Psalm 146:7 He upholds the cause of the oppressed
and gives food to the hungry.
The LORD sets prisoners free.

This Psalm is a beautiful litany of who the Lord is and especially what He does, but as I read this verse, it struck me that in many places today, government is insisting that they are who does these things. It’s not at all that governments aren’t supposed to be benevolent, but human government can never take the place of God. The problem is, those who reject God still desire and need someone to do these things, so they insist that government do them. However, any activity that rejects God is corrupted from the outset, and that corruption quickly becomes evident. The Lord does use human agencies, but when we look to the agents rather than to God, we quickly get into deep trouble. Governments tend toward oppression, even when they claim to be on the side of the oppressed. Giving food to the hungry, they create dependency and a sense of entitlement. And claiming to set people free, they end up creating far more bondage.

I have never been a political person before just a few years ago, but I have felt increasingly forced into political opinions and even political activism by world events. It is a mercy that I live in Japan, rather than America! The Lord has had to point out to me repeatedly that He’s still God, and He’s still to be trusted completely. I am to be available to Him for whatever He indicates I am to do, whether it is sign petitions or share information or whatever, but the chief thing I am to do is pray in faith. My chief temptation in relation to this is to get stirred up by events to the point that it distracts me from what God does want me doing. I am not personally called to the “political stage,” so I’m not to think and act as though I were. I’m to be faithful at each task the Lord sets for me, while praying that His Name be hallowed, His kingdom come, and His will be done perfectly right where I am, as well as throughout the whole earth.

Father, thank You for yet another reminder of how I am to look at current events. Thank You for the magnificent things You did here at the concert last night. Thank You for all that this day holds, and the next, and each day following. Help me walk in trusting obedience each day, fulfilling each task but letting You be God, not thinking or feeling that I can or should be in control, so that Your will may indeed be done in and through me, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!