Who sits on the throne?

"... acknowledge that the Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and gives them to anyone He wishes" - Daniel 4:32b.

The election is over. The United States of America has chosen her new president; the Most High has given that office to whom He wished. It has been a long process for engaged Americans, filled at times with questions and accusations and excitement and fear and anger and jubilation and despair and grief and hope.

Throughout all of it, there have been passionate interchanges, particularly between followers of Christ.

And now, it is time to move on... not in leaving something behind, but in moving into this new era with faithful prayer for our new president. Now it is appropriate for "men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer, without anger or disputing..." and "that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone - for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior" - from 1 Timothy 2.

Personally, I have been a little bit grieved that my conscience did not allow me to cast my vote for the first black president in United States history. It is exciting to know that our country has moved beyond racial prejudice that precludes its voting for a man who is not white. Of all the many things I believe the Lord will be accomplishing as He moves us through His sovereign will for these next years in America, I hope that the communication of racial healing and the accomplishment of some measure of racial reconciliation and restoration, will be among them.

Time will reveal the future. President Obama will do some things right, and he will do some things wrong. Even as I pray for him, his family, and his administration, I will pray for his relationship with the sovereign LORD. I will pray that he comes to know Him, if he does not already, and that his governing will be from a position of humility and dependence upon the wisdom and will of the Most High God.

I will pray that the Lord will change his heart and mind where he is wrong, and that He will "instruct him and teach him in the way he should go" (Psalm 32:8). I will pray that the Lord will give him strength to stand firm where he is right and will richly bless him as he does so.

And I will never stop praying that God will step in and intervene on behalf of the thousands of babies who are legally murdered each day in the United States alone through abortion. I will pray that by some miraculous heart change, President Obama will not make good on his promise to Planned Parenthood to sign the Freedom of Choice Act.

But however many babies are legally killed, and however many women are damaged physically and emotionally in the process, America will walk through these next hours and days and months and years.

And our ultimate hope is in God, who is our Ultimate Hope. Salvation does not come through politics or good laws or good economic policies or, or...

"Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne" - Revelation7:10.