The reality is that Donald Trump is now the 47th President of the United States. The election has come and gone. Our part is over.
Or is it?
Though we thank God for delivering us from what would surely have been a much more evil regime had Trump not won, there are still some concerns about the things Donald Trump might do or say (or post on X) as President, and about the trajectory of the nation over the next four years. Of equal or more concern are potential counter-actions from his opponents. But does God want Christians to let those worries get the best of us for the duration of the Trump administration?
Nope.
God has told us exactly what He wants us to do with regard to the rulers He has installed in authority over us.
Step 1:
God wants us to remember that He is the one who places leaders in their positions, and we are to trust His decisions and respect and obey our leaders (unless they step outside the bounds of their authority or command us to do or not do something that conflicts with God’s word – we always submit to God and His word first).
What if the leader is immoral or ungodly? Well consider that when the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to pen these words, Paul was living under the rule of Nero, and I think you’ll have your answer. In so far as we are biblically able, Christians are to obey those in authority over us.
Step 2:
God wants us to pray for all people, but He draws our focus to praying for “kings and all who are in high positions.” Why?
“That we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.” Consider the persecution the first century (and every subsequent century to the present day) church faced: Christians fed to lions, immolated, beheaded, quartered, family members tortured, and more. We’re to ask God for the government to allow us to quietly live in peace and pursue godliness.
“This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior,” 1 Timothy 2:3 goes on to say. It is good for us to pray for our leaders simply because it is pleasing to God. When you get right down to it, do we really need any other reason to obey God?
Because God “desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth,” says 1 Timothy 2:4. Even though God doesn’t have to give us a reason to obey Him about praying for our leaders, He chooses to reveal something to us about His nature and character by explaining why He wants us to do so. God’s heart is for all people to know Christ as Savior – including our rulers. God wants to save them because He loves them as individuals made in His image, but He also wants to save them so they will be godly rulers and – bringing us full circle to 1 Timothy 2:2 – so that God’s people will be able to lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.
So now that we know that God wants us to pray for our President and others “who are in high positions,” and why God wants us to pray for them, what are some of the things we can pray for during the Trump administration?
1. Pray for God to save our unsaved leaders
Lip service to God does not a regenerated believer make. Many people claim to be Christians yet have never repented of their sin and placed their faith in Christ. The Bible is clear that those who consistently live in unrepentant sin are not saved. Don’t listen so much to what our leaders say about God, rather watch what they do. If he walks like a heathen and quacks like a heathen, pray for God to save him.
2. Pray for the daily walk of our saved leaders
Can you imagine how hard it must be to live a godly life as one of the few Christians in the political arena? For our leaders who not only talk the talk but are striving to walk the walk, pray that God will give them ample time in His Word, in prayer, and in church. Pray that He will enable them to resist temptation to sin. Pray that they will walk uprightly in their day to day lives. Pray that they will seek to honor God in their work and decisions. Pray that God will give them boldness and open doors to share the gospel with others.
3. Pray that God will move all of our leaders to make right decisions
Even if they make those right decisions for the wrong reasons. Even if they meant their decisions for evil. Proverbs 21:1 says, “The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will.” Pray that God will turn our leaders’ hearts to make right decisions.
4. Pray against governmental intrusion and persecution in the lives of Christians
Unfortunately, over the past several years we’ve seen the beginnings of persecution against Christians in the U.S. Christians have been fired and lost their businesses for refusing to provide services for homosexual weddings. Christians are having to comply with government mandates regarding transgender issues and abortion. The government has interfered with private parenting decisions made by Christians. Pray that God would move our leaders to back off and allow Christians to “lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.”
5. Pray for the church
It’s likely that we are gradually moving toward the end of freedom of religion in the United States. Pray that God would continue to bless the church with that constitutional right. And while we still have it, pray that pastors would boldly preach Christ and Him crucified. Pray that Christians would faithfully love, serve, and attend their churches every week. Pray that the church would properly disciple Christians to live as lights for Christ in the world. Pray that we would send out unprecedented numbers of missionaries. Pray that we will work the works of Him who sent us while it is day; for night is coming, when no one can work.
6. Pray that Christians will share the gospel
This country will not be changed by leaders and legislation. It will only be changed by the Lord. The United States will only become a godly nation if the majority of the people of this nation have had their hearts changed by the gospel. Pray (again, while we are still free to do so) that God will light a fire under those of us who know Him to unabashedly share the gospel everywhere we go, with everyone we meet.
7. Pray that God would protect this nation
From our enemies and from ourselves.
Take some time to pray for our leaders and our country today and every day. If you’d like, add your prayer below in the comments.
