I had a conversation with a good friend the other day. We were commiserating on how the left seems to always have the upper hand in politics and the Republicans in government seem content to let them have their way. Then he said something that has stuck with me and is the reason for this essay.
He commented about how every reason we voted for President Trump and hoped for in the new administration will never come to pass. He said, (paraphrased) – The wall will never be built and the military will never enforce our borders. The corrupt politicians will never go to jail. The left will never stop stealing elections and President Trump will be defeated in 2020. We’re doomed.
I know that I’ve felt this way before and many of you have (or still do) the same frustration. It’s also discouraging for all the conservatives trying to fight the left on social media. Censorship, demonetization and banning removes our spot in the public square and eliminates our ability to dialogue with the left. Some on the right may think that is not important, but you never know when your words might find purchase in someone’s mind, be it the person you are talking to or someone just on the sidelines listening. Our voice has been squashed and yet the left can terrorize freely.
Should we despair when we see the massive in-your-face voter fraud by one political party that just occurred? Should we despair as each of President Trump’s decisions are reversed by one person pretending to be a fair and impartial judge? Should we despair when patriots are jailed for campaign finance laws that are perpetrated in an even more egregious manner by the left and they are not even investigated? Should we despair as we watch the hordes of intended illegal invaders arrive by the thousands for the purpose of storming the borders, causing mayhem and turning our country into a third-world shithole?
Should we despair?
Despair will touch us all at some time. What we do with it matters. Whether we let it consume us or we deal with it and continue, it will affect our lives and those we know and love.
Sometimes it helps to know what that despair is and where and why it is happening. Some of our despair is purposely orchestrated by the left in order to shut us down. They fuss and scream about some unimaginable horror whenever we think that we are gaining ground. We see them as being unhinged, which is quite often true, but it is also used to demoralize us as they are priming their base to action.
Then much of our despair is brought on by the seeming inaction of our government to keep their promises to us. We feel like we are expending our energy fighting to elect someone who will stand for us, scream that we want our country back as the founders created her, and for what? We have had some winning, but it often feels like a band aid on a massive open wound. We believe in law and order and when it fails us, when it benefits only the lawless, we despair.
What do we do? How can we hope to prevail?
Hope?
Is hope for the weak? Is it a wishy-washy optimism; a reaction to adversity that will mean nothing and keeps us from reality? That is a hope defined as a wish for something to be true.
The hope that we need is defined as a desire with confident expectation of fulfillment. No matter the depths of darkness we find ourselves in, we can find a way out. We can see goodness every day in the interactions with family, friends and even strangers. Sure, there are creeps out there, but kindness can be found. We have available within the conservative community, many who are supportive, giving and compassionate.
But that is not always enough to pull us out of the despair we feel when our country is in danger. When my soul is disturbed at what I see happening to our country, I don’t want to lose hope. I cannot live without hope. At times, I have despaired and let it consume me. I will not allow myself to go to that dark place anymore. I look for reasons to hope. Here are a few glimmers of hope that I found in the last few days:
– President Trump tweeted an image that showed the current fence that was reinforced by the military. MJA posted it here.
– Texas contractor wins $145 million contract to build border wall in Rio Grande Valley. Here
– Trump signs executive order launching voter fraud commission: Here
– Court Rules Hillary Clinton Must Answer Key Questions About Her Private Server. Here
– We have less RINOs in congress and more pro-trump policy Rs who are publicly supporting him. Here
– Donald Trump Blasts Democrat ‘Collusion’ with Google, Facebook, and Twitter. Here
– One last thing – a tweet from a patriot, Bill Mitchell:
“The Japanese won the Battle of Pearl Harbor and I’m not speaking Japanese.
Trump wins in 2020 and we take back the House from these feckless, cheating Democrats!”
These are encouraging. Yet, we still want more. We expect more. My faith in God has allowed me to draw on strength beyond my or any human’s ability. My hope is not a passive hope, but dynamic and life sustaining.
There are active results in my thoughts and attitudes when I pray for and exercise my faith in God’s mercy for our country. It changes my view of myself and my fellow patriot’s roles in creating the changes we desire. We value the goodness of a country founded on the protection and favor of the Creator. What we do with our blessed gift of life in a free country – the time, our treasures and talents – can be used to bring change to this nation. We do what we can to join the fight: write essays, debate the value of our policies and positions, encourage and uplift those in peril of succumbing to despair, spread strength and boldness to those in need, protect the weak, keep informed, courageously face assault to spread our message and endure ridicule or attacks as we stand for truth.
