. My mind was off giving it's own response...

...and my answer is a resounding "NO!"

Our country isn't Civil War divided (thank the Lord!!!), but in my lifetime, I've never seen a more divided country.

I've never seen Christians so divided on issues that really matter.
There is no political winner...
The ENEMY OF OUR SOULS has won!

Only the Lord God, who serves heaven and earth, is the healer of the kind of wounds that I've seen bled out all over social media, the news media, and across dinner tables. 

So...we pray and begin asking Him to do just this: heal the hurts of those who are battle scarred, bloody, and who feel betrayed, confused, and, yes, even shocked.

I know, pray...that is such a simplistic response.
It's the Biblical response.
The Message translation puts it best:

The first thing I want you to do 

(by the way, this is the first morning following an election, what a better time to start this HOLY HABIT!!!)

is pray. 

Pray for everyone you know. 

(we are all sick hearted, because of this season of politics)

Pray ESPECIALLY for rulers and their governments to rule well, so we can be quietly about our business of living simply, in humble contemplation. This is the way our Savior God wants us to live.

(1 Timothy 1:1-3, emphasis mine)

But, there's more...Yes, PRAY for our government and those who will lead her. PRAY for our nation and for godliness to be served. Pray that each leader will surround themselves with wise advisors.

Now (secondly), among the church, we must take heed to the Apostle Paul's words. It's his "short list." Yet it's a good list. An intentional list to give us our next steps post election.

Finally, brothers and sisters, rejoice.

Aim for restoration,

Comfort one another,

Learn to live in harmony with one another, 

Live in peace;

and the God of love and peace will be with you.

2 Cor. 13:11

His directions are clear.
No matter the outcome we hoped for or received, we rejoice.
We can do that by remembering that God is control, NO MATTER WHAT.
So, as Jesus told us, "be of good cheer."

AND...we set a goal, a target...of restoration, to be comforters, to live harmoniously and at peace with one another...
The word for restore literally means "to repair the nets"...

Church, we have a mission, a calling, to be fishers of men.
Our nets are torn with disunity.
Earthly perspectives have ripped our nets to shreds with huge holes...

We're losing the fish to the sea of worldliness.
Not too many want to be us, not anymore.
Why would they?
It's time to do the work of joining together what has been broken.
For the sake of the cross.
For heaven's sake.
For the gospel's sake.
For eternity's sake.

My prayer over the past couple of weeks has been a heart cry...often with tears streaming. It's been a simple one...only four words. It's all I could muster. Yet, it's been a focus, and it fits Paul's admonition:

BIND US TOGETHER, LORD!

"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds ... to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."

Abraham Lincoln's, Second Inaugural Address