As The Civil War raged on, a man once approached President Abraham Lincoln with the following statement. “Mr. President, we trust during this time of trial in which the nation is engaged, God is on our side, and will give us victory.” Lincoln replied: “Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side. My greatest concern is to be on God’s side…”
Lincoln refused to picture the North as virtuous in the Civil War, nor the South as evil. He knew each was fighting for a cause they believed in. In his second Inaugural Address in 1865 Lincoln said, “Both (North and South) read the same Bible and pray to the same God…”
Lincoln knew the outcome was in God’s hands, saying later in the speech, “The prayers of both could not be answered; that of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes.” Perhaps Mr. Lincoln had the following Bible verses in mind when he made that statement. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9).
President Lincoln knew God’s perspective is not always the same as our perspective. God sees the entire picture; we only see a part of it. There are people all across America praying to God for their candidate to win on Election Day. Undoubtedly some of them are praying for an opposing candidate. The Bible says in Proverbs 21:1:
“The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will” (Proverbs 21:1).
Christians need to continue to fervently pray, but at the same time recognize God’s sovereignty in this election and in the future of America. He is in control, He has a purpose for everything, and can move in the hearts of any politician, whether or not they have a personal relationship with Him. Pray and trust!
“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven” (Ecclesiastes 3:1).
“Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.”
— Corrie Ten Boom