What is the ‘moral to the story’? We all despair some time. I find myself faced with it almost daily and then pray for peace. As a result, I often read our comments (we are the best on the internet!), find a way to encourage someone here or on Twitter and tweet uncomplimentary digs to humiliate the left. But, when I find myself at my limit, I back away, watch critter or laughing baby videos or just close my laptop and read something fun.
Would you share with us what you do?
There is a line from the movie “Twelve O’Clock High:l” “have you ever seen a lightbulb before it burns out? It gets brighter and bright.”
I can’t help but think that this is what is happening with the left. They appear to be more in our faces, but perhaps that is because their days are numbered and they know it — not that they would admit it.
I read Claudia’s rants and then try to figure out how to not break out the hillbillies windows with my resurrected wrist rocket….your an angel Claudia!…
WGG
The left is morally, intellectually bankrupt. We have to stay on top of this, don’t give up, fight the good fight. It’s all just gorilla dust but still dangerous. What will our descendants say about us? Let’s give them something to brag on us about.
My hope is not in what man can do. It is in God who is loving, forgiving, merciful and gracious to all who call on Him. He has a wonderful plan for me and anybody else who turns to Him in repentance. God has revealed His plan through His Son, Jesus who gained the victory over Death, Hell and the grave for us when He resurrected on the third day.
No matter what happens, God loves each one of us and He desires to have a forever relationship with us if we put our faith in what His Son accomplished.
With Thanksgiving coming, the Left annoying me, I do come here for some laughs and all that. I’ll go watch Conservative videos, watch people try to fix up their own hair (and sometimes fail hilariously).
And then sometimes at night, I put on my black leotard made of fleece and fight petty crimes. I mostly let them off with a warning. And give them short cuts to where ever they were going. But that’s only when I had coffee around 9:30pm and can’t sleep.
I remember despair in the winter of 2009. Then I read about the Tea Party protest in February of that year. I learned about the upcoming Tax Day Tea Party rally in DC and I went. It was small, but I saw on Fox news later that evening that similar rallies took place all over the country. I saw a slight glimmer of hope…
I then went to rallies in Baltimore and DC during that summer and then the HUUUGE 9/12 rally in DC. At that point I KNEW there were enough people like me across the country who had the passion and fortitude to convert thoughts into ACTION. My despair had been replaced with HOPE.
It hasn’t been easy, we’ve made progress, but had setbacks too.
I believe Donald J Trump was watching and realized the country was worth trying to save. Thank you President Trump!
Oh and I do think RadioMattM has a good point. The left is going to go end-stage retard and they will screw up the Dem party with in-fighting. The little socialists will be raging over climate change and other bullshit that has nothing to do with the public’s well-being. (It’s easy to pretend-fix the future instead of doing something legitimate for the present) There will be about 200 committees added within 6 months and they’ll be fighting about who will run those. It’ll be a clusterfuck and the media will not know who to side with. lol. I will enjoy it.
My hope or despair has nothing to do with other people. Only I can make myself happy or sad or whatever other emotions people have…. I dunno’, hunger maybe.
The point is, be Rick James. Be the master of your domain. Live like James T. Kirk.
You’re bound to make friends and influence people.
Kirk… That reminds me. What the hell was going on inside that box Cpt. Pike was in? (Oh, shit. I just wrote the first line in stormy daniel’s next porno. lol)
@MJA
The vision I just got in my head has ruined Star Trek for me forever!
Look at that expression on his face!
http://www.robertdagnall.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/christopher-pike.png
.
LOL Jethro. And look where his arms are! And why did those buttons light up?
😀
Yes yes, we all know the mobile orgasmatron Capt. Pike rolled around in gave him a permanent ‘O” face….
Not my personal roll model… more of a Kirk guy….. but whatever works for you.
Actually, I’m more of a Scotty gal. Slip him some whiskey and he’ll send you traveling where ever you like.
Dear Claudia,
You’re sort of saying what I’ve been *screaming* at the people going wobbly here (NOT THE WOBBLIES, you historical illiterates!):
for the short-span-of-attention out there, HERE:
https://youtu.be/nHFTtz3uucY?t=26 (please ALSO go to 1:20)
and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8lT1o0sDwI
TRANSLATION: YOU WHINY F*CKERS ARE EXACTLY WHY WE ARE GOING TO LOSE!…*if* you don’t realize: THIS IS ONLY THE BEGINNING! WE ARE GOING TO WIN, BUT *YOU* HAVE TO KEEP *YOUR* SPIRIT UP, and FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!!