If your church or organization is ever in need of a speaker for a women’s event, I’d love to come share with your ladies as well. Clickherefor more information, or to find an upcoming event near you! Now is the time to book an event for 2025!
In late October 2024, I once again had the privilege of teaching another great group of ladies at the Jesus Camp, Nantucket Women’s Retreat on Nantucket Island, Massachusetts. Conferences are super for reaching out to women in your community and surrounding areas, but retreats provide an intimate atmosphere that’s conducive to both formal instruction and informal, one on one discipleship. And we had plenty of time and space for both! Many thanks to Darcy Creech Marelli for opening up her lovely homes and hosting this biannual time of refreshing for women from all over the country.
In 2022, when I spoke at JCNWR, it was just a couple of months prior to my 30th wedding anniversary, so my husband, Scott, and I decided to drive to the retreat and treat ourselves to a “working second honeymoon,” visiting some fun “touristy” places on the way back home. We had such a great time, we decided to do it again last year and this year, too.
How it started…
How it ended.
It’s two full days of driving from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to Hyannis, Massachusetts, and, praise God, we had a fairly uneventful trip. We stopped at the visitors’ center in Trenton, Georgia, which we thought was going to be one of those big, fancy rest stops that you find near the state line on the interstate, but the Dade County Visitors’ Center was more like a small tourist information center in a charming storefront in the middle of town. Shoutout to Ms. Patricia who practically adopted us and saved us a bundle of time with an alternate route around Chattanooga traffic.
It is my personal belief that every visitors’ center should have adorable stickers like these to give out. :0)
The next day we stopped for gas at a way-off-the-beaten-path town in New York, in a somewhat sketchy looking neighborhood, and a gentleman saw the military stickers on our van, thanked my husband for his service, and let us go ahead of him in line at the gas pump.
Nothing extraordinary, but meeting nice people like these around the country is such a blessing and makes the trip more fun.
The following day, Wednesday, we caught up on some much needed rest, and after a leisurely lunch together, I boarded the ferry for Nantucket Island.
A lovely spot on the island as we drove in from the ferry.
Darcy always decorates so beautifully…
Conference swag!
Dinner together.
Darcy left me a “sweet” hostess gift. A journal and honey from her hive!
The ladies began to arrive that evening. We shared a delicious dinner, and then had the opportunity to hear everyone’s “two minute testimony”. Our backgrounds varied from those of us who were born and raised in church and came to know Christ at an early age to those who had survived abuse, or walked on the wild side, or were involved in heretical church backgrounds before coming to Christ later in life. There is no such thing as a “boring” testimony. Every new birth in Jesus is a miracle of His mercy and grace.
This year, I taught a four lesson series on the topic of biblical womanhood. The sessions were not recorded, but I’ve taught the same sessions before at other conferences:
Thursday’s teaching started with God’s Design for Biblical Womanhood. We explored the value God places on womanhood and the unique place women hold in God’s plan for Creation, the home, and the church.
We finished things off for the day with God’s Design for Biblical Manhood. Manhood isn’t toxic. It’s a captivating part of God’s good design in Creation for men to lead their families, their churches, and to lead the way in exercising dominion over the earth. Each session was followed by a time of Q&A and discussion groups.
Friday, we kicked things off with Walking in Biblical Womanhood. The Fall led us to crave reversing roles with men and with God. But when we stand firm against the schemes of the devil, our homes and churches can truly flourish.
Our last session was Biblical Womanhood: Our Sisters in Scripture. God has given us excellent examples of pursuing holiness as godly women in the stories of many of our sisters in Scripture.
Both teaching sessions were again followed by Q&A and discussion groups. All of the ladies were very gracious and receptive, and we had many edifying moments of discipleship.
Of course, there’s always time for food, fellowship, and fun!
Friday afternoon, Darcy’s apiarist (beekeeper), Anton, came out, showed us High Point’s hives, and gave a fascinating talk about the lives of bees. I love to listen to people who are both passionate and knowledgeable about their field and I think you would be hard put to find anyone more passionate or knowledgeable about bees than Anton was.
Sunset made for some gorgeous pictures!
Sweet fellowship…
Fire pit and s’mores!
All too soon, it was time to say goodbye, and I boarded an early morning ferry back to the mainland.
It was a wonderful time of fellowship in the Lord, and I hope to return soon! Many thanks to Darcy and her assistant, Otilia, who worked so hard to host a great retreat, took care of all my needs, and made me feel so welcome.
If your church or organization is ever in need of a speaker for a women’s event, I’d love to come share with your ladies as well. Click here for more information.
I arrived on the mainland mid-morning, and we promptly hit the road for Maryland to spend a little time with some of my husband’s family, whom we hadn’t seen in quite a while. It was a nice visit.
