Breathe in.. Breathe out. This election has been a long, crazy, twisted road hasn’t it? Every election season brings out a level of passion in people that we usually don’t see, but this election was incredibly different in more ways than one. There was one prevailing emotion that consumed America as the number of candidates for the presidency continued to drop. That emotion was fear.

The rise of Trump towards the Republican nomination brought so much fear, that I ended up writing a piece about it in March, called “How To Have Peace In The Land Of The Fearful.” 

This fear was based on the toxic character of Trump, as well as his toxic rhetoric, with rallies that attracted white nationalist groups like the KKK, producing a level of nastiness never seen in an election.

Well, what was once thought of as a long shot, is now our reality. Donald Trump is now President-elect Donald Trump. After the results came in, the weight of what transpired fully began to hit the country, and the reaction was intense. Many were crying, angry, dealt with anxiety attacks, and are now protesting this result.

Honestly, none of the responses I’ve seen so far has surprised me. This is the harvest of the fruits of discord, anger, and destructive/demonic speech. The shocking secrets of both candidates were made known to all of America. It wasn’t just the regular exposure that comes whenever politicians want to make the other candidate look bad, but it was the exposure that wasn’t planned by either candidate.

This exposure showed how disqualified both Hillary and Trump were for the presidency, with polls showing that the majority of America never trusted them. In spite of that, they both had support, since they were the nominees for the Democratic and Republican parties. I personally did a write-in vote, because I couldn’t vote for either one knowing  what I know.

To give credit to those who did vote for either candidate, they knew that these were not the best candidates. However, almost every defense of a candidate included a run-down of everything bad the other candidate did. Whenever the horrors of Trump were explained, Trump supporters mentioned how bad Hillary was, and vice versa. This reaction further illustrated how inadequate our choices were.

Having said all of that, Donald Trump will be our president starting January 20th, and it behooves us as believers to not be too caught up in the fear of a Trump presidency. It’s ok to lament, and grieve, but I encourage you not to be paralyzed by fear. We are strangers in a foreign land as 1 Peter 2:11 tells us, and our citizenship is in heaven. Never lose sight of that.

To those who feel we can finally move on and unite immediately now that the election is over, I encourage you to rethink that view, for it is very unwise. Whether or not America realized it, the amount of spiritual activity around this election was tremendous. The way many Christians minimized the rhetoric coming from Trump betrays what we know about the power of life and death in the tongue. What has been spoken throughout this campaign will not simply disappear just because Trump talked about uniting America after his win, or because of how peaceful the transition of power has been the first few days.

Alot of people are wounded in this country. They’re wounded by words that were disparaging, conspiratorial, racially insensitive/racist, false, vengeful, and much more. There are also internal wounds within our churches from Christian leaders who not only endorsed Trump, but promoted him as God approved. The motivations of many were made clear.

This is different from God establishing and taking down leaders due to His sovereign will, but he was presented as someone that wasn’t “as bad” and Scripture was used to defend this portrayal. God will require Christian leaders to give an account for how they promoted Trump in this way, instead of being truthful about both candidates, and being the prophetic voice that God designed the Church to be.

There’s also been disparaging comments made about our brothers and sisters who voted for Trump. Yes, it’s true that virtually every racist voted for Trump, but not every Trump supporter is racist. The mockery of Trump by believers is juvenile and of the flesh, no matter how much wicked things Trump has done or said. Every idle word will be brought to judgement, and that must be kept in mind.

Healing will take place, and God’s will is being done through this change of presidency, but it’ll take some time. There are also perilous times ahead, and I pray that we will be the Church He knows, always ready to display His kingdom in and out of season. As 1 Corinthians 15:58 declares, “… Be steadfast, immovable, and always abounding in the work of the Lord.”