(Leave the Tokyo Rose-ing and Eeyore-ing to the Dems)
It’s up to YOU.
Anyway, I guess what I’m saying is- yeah, you do have to let your brain go do other stuff, and claudia’s right. Look at the positives. There are good things Trump has done that doesn’t even show on radar.
Also, keep in mind that the lsm blows negative shit up bigger than it actually is. Even FOX does it. That’s why you always see weathermen calling a light rain, DELUGE 2018!!!11! and other stupid shit.
Despair, expressed as anger.
That was a beautiful essay, Claudia. I, too, despair as we’ve seem to have lost the free and fair electoral process. Devious people are thieving our fair elections with impunity, meaning there is no punishment.
We might lose an election based on ideas, but one has to wonder, what is the point in the arena of ideas, if the brown shirts simply steal the election via improper and malevolent counting. Josef Stalin said it. It matters not how people vote. It only matters who counts the vote.
I do not believe for a second that good conservative men and women lost at a fair, free and HONEST ballot box.
The process was intentionally and maliciously corrupted by those who ascribe to the notion that their agenda should be advanced ‘by any means necessary’.
Sorry for the rant. I don’t think God will necessarily save our constitutional republic.
And I don’t know what the answer to your questions are.
Well, maybe I do and it involves the criminal courts and an informal justice system that sends the message that there we be no quarter given to multi voting, vote manufacturers and electoral thieves that eliminate our lawful votes.
The system is corrupted. Their evil puts us into the ballots vs bullets scenario. We did not do this. We abide by the rule of law. They put themselves into crosshairs of their own design.
/submitted without editing.
FROM Brian Cates (@DrawAndStrike)
“I get people are tired of waiting. It doesn’t change anything.
“I”m tired of waiting for Trump to act” = “I’m sad Marilyn Monroe is dead.”
It’s an emotional statement. Trump knows what he’s doing. You don’t know more than he does.”
I remember that dude,aliens put his
brain into a permanent LSD trip into LA-LA
land cause his body was all messed up and
he was in pain from crashing a space ship
at 7000 MPH or some such accident…
You know what the big problem with the GOP was? When opportunity was opened to them to slam a dem when they screwed up, they never took it. When the opportunity to slam a dem when they did something illegal, they never took it. Until Trump. So, we scraped a lot of RINOS from our shoes earlier this month. Is the new GOP going to follow Trump’s lead and fight back? Some of them are doing it, but the ones ‘thinking’ about it, better start doing it.
It is all too easy to look at the world and our country and be a bit overwhelmed by all the things we don’t like happening “out there” (reason for quotation marks will become apparent – I hope). I am not a player on the world stage, so to speak, and know I never will be. Fine by me. And if you squint a little, there’s a lot of amusement and entertainment “out there” but what I focus on is my choice. There’s a lot of good “out there” as well, and spending my time looking at and thinking about and enjoying the good is a fine balm against despair.
And then there’s “in here”. By that I mean my own personal actions, decisions, and interactions with the people I come in contact with. Many of those people are good people. They, like me, mostly want to live their lives quietly on their own terms, and be left alone by the busybodies and martinets. We get along just fine. Sometimes, our level of communication and understanding becomes deep enough that we enable positive changes in one, the other, or both of us.
On the other hand, some of those people are bad people; obviously I do not make lasting relationships with them…unless. And here comes a real basis for some measure of hope. I do try to engage those I initially perceive as bad people enough so that maybe we’ll understand each other’s way of looking at things. More often than not, we see the gulf between us and go on our own ways. But occasionally, when explaining why I think the way I do about something we disagree on, the other person actually has listened, and sometimes a little bit of new understanding takes hold. I see that in a small way I have made a positive difference.
And that’s the only way I’ll ever make any kind of impact on the world: in small ways, by happenstance, and with one person at a time. The upshot is that I’m a fairly hopeful guy. And that’s why.
Big Brother is more like the gigantic organization in Terry Gilliam’s “Brazil” than in George Orwell’s “1984.” The bureaucrats in “Brazil” weren’t so much evil as mindless and frequently incompetent; they performed their functions and put up with the sloppy functioning of the government without ever having a real purpose. That’s the left – mindless and frequently incompetent and with only the vaguest purpose – and that’s why they always fail.
