As the ticking time bomb slowly counts down to election day, people are becoming more and more anxious. There cannot ever seem to be enough wrong with these two candidates, as more dirt keeps piling on them both every day.
It appears that either way we are doomed. Our options are a man who is probably the most egotistical person on this planet, and has the temperament of a five year old who just got his favorite toy taken away; and a woman who is currently under FBI investigation and who many believe is responsible for the deaths of at least four people in Benghazi. This is going to be fun.
It gets even crazier than that. One of these two will be our next president, and that is by God's design! Romans 13:1 tells us that... 'Everyone must submit to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist are instituted by God.' He is going to appoint one of these two to be our president in a few days. Whoever wins the presidency is who God wants to be over us!
He will get His way and He does have a plan. That verse says more than the fact He will be choosing who our president is though; it gives us a command. We are supposed to submit to whoever is elected.
My parents told me only about a billion times growing up, "obeying us is practice for obeying God." Submitting to our authority here is great practice for submitting to God, who we cannot see. I don't know about you, but when I think about submitting to God it usually doesn't involve posting memes about how ridiculous He is or complaining about Him to my friends. So why practice by doing that to the person He appoints over us?
John W. Ritenbaugh explains in the Forerunner Commentary that in Greek, the word for submit is hupotasso; to arrange in order under. God uses the word submit only sixteen times in the Bible (according to the Forerunner Commentary). If He is telling us He appointed our authority and knowing this is one of the rare times He tells us to submit, we should probably take that seriously.
As these next few days wind down and we see who God appoints over us, we have the opportunity to add to the anxiety and frustration around us, or to, "Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." Psalm 46:10 No matter what happens, He is in control and He has a plan that will bring Him glory and work out for the good of those who love Him. Will you trust Him in this election?
