1 Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. 4 For he is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. 5 Therefore you must be subject, not only because of wrath but also for conscience’ sake. 6 For because of this you also pay taxes, for they are God’s ministers attending continually to this very thing. 7 Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor. -Romans 13:1-7 (NKJV)

I have recently being doing quite a bit of thinking about present day America and all of the strife we are encountering. Partisan politics has never been more volatile than it is today. People, once friends, are at each other’s throats over policies that might have previously been areas of contention but not violence.

Our current president is no doubt a controversial character, to say the least. His use of Twitter as an outlet to vent his thoughts, frustrations and feelings has been something most divisive to certain groups of people — and even shunned by some of his own base at times. It is not the purpose of this blog or this particular post to get involved in political arguments. I am not here to say he is a good or a bad president. I am going to say this on the subject: he is the president. Understandably, many don’t like that and love to cry out “not my president” or call for his impeachment because they are so vehemently opposed to his agenda. But the truth of the matter is that he is president of all of us who live in this country, duly elected by the citizens. I must be careful not to try second-guessing God or making judgments about His will for us as a country. As a Christian, I know I must respect those in authority and strive for peace and harmony (1 Peter 3:11). My #1 mission in this life is supposed to be spreading the gospel message to a lost and suffering world. I need to spend more time focused on that and less focused on the war between left and right or the media and the current administration.