America isn’t a society where leftists can succeed for any length of time. For one, we are still a relatively classless society – sure, we had our Roosevelts, Kennedys, Clintons and Bushes – but there was no elite dynasty there as later generations failed to gain that measure of success. We may envy Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg, but that’s because we want to be Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg – not because we are the hoi polloi and they are destined to rule. And too many Americans have an independent streak; several states such as California and Illinois are very concerned about the flight of substantial numbers of middle class folk for friendlier states. We know how to bail out on failure.
Conservatives are making substantial inroads which are not easy to see. The media simply isn’t as untouchable or well thought of as it was even 20 years ago. Facebook is taking heat from a public relations standpoint, as is Google. The Clintons aren’t in jail, but as Hillary proved they aren’t electable anymore. Hollywood, the billionaires such as Soros and Steyer, and the liberal PACs spent tens of millions of dollars – the Democrats managed to obtain a majority in the House, but lost ground in the Senate. Trump is replacing liberals in the judiciary. The faces of the left include Pelosi, Ocasio-Cortez, and Waters who are perceived as jokes (they are not; they are dangerous) by much of the public.
Changes don’t occur overnight. Our current bloated government took decades to get where it is now. But it’s cracking, and the left knows this but can’t do anything about it because the left is even more fractured than the right. A historian once observed that the people living through a historical change usually don’t perceive it as such, but it feels like that is what is happening now for the better.
Really well said, Claudia.
What do I do? Work. Create. Press on. Keep dreaming of what I want to build tomorrow as an engineer. I can only account for my own actions and convictions. If the world goes to Hell, I’ll go with it continuing to do what I do best for as long as possible. Live a full life while the ship goes down? Sure. Why not? Can anyone stop the ship from sinking? If the insanity gripping much of planet Earth doesn’t turn around eventually, our civilization is doomed – like a species that couldn’t adapt to survive an ice age. Intellectually, the left-side of the human bell curve simply doesn’t get it and can’t make it on this Earth in a politically and economically free Republic governed by law and not by men. It’s possible that the human race as a whole is just not ready for prime-time. People here – on this website – are!
I get it. Patience is a virtue. But we already evicted Eric Cantor in favor of Dave Brat. And then the democrat courts redistricted Dave out of our original district and hanky lanky I chesterfield county retired him.
And the brown shirts of CIA Frau Spanberger destroyed Brat’s signs and my little sign campaign. Opposition voices are not to be heard. Likewise, Frau Spanberger never did an interview with local talk radio.
We, the people, were dismissed by the frauspanbergeruberreich.
Despair and worry accomplish nothing.
So if you start to feel this way, do what Trump does (which is the only thing you can do): start each day fresh, and just keep doing as much as you can. Just keep doing that. Plug away at it. Because if you do this, while you might not accomplish everything you wanted to, you probably will accomplish more than you actually thought you could. If you give up, however…
And by the way, an enormity is being accomplished. Some kinds of things occur in repeated small increments that will have a large cumulative effect.
http://www.magapill.com/
It’s not a choice between despair and hope, nor a continuum. There are hundreds of thousands of war dead that never knew the USA won even the battle in which they died, much less the war.
And it is just that.
WAR. —Andrew Breitbart
@Wyatt
Here is the way I compare the “liberals” (socialists) and conservatives.
“Liberals” need to be lead. The NPC meme fits them to a T. Their “leaders” control every aspect of their lives, and that’s the way they want it.
Conservatives want to be left alone. They see government as a necessary evil in order for society to function. That evil must be restrained. That is why our republic works better than any other government on earth. The true “leaders” on the conservative side are actually believers and are there to “represent”.
The reason I mention this is because I believe the left is in an unsolvable situation. Their leadership is in crisis and their NPC sheep are panicking. The true far leftists are wrenching control away from the ancient, more centrist “posers”.
On the other side, the conservative movement is still gaining steam, with DJT winnowing the chaff RINOs from the ranks. The people, US, are still ultimately in control, electing more and more true patriots, and steering the Republican party in the direction we want the country headed.
Oh, a little ray of sun shine. 9 Cali Election Officials arrested for vote fraud.
https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-skid-row-voter-fraud-20181120-story.html
“Would you share with us what you do?”
I thank God for His perfectly preserved word of truth. A few reasons why:
It assures us that this world system is now Satan’s due to our sin, so God is not to blame for ANY of this…
…we are…
…and that this wickedness will get far worse than any of us want to think…
…and yet for all that, His will is being and shall be done…
…and that the Judge of all the earth shall do right…
…and His justice does NOT sleep….