Next on the itinerary was the Pigeon Forge / Gatlinburg / Sevierville area of Tennessee. To get there, we had to go through Virginia. All day. Diagonally, I think, from the northeastern tip to the southwestern tip. That’s a lot of Virginia.
(Actually, I love Virginia. My parents used to live there and I’ve done more conferences in Virginia than any other state, including my own. I don’t think there’s a part of that state that isn’t beautiful.)
We finally pulled into Sevierville that evening and stopped at the Sevierville Buc-ee’s, which, until recently, was the largest Buc-ee’s in the world.
It was close to election day, and we couldn’t resist! We don’t care how hick anybody thinks we are! :0)
Exhausted, we checked into our hotel in Pigeon Forge. While there, we met a celebrity. I thought you might like to see the star of the new reality TV show, “Real Pigeons of Pigeon Forge”.😂
We spent our honeymoon in the Gatlinburg area have always wanted to go back. I figured it had probably changed a lot in 32 years, and we were only going to be there for a few days, so I asked my followers for all of the “must see” sights. They did not disappoint.
The overwhelming majority of respondents said we simply had to go to Cades Cove, and they were so right! Cades Cove is the remnant of a 19th century community in the Smoky Mountains with homes, a grist mill, and three preserved churches (you know I was all over that!). We would highly recommend you go, but that you go on a day when a mama bear is not blocking the road for three hours in order to protect her cub. For that same reason, we’d recommend you not go when it’s hot, cold, raining, or when you have to go to the bathroom. Late October was perfect and the fall foliage was gorgeous.
Our first stop along the trail was the Primitive Baptist Church. The ranger (who we suspected might have been a deacon at his own church!) gave a captivating talk on the building itself, as well as the practices of the church and the community.
The church was the center of life and the “invisible government” of the community. The ranger talked about the practice of church discipline, using as an example, a lazy man who wouldn’t work to provide for his family. The elders would confront him, then, if he didn’t repent, disinvite him from church, and if he still didn’t repent, they would excommunicate him, which included shunning and refusing to trade with him.
The ranger also talked about how the church would provide for widows, and for people experiencing catastrophic illness or events.
When someone died, the church bell would be rung the same number of times as the age of the deceased. Everyone would drop what he or she was doing and immediately come together at the church. The men would dig the grave in the church’s graveyard, and the women would tend to the bereaved.
When an issue or proposal arose in the community, the elders would consider what Scripture had to say and reject it if it didn’t measure up to Scripture.
In other words, the church was being the church.
Always nice to see my husband behind the pulpit again. :0)
The pulpit
Inside the pulpit
If you look closely, you can see the handprints and tool marks of the men who built the church nearly 200 years ago.
At least one Revolutionary War vet is buried in the cemetery.
The Methodist church…
Churches of this era often had separate doors for men and women, who sat separately once inside.
A Civil War grave. We learned that most residents of Cades Cove sided with the Union.
If you’re a musician and you’ve ever been in an old church like this, I don’t have to tell you, the acoustics are phenomenal. We had to give them a try.
Please extend me a little grace. We hadn’t sung this in a while and I was having trouble finding my note. :0)
Next up was the Missionary Baptist Church. They split off the Primitive Baptist Church because they wanted to send out missionaries and the Primitive Baptist Church didn’t.
Acoustics, I said.
After the aforementioned three hour delay, courtesy of Boo Boo and his mama, we moved on to “Aunt Becky” Cable’s home, mill, and outbuildings.
Matthew 18:6
On our way back through the mountains to Pigeon Forge, we stopped at a few charming craft shops (Providentially, one of them donated part of their profits to Reformed missionaries!), and ended up at another reader recommended spot, The Old Mill Restaurant and shopping district, where we learned a lot about the history of Pigeon Forge, visited some quaint shops, and had a huge and fabulous supper (for a surprisingly low price!).
After a good night’s rest, the Titanic Museum was next on our agenda. The building is designed to resemble the ship itself, and is quite fantastical looking. When you “board,” you’re issued a “boarding pass” with the name and information of a real passenger who was aboard the Titanic. Some of these passengers are mentioned in various exhibits. At the end of the tour, you find out whether or not your passenger survived. (Mine did, Scott’s didn’t.)
I found it interesting that several pastors and missionaries were aboard ship. All gave up their seats on the lifeboats to others, and I appreciated the little area that was a tribute especially to them.
In the iceberg room, which the bridge overlooked, it was very cold, and you could put your hand in 28 degree water to experience the cold of that night.
Genuine artifacts from recovery missions to the site of the sinking were plentiful. We found it fascinating.
I just found it morbidly amusing that they had these in the gift shop.
