Christ and Politics, Week 1 - Day 2: God Was Never Absent from the Public Square

Christ and Politics, Week 1Day 2: God Was Never Absent from the Public SquareDevotionalYou have been told that faith is private and politics is public and the two must never touch. That idea is not in your Bible. It came from somewhere else. God has been shaping ordered society since the very beginning.From Eden, to the nation of Israel, to the Church of Jesus Christ, God has always built communities and called His people to live faithfully inside them. He does not retreat from culture. He redeems it. He always has.Psalm 24:1 settles the ownership question. The earth belongs to God. All of it. So the public square is not secular territory where God is an unwelcome guest. There is no such thing as neutral ground. It is His, and His people represent Him there.Politics simply means life together. God has never been silent about how His image-bearers live together. The laws, the structures, the cultural norms that shape a society do not appear out of nowhere. Every one of them is somebody’s morality written down. The only question is whose.You were not dropped into this moment by accident. God put you here, in this country, in this generation, with a voice and a vote that still carry weight. That is not a burden to survive. It is a privilege to use.Bible VerseThe earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein. — Psalm 24:1 (ESV)Reflection QuestionHow might your view of civic engagement change if you truly believed that the public square belongs to God and not to any political party or ideology?Quote“God created politics. Politics is not something that is so dirty that God is disconnected from. It’s only dirty because sinners are involved.”PrayerFather, this world is Yours, and You placed me in it on purpose. Give me the backbone to represent You faithfully in every room I walk into, and not only the comfortable ones. Amen.