…and that all who want to be saved may be saved…
…ultimately exonerating His wrath upon all those who refuse and instead prefer the lie.
Maybe that doesn’t help you but it does me.
True story: I was leaving the grocery store last weekend when a young guy in the parking lot pushing a basket of groceries announced loudly to no one in particular that he had checked out behind a welfare recipient who was able to afford better groceries than he could, and he had a job. He said, “I voted for Trump to get sh*t changed, but nothing happened!” I tried to explain to him that being President was not like being a dictator, and that things were slowly getting better, but changes take time, especially when so many people in Congress are opposed to Trump. I don’t know if he believed me or not, but he seemed to calm down a bit and told me to have a blessed day, whatever that means.
Actually, at my age any day above ground is a blessed day, as far as I’m concerned.
Anyway, I guess my point is that a lot of people are experiencing despair nowadays.
Perhaps ‘despair’ wasn’t the correct word. But for fucks sake, are we only hoping for fair and honest elections? The system has been infiltrated and corrupted by monsters.
OK. Nothing to see here. Smiley face. Woo Hoo. No action desired or required. It’ll turn out great in 2020.
I’m overreacting.
Awaken – by Lawrence Tribble c1770
One man awake,
Awakens another.
The second awakens
His next door brother.
The three awake can rouse a town
By turning
the whole place
Upside down
The many awake
Can cause such a fuss
It finally awakens the rest of us.
One man up,
With dawn in his eyes
Surely then
Multiplies
No single raindrop determines the size of a river, but whether raindrops fall or don’t fall does.
-Bill Whittle
Be one of the raindrops that forms the conservative deluge!
“No single raindrop determines the size of a river, but whether raindrops fall or don’t fall does.
-Bill Whittle”
“Be one of the raindrops that forms the conservative deluge!”
***
But then the flooded river, despite its fluid state and torrential mass, ignores the rain and simply refuses to flow.
River = GOP
Just sayin.
Despair and hope are two choices, outrage is another.
A man with nothing left to lose is the most dangerous because he’s capable of anything, the old warning goes.
I’d hate/like to think that taking away the power of an armed people’s vote must result in…hoo boy…but I’m just not sure anymore.
Don’t get me wrong. Despair over illegal vote stealing and vote manufacturing is demoralizing. If I felt this was a one off occurrence I would be fine. Not sure it’s an isolated incident. The democrats have constructed a vote stealing machine in all 50 states and all 3000 counties. In every voting district and at all levels.
We napped
They prevailed. It has nothing to do with God’s will. It was about the people’s will to live in a moral and just society as ordained by God.
You know. We used to never give it a moment’s thought. It was just America.
Ok. I’m in the weeds now.
I mute/block supposed conservatives who cry doom! surrender! all hope is lost!!!11!! every time Trump does something they don’t like or that they perceive to be caving to the left. Trump does not cave. If they haven’t learned that by now, they should probably just join the Democrats and be done with it. The negativity and doom-crying helps no one, accomplishes nothing, and I just can’t be bothered with it anymore.
The thought that it could have been President Hillary Clinton *hurl* continuing to sell out the country should be enough to make anyone thankful as hell that we have President Donald Trump. I know I am.
So I have hope. I focus on what has been accomplished and I trust that the president will do everything in his considerable power to stop the left. I think napalm dropped on every antifa gathering would be a good start, but that probably won’t happen. 😉
Considering what Trump has been up against, I think he’s been amazing. I’m proud of him and Melania, and I’ll vote for him again in 2020. Don’t give in, don’t give up. #MAGA
We won’t get it all.
But the wall will be built and the military and/or national guard will protect the border or the corrupt politicians will go to jail.
That’s a deal I can live with.
Yep, optimistic overall; details TBD.
Meanwhile, the economy is improving and local conversations are less PC. All good.
Jethro, Wyatt: I should have just read your posts and wrote “What they said.” 🙂
I aint a quitter. But I recognize evildoers when I see them. You’d best do the same.
A very practical and concrete basis for being hopeful is the success DJT has had not only with Supreme Court nominations, but the whole fed judiciary. He’s done a lot of good that will last a good long time.
That I want more of the same does not diminish my gratitude for what he’s done to date.
We in the U.S. are not beaten yet but we have arrived at the point (some decades ago, actually) where all final options and alternatives have to start being discussed. The other side is way ahead on that.