Our next project was to attempt to locate the lovely chalet we stayed in for our honeymoon. I still had the directions in my scrapbook, and we gathered our courage and drove up the harrowingly narrow mountain road. But, alas, it was not to be. We could not locate the chalet or even the road it had been on. We suspect it burned down during the catastrophic Great Smoky Mountain wildfires of 2016.
Our last stop for the day was another reader recommendation, The Apple Barn, a charming little shopping and restaurant district centered around a cider mill. We had a wonderful time shopping at the general store and other shops, snacking on fried apple pies and apple doughnuts, and eating another fantastic supper at the Applewood Farmhouse Grill.
When we got to the bakery, I spied a loaf of blackberry bread that looked awfully familiar, and whipped out my phone to find it was the same bread I’d been given by a dear attendee at a conference in Tennessee over a year earlier.
L- 2023 Tennessee conference gift, R- 2024 trip to The Apple Barn. If you can’t read the caption, it says, “…I’m not exaggerating when I say this is the best fruit bread I’ve ever eaten in my life. Ever.”
It was an amazing find – one of the highlights of the trip, for me – I was giddy, and my husband got really tired of hearing about it.
The next day was spent shopping and walking around in downtown Gatlinburg like we did on our honeymoon.
And finally, happily, we headed back home, thanking God for another wonderful time together.
Photo Credits
Thank you to all the retreat attendees who generously shared many of the photos you see above in the retreat section.
Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. Titus 2:3-5
Love our husbands and children.
Be self-controlled, pure, and kind.
Work at home.
Be submissive to our own husbands.
In other words: ordinary.
I didn’t see anything in there about changing the world or living out great big enormous dreams, did you? I think, often, as 21st century Christian women, the evangelical culture can make us feel like we are failures if we don’t have some sort of huge ministry or preach the gospel on the street corner every day. In Titus’ day that sort of thing would have been unbecoming for women. In our culture, women have more opportunities to be involved in various ministries than back then, but we have to remember that God calls us to faithfully serve Him in whatever life circumstances He has put us in. And He has not called the vast majority of us to be ministry superstars or Christian celebrities.
He has called most of us to be ordinary.
Staying home and pouring the gospel into our families or being a gospel influence to others at work or teaching Sunday school or sharing the gospel through volunteer work, and so on, though it may not amount to much in the world’s eyes, is success and faithfulness in God’s eyes. And that’s all that matters.
I mean, I can read and follow a map, but if I make some wrong turns or get distracted, I tend to get disoriented. And don’t even try to tell me to “go north” or “turn south” when you’re giving me directions. I just don’t have that internal compass some people have. Heck, our church has had an “east campus” and a “west campus” for over a year, and I still can’t figure out which one is which. Thank goodness for map apps. Without those step by step directions, I’d probably still be wandering around out there somewhere.
But, you know what? I did really well in geography when I was in school.
When I can see the big picture, the whole map at once, the beginning, middle, and end of the journey, it’s a piece of cake. I never get confused about which direction is southeast or northwest. I don’t get distracted by twists or turns in the road. If I could just have this perspective when I’m trying to get somewhere, I’d never get lost again.
But life isn’t like that.
We live inside the road trip where it’s easy to get confused and go the wrong way. Where we can get distracted by the twists and turns of circumstances. Where we sometimes deliberately choose to turn off the right road and take a side trip that takes us farther than we wanted to go.
We can’t step “outside the map” and see the big picture of our life’s journey from beginning to end.
But God can. That’s where He lives.
…in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. Psalm 139:19
And since He alone can see the big picture, He’s the only One who’s really qualified to give us direction. And that perfect direction can only be found in His Word.
Just like my map app, He tells us our starting point:
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. Ephesians 2:1-3
He tells us the detour we need to take:
…repent and believe in the gospel. Mark 1:15b
He shows us the right direction to go:
…what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness… 2 Peter 3:11
And he reveals our ultimate destination:
Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. 1 Thessalonians 4:17
Not using “God’s Positioning System”?
Recalculate.
(Don’t groan and roll your eyes. You should have seen that one coming :0)
Before the hustle and bustle of the holidays, it was my joy to sit down and chat about discernment with Elizabeth and Monika of the This Is the Day Rejoice podcast.
Listen in as these sweet sisters in Christ and I discuss the importance of naming names in discernment ministry, the idea that discernment ministries create disunity, advice for those who are new to discernment, and more!
Articles / resources mentioned or touched on in the episode:
Got a podcast of your own or have a podcasting friend who needs a guest? Need a speaker for a women’s conference or church event? Click the “Speaking Engagements” tab in the blue menu bar at the top of this page, drop me an e-mail, and let’s chat!
