Obamacare

This week I heard of some Christians sitting around bashing our President. As you may know recently he had to have some stitches from an accident and they were so very glad it happened to him. The friend who actually heard these folks was telling me that he thought they would genuinely rejoice if President Obama was assassinated. And these were followers of Christ meeting in a Sunday school class setting.

Why do so many professing Christians seem to "hate" our president? I mean I realize that many of his policies may be detrimental to our nation over time, maybe even now, but is a spirit of hatred and animosity what God calls us to as believers? I don't think so. If anything I think it's just the opposite. Let me tell you how we ought to respond to our president.

First, we should genuinely care for him. No matter how you feel about his policies he is a man that Jesus died for and God loves. Furthermore, the Bible is pretty clear that we are to love our enemies. I personally don't consider him my enemy but for those of you who do, remember the call of God on your life is to love your enemies, care for those who despitefully use you. Obama care is what God calls you to.

Secondly, we are called to respect our president. In the book of Romans in our NT it tells us to submit to those in authority because they are there by God's will. He either set them up purposefully or He has allowed them to rise to power. We are to show honor to whom honor is due and I believe as our elected leader he is due honor. This means we should refrain from name calling and pejorative speech about President Obama.

Thirdly, we should pray for our president. The Scriptures call us to pray for our leaders first of all. We owe it to President Obama to pray for him wisdom and discernment as he leads us. We should pray that God will be at work in his life and that he might truly experience and live out the saving grace of God in his life.

Now I feel the need to say that none of this precludes our seeking to elect another man to the presidency of our nation if we believe President Obama is not the right guy for the job. It is one of the wonders of our government that we the people can elect our leaders. But even as you may long for a different leader, for the time being I challenge you to Obama-care; to care for our President as God would have us. Let us not walk in the flesh but in the Spirit.