I make no value judgment here but admitting defeat and surrendering is always AN alternative. But it is only one of them. It is never THE only one.
grool, admitting defeat and surrendering is an alternative for some.
Joe, it is an alternative, meaning a possibility. But not the only one. I don’t think that it is or should be. What’s that saying about death not being the worst of evils?
I can’t explain my mood any better than this.
https://youtu.be/fGNR5yCIOmw
@Jethro: I like the cut of your jib.
Wyatt
Fag. LOL
Totally agree, Merry Poppet! Sick of the Debbie Downers. Too much good news from God’s intervention – the Trump Effect.
Bad_Brad, LOLOLOL! My “sediments” exactly.
So many excellent comments on this. And such an excellent essay, Claudia!! Perfect timing in the season of Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Someone once said to me that despair is the act of turning our back on God. As simple as it sounds, it really made me think about despair, and I think it’s true. What a friend we have in Jesus who is always there for us no matter what the circumstances.
I didn’t read your essay, Claudia, until after calling in tonight to U.S. & Eh? We were on the same wavelength.
My problem (challenge) is to not get so annoyed with the people who sincerely prayed to God that Trump would win and then don’t seem to stay the course in their prayers or in their faith. I am often terribly annoyed at the mountains made out of mole hills. Another very wise woman once told me, “God made the earth round so that we could never see too far ahead.” I take this to mean scripture that says His mind is not our mind. And His timing is not our timing, either. What may seem like an insurmountable problem or set of problems may be resolved in an instant — in the “twinkling of an eye”. Look at NoKo as a fine example. One week Li’l Kim is launching rockets over Japan and threatening the west coast of America and the following week The SoS is flying to NoKo to lay out talks between Trump and Li’l Kim. Go figure.
Larry Aarn, head of Hillsdale College, measures everything against what is Good, True, and Beautiful. It’s a very solid and rational way to go through life. I like it. It’s not capricious. There are absolute standards for all three and it’s no coincidence that God fulfills — is the very progenitor — for what is Good, True and Beautiful. So, it’s easy, too. Everything else is chaff.
It’s all right there in the Bible. All wars are spiritual wars.
Put on the armor of God. And remember, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”
Which makes me conclude: Let God’s recent mercies to us be all the proof we need of his faithfulness and remain steadfast in ours. Don’t let the Left’s seeming victories cause us to despair. Instead, see their “wins” as hollow chaff that God can blow away just as easily. The Left at it’s worst is still no match at all against Godly people.
Pray for your enemies.
I recognize the evildoers.
I also recognize the many people who are fighting them in ways big and small, sometimes quietly, sometimes in their faces. But always fighting. That’s where I put my focus.
I look in the mirror and say:
I’m good enough.
I’m smart enough.
And, … W I N N I N G ! ! !
I’m a news junkie and I used to plug in to talk radio all day Mon-Fri while working. And thanks to the sites I visit online, it was rare that a talk show host would bring up a story I was unfamiliar with, which meant I wasn’t learning anything new through talk radio, I was just marinating in what has become constant conflict because of the left. So months ago I dropped talk radio and replaced it with excellent audiobooks and that has made a big difference on a daily basis.
We’re reminded almost constantly that the left has to lie and cheat and obfuscate and censor and tyrannize to get what they want. What pathetic emptiness. Their voice is loud because they control the media and academe and entertainment but they still can’t win, and their sputtering rage and violence is an admission of their failure.
Enough of the country was against the left’s BS in 2016 to elect Trump and he’s only drawn more people to him in the past two years. The left can’t help but overplay their hand, they do it every time, and they’ll do it in the House as well as in the streets. I think we’re ascendant, those of us who love our country, even though it’s hard to see at times. I always liked Trump as an interesting character but now I think he’s providential. I can’t imagine anyone else withstanding, and remaining steadfast, in the face of the garbage that has been thrown at him. Now if he would only get the dang wall built. He doesn’t need congress. The wall + the solid work he’s doing filling judgeships would cement our advantage for more than a generation.
If you’re a Christian, and you’re speaking doom and gloom or being over gracious without seeking to know the heart of God through prayer and guidance of The Holy Spirit, you should be ashamed and ask God’s forgiveness.
God is not Pollyanna nor is He the Crypt Keeper. The True and Living God is sovereign. His thoughts are not our thoughts, but God called the faithful – not believers or followers (even demons believe/follow), the FAITHFUL to not lean on our own understanding.
Christans serve a merciful and resonable God who also states in His Word, let us reason together and come boldly to His throne to make our request known.
