Are You Disappointed about the Midterms?

01   The Word to Zerubbabel

It Is Not by Might

Zechariah spoke to a governor named Zerubbabel. The people had come home from exile to a city in ruins. The temple stood unfinished, the neighbors around them were hostile, and the whole project looked too big for the resources they had. If any generation had a reason to put its hope in political muscle and military strength, it was theirs.

Here is what the Lord told them.

“Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,” says the LORD of hosts.

— Zechariah 4:6 (NKJV)

God did not say that might and power are worthless. He said they are not how His work gets done. The same God who said “Who are you, O great mountain?” to the obstacles in front of Zerubbabel is the God you serve today. The finished temple came by His Spirit, and so will everything He has promised you.

02   A Gentle but Honest Question

What Did This Election Reveal in Me?

Let me say this carefully. Caring about our country is good. Voting is a stewardship. Praying for righteous leadership is commanded. None of that is the problem.

But if a political outcome has knocked the floor out from under you, if you cannot sleep, cannot pray, and cannot find your joy, then something deeper than disappointment is going on. Devastation over an election is often a sign that we have been looking to the world, and to politics, for something we were only ever meant to receive from the Lord. Security. Hope. A sense that everything will be all right.

The Bible has a plain word for that. When anything stands where God belongs, it has become an idol. It does not have to be a carved image. It can be a party, a candidate, a court ruling, or a particular version of the future.

Do not put your trust in princes, nor in a son of man, in whom there is no help. … Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the LORD his God.

— Psalm 146:3, 5 (NKJV)

Here is a principle I have watched hold true across many years of ministry: what you allow to come between you and God, God will remove. That is not cruelty. It is love. A Father who is jealous for His children will not let a lesser thing carry the hope that belongs to Him. If this season is stripping something away, it may be mercy in a hard form.

03   The Church and Its Playthings

The Shine Is Wearing Off

For a generation or more, the American church has played with shiny political things. Since the days of Ronald Reagan, we have rallied around movements, leaders, and platforms, and each time we were told that this was the one that would finally restore the nation. This is not about any single party or any single era. Every side has its own version of the promise.

And one by one, those playthings have tarnished. They always do. A political victory can restrain evil for a season, and that has value. But it cannot change a human heart. Only the Spirit of God does that. When we hand the church’s hope to something that cannot save, we should not be surprised when it cannot.

Some trust in chariots, and some in horses; but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.

— Psalm 20:7 (NKJV)

04   The Herods of Our Day

Where Jesus Did Not Look

The New Testament is full of Herods. One tried to kill Jesus in His cradle. Another was called “that fox” by the Lord Himself. When one of them finally had Jesus in front of him, asking question after question, Luke tells us that Jesus gave him no answer at all. Another Herod accepted the crowd’s worship and was struck down because he did not give glory to God.

Notice what Jesus never did. He never went to Herod to build the kingdom. He never leaned on Herod for protection. He never measured the Father’s plan by what Herod could grant or take away. He walked in prayer and obedience, and the world’s powers could not stop what the Father sent Him to do.

Every age has its Herods. Power attracts corruption, and no party has been spared. That is exactly why the church cannot afford to build its hope there.

And He changes the times and the seasons; He removes kings and raises up kings; He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding.

— Daniel 2:21 (NKJV)

The One who removes kings and raises up kings has not lost control of anything. The outcome of an election did not take Him by surprise, and it did not take your future out of His hands.

05   The Way Forward

Return to Prayer

So what do we do now? We go back to where the church began, and to the place where it has always been strongest. We go back to prayer, and to a trust in God that cannot be corrupted.

Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence.

— 1 Timothy 2:1–2 (NKJV)

Paul wrote those words under an emperor who was no friend of the church. He did not tell believers to wait for a better government before they prayed. He told them to pray for the government they had. Here are a few simple ways to begin.

• Repent of misplaced hope. Tell the Lord where you let politics sit in His place. He is quick to forgive, and He is glad to be trusted again.
• Pray for those in authority by name. That includes the ones you did not vote for. Proverbs 21:1 says the king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, and He turns it wherever He wishes.
• Stay a faithful citizen without making citizenship your identity. Our citizenship is in heaven, as Philippians 3:20 reminds us. Vote, serve, and speak when you should, but keep your heart anchored elsewhere.
• Put your strength into what lasts. Love your neighbor, strengthen your local church, feed the hungry, and share the gospel. The Spirit still moves through ordinary obedience, and He still honors the day of small things.

Lift up your head. Your hope was never on a ballot, and it cannot be taken by one. It is in the Lord, and He has not changed.

✦ Reflect and Respond

Ask yourself: Where have I been looking to politics for what only God can give? What would it look like to bring that hope back to Him this week?

Pray this with me: Father, I come to You with my disappointment. Forgive me for the times I put my trust in people and parties instead of in You. I give You my fear and my grief. I choose to trust You again. Teach me to pray for those in authority, and strengthen me to live faithfully in my own corner of Your kingdom. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Declare: It is not by might, nor by power, but by the Spirit of the Lord. My hope is in Him, and He does not fail.