Learning to Vote With Open Hands
What Jesus Teaches About Surrendering to God’s Authority.
The first day of kindergarten. First day driving a car alone. Leaving for college. All parents know what it feels like to have to let go and trust that it will be ok.
In business, maybe you are the team leader, but you have to relinquish control over a project. You need to let go and trust that your team can be successful.
We even experience this in our finances. Being a good steward means that there will be times when we must do the hard right and trust that God will take care of the unseen.
There are many times in life that we must learn to live and lead with an open hand. Our instinct tells us that the safe thing, the prudent thing, is to hold on tighter. Whatever the “thing” is. Maybe it’s our kids, our jobs, our money, or our time.
But, we’re taught that instead of clinching our fists around that thing, we should let go. When we open our hands, we’re more capable of receiving blessings.
Think about it… if someone is trying to give you something and you stick your fist out, they won’t be able to hand you whatever they have. But, if you turn your hand over and open it to them, they will be able to give you more.
The same is true in our lives. If we hold tightly to what we do have, trying to control and protect it, we won’t be in a position to receive more. If we open our hands to God and give Him control, we’re ready for Him to give us more.
In Matthew 22, there is a group of Pharisees who are trying to trick Jesus into saying the wrong thing.
Remember, Pharisees were the religious experts of the day. They were more focused on rules and traditions than a relationship with the Lord. They were more interested in controlling their world than living open to the life God had for them.
These Pharisees question Jesus about paying taxes- if the Israelites should have to pay taxes to the Roman leader, Caesar.
We can learn a lot from Jesus’ response to them:
18 Perceiving their malicious intent, Jesus said, “Why are you testing me, hypocrites? 19 Show me the coin used for the tax.” They brought him a denarius. 20 “Whose image and inscription is this?” he asked them.21 “Caesar’s,” they said to him. Then he said to them, “Give, then, to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” 22 When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away.
Now, at first glance, this appears like a simple financial question. To be clear, there is a lesson in there about our money: commit your money to who it belongs to. That means pay your taxes, pay your bills, give back to God from what He’s given you.
But Jesus’ statement goes even deeper than how we use our money.
What He’s really speaking to is how we should view authority. The Pharisees wanted Him to say that authority belonged only to God or only to Caesar so that they could point out how unlawful that would be.
But in His perfect response, Jesus tells them (and us) that we need to respect authority in our lives and also trust and respect God with our entire lives.
So, what does this have to do with politics?
In week 1 of this series, Pastor Shane reminded us that all authority belongs to God and the authority we have in our lives comes from God.
That means we have an obligation to respect the authority in our government. We may not like or agree with everything that our political leaders do. In fact, we will often disagree with them.
But, thanks to Jesus’ example, we need to learn to vote with an open hand. We must do our part and trust God to do His.
We do that by prayerfully researching people and platforms, placing our vote for what best aligns with God’s word, and then relinquishing control to God, who is over all other authority.
Learn to vote with an open hand. Be willing to do your part and trust God to do His.
Instead of living in fear of election outcomes, practice saying, “God, I’m not sure how this is going to turn out, but you are. I trust that your plan and your authority are for my good and the good of all. Give me guidance in things you want to, and give me trust and peace in things you don’t.”
If you learn to place authority in its proper order, you won’t fear the future. You’ll be able to let go and know that God will take over.
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