Many Christians did make a request and cried out to God, save our nation and spare us. God answers with in an unconventional yet extremely effective way by making Mr. Trump President. Is he perfect – no. Does Trump always do what we expect – no. Yet, he has implemented more conservative policies than any US President ever and still there’s complaints.
Stop focusing on the “works” of our enemies. Christ defeated Satan and we have victory through Christ. Take these scriptures seriously; 2 Kings 6:15-17, Psalm 121. All is not lost – get it together, Christians – for the Lord’s sake.
To all of you who say God is going to come through for you in the form of Trump or some other politician down the road, and so view politically skeptical people like me as annoying and somehow in your way…
…you have a right to your opinion, but you’d best think really hard about something before you judge us.
There have been believers – true believers, saved and sealed members of Christ, not mere religious fakes – in every nation of the world for a very long time.
Some of those nations have undergone horrendous catastrophes, persecution and unrest leading to butchery the likes of which we have never seen here and can’t imagine ever happening here.
Lots of those believers prayed to God for some kind, ANY kind, of physical deliverance. Prayed HARD. Their children prayed with them that their cry would come unto Him.
But many of them, men women and children, still suffered horribly and were murdered at the hands of those they petitioned God to be delivered from…murderers who survived and prospered, some to this very day, living fat and quite happy. But this isn’t about them.
Where was God for those believers?
There are only three possible answers.
One: He never heard them because He doesn’t exist. Atheists hope everyone else believes that, not because they know it’s true but because it makes them feel better as they whistle past the graveyard. Result is, believing that makes all faith and prayer utter wastes of time.
Two: He does exist and did hear, but simply doesn’t care and so didn’t lift a finger for anyone. That would make Him indifferent if not evil. Prayer and faith likewise would be stupid wastes of time.
Three: He did hear and does care but as His Son tell us through His apostle to the Gentiles, that believers are appointed to suffering for Him. ALL believers. That means we’re free to pray for God’s intercession and physical deliverance but it may not come…but rewards in glory are guaranteed. Paul says the light suffering of this present world is not to even be compared with what awaits those who are in Christ.
If you dont believe any if that, that’s your call. But you can’t believe the above AND earnestly expect God to do for you what he has not done for many other members of Christ in other countries over the centuries because you and I are NO DIFFERENT from them.
Unless you think being an American makes you somehow special in the eyes and ranking of God? I suspect a few of you truly believe something like that.
Anyone here willing to admit it?
@Grool:
I suspect you misunderstood or didn’t fully apprehend what I wrote: “My problem (challenge) is to not get so annoyed with the people who sincerely prayed to God that Trump would win and then don’t seem to stay the course in their prayers or in their faith.”
The best reference I can think of is the entire book of Isiah. God’s people got themselves into a jam with worldly behavior, they wound up with really bad leaders, they were oppressed and their society was debauched, so they prayed for deliverance. God delivered them. What did they do with their reprieve? They went back to partying. Over and over again God showed them mercy and deliverance, and over and over again God’s people thanked God then returned to their unbelieving ways. They “forgot”.
When I first read Isiah I thought to myself that if God ever demonstrated his mercy in my life in such a profound and clear way, there’s no way I would ever “forget.” I even thought it would be impossible to forget. But that’s how fallen we are, isn’t it. We’re like backward children who need to be told over and over again not to slam the doors. It’s partly inconsideration, partly stubborness, and mostly thinking we can get away with sin; judging our sin not against the word but the world, I think.
AA,
Coming out of a loosely evangelical and then a fundamentalist Baptist background, I used to believe God was still dealing with nations today and, for whatever reason, with the U.S. in particular, as if we are special.
In the years since, I have come to be convinced from reading the Bible in context that none of that is true. The only dealing God is doing on Earth today is with individuals, and that is only through the power of His word and His Spirit when the lost believe the saving good news of His grace, found in 1 Cor 15:3-4. But short of that, He is not directing events here. Rather, He is allowing wickedness and iniquity to come to full fruition before His wrath falls.
That means He did not raise up Trump, nor Reagan before him, nor the founders, any more than He raised up Stalin or Obama or our local school boards or dog catchers.
That does not mean believers should not pray about earthly matters. It does mean God has not guaranteed to answer prayers in the way believers may expect, if at all. If He did, there would be a lot fewer murdered Christians throughout history.
Point is, I am truly glad Trump is POTUS. He is as close to exactly the leader we needed as we’re likely to ever get.
I just do not believe God put him in the White House. Nope, not for a second.
Know what? That’s actually okay. It took me several years to figure out that that doesn’t mean God doesn’t care and isn’t watching very closely everything that’s happening. It just means that, even though (for now) I still have to live here, my real focus needs to be beyond everything that’s going on here.
So should it be for ALL who are Christ’s. But it doesn’t much look like it is.
It’s not a defeatist attitude to say any of this, as some seem to think it is. It is, really, ultimately victorious, according to His word. Know what I mean?
With all respect…
Believing that God is currently not actively involved with world affairs, proves there is error in knowing how God operates.
In fact, it’s a contadict stating God is only involved in individuals lives. Well, what if an individual is selected by God to fullfill a task that involves world affairs. That’s exactly the situation with Trump.
Not ignoring the tribulations of the present and future ordained by God. This should be even nore reason to know heart of God. He is not a spectator of things he puts in motion. According to His Word, God is involved in all matters – great and small.
Another thing, just because God does not always rescue the faithful from horrible circumstances, typically brought on by Satan and man’s sinful nature, it does not mean He’s not in control. God is sovereign. His timing and plans are perfect. We are the ones who must adjust to His ways for our good, because The True and Living God loves us.
BTW, judgement of a man’s life is up to God, but it is not a sin to judge behavior or circumstances. There would be no courts or law enforcement if that were the case.
God never said Christians would not suffer. He promised not to leave us or fosake us. Those marytred for the sake of Christ are mourned and precious to God. Never forgotten and will receive a great reward.
Some of the comments seem to reflect angry with God. Offense is very close to the sin of pride. As a suggestion, seek God’s help to resolve issues that cause confusion and pain. – An obsevation and opinion.
Target practice. Training. Probably the only thing that will make a difference in the long run. 🙂
…and cat videos
“Believing that God is currently not actively involved with world affairs, proves there is error in knowing how God operates.”
No it doesn’t. But let’s chase that rabbit.
Under your position the big question is, To what degree is He involved?
Is He directly orchestrating EVERYTHING? If so, that raises some uncomfortable moral and theological questions, way more than it answers.
Or only some things? If so, what things? When? To what extent? Why only those? And who could say with authority? I couldn’t and wouldn’t dare try. Truth is, no one could.
The Bible is clear that during this present dispensation of grace, God is dealing with individuals and not nations. The last nation He dealt with was Israel, and she is now stumbled and fallen in blind unbelief.
Replacement theology says someone (a particular church or a nation, it depends on who you ask) has replaced Israel as God’s most favorite people today. That is absolute heresy and demonstrably false.
This present world system is Satan’s. That means God didn’t give us Trump anymore than He gave us Obama…if you credit one to God, you gotta credit both.
“Some of the comments seem to reflect angry with God.”
Not mine! He saved me now and forever, how could I ever be angry with Him? 🙂
Grool, you are uncomfortable with The True and Living God being in control of EVERYTHING. This is a theological problem for you? I find your assessment disturbing – an extremely limited view of The Omnipresent, Omnipotent, and Omniscient God. Based on what criteria do you question the sovereignty of God? Just a reminder, The Word says our righteous is as filthy rags.
At one point God is your salvation and at another point He’s an ineffective, sadistic, narcissist dictatorial, supernatural being watching Satan wreck havoc on the world without any involvment. Really? The Creator of ALL things? What a very conflicting mindset and error-filled theology.
How can there be devine intervention for individuals only without it effecting nations. Individual are the reason nations exist. When God conducts works though individuals, then nations are affected.
For me, I absolutely know God is very much involved currently in the matters of all nations. Despite the interference of Satan. Yes, God has destine the events of Revelation, but he has not moved His hand away from orchestrating how and when that occurs. God revealed his personal involvement with nations when He changed His mind about the outcome of Israel when Moses interceded. And you’re telling me God no longer participates in world affairs and He stopped at that point. No, He didn’t. For, now The United States is being spared from complete destruction through socialist communism. There is no one but, an ALL powerful, loving, involved God who could accomplish this.
And yes, anger at God produces a prideful outlook, fueled by offense. It the same view Judas had. We must conduct a relationship with God knowing He alone is the Great I AM. Nothing/No one can interfere with God. He is currently involved in, when, what, where, how and why
– EVERYTHING.
Grool, we will never, ever agree on this topic and I’m sure you’re going to respond to my comments. Just know, in the end The True and Living God has the Last Word.
God bless.