Two days to go and the Filipinos will once again exercise their right to vote for the future leaders of the Philippines.
The election drama continues to thicken with a lot of twists happening – similar to watching a “teleserye” (drama series) and now in its climax.
Social media is also full of views about politics. There’s nothing wrong with it but what saddened me is that some are not anymore responsible in posting – bashing, disrespect, rivalries, furors – in which in some point, affected relationships. Some take it seriously to a point of unfriending someone in social media – not sure though if this means “friendship over” to them in real life. But I hope not.
News are full of election coverage and some are being accused of irresponsible journalism. Other more important issues seems to be set aside.
Let’s take a break and rethink. Here are the things that I believe we should do in this season:
1. Pray. Pray.Pray.
The greatest weapon that we have is prayer. As Pio of Pietrelcina said:
Prayer is the best weapon we have; it is the key to God’s heart.
Ephesians 6:18 (NIV) said:
And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.
I encouraged everyone to kneel down and pray for our country, for our candidates, for our fellow Filipinos and for our future leaders. God is merciful and gracious, as we seek Him, I believe God will heal our land from the infirmities and divisions and bring unity to our people:
If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and heal their land. – 2 Chronicles 7:14 (ESV)
2. Speak Life. Be Responsible. Love not Hate.
There is power in the words we speak and we post in social media. These words can either build up or torn down.
We should be speaking life rather than curses. We should be building each other up not turning down others due to difference on the political candidates we are supporting. Do not let these differences put us down but rather focus onto Jesus who, despite of our rebellion, chose to die for us to be reconciled with God.
Our relationship is far more important that politics. Do not let our friendship be ruined by persons who even don’t know us personally. Idolatry comes when you focus onto something/someone that is replacing God and in turn, willing to give up even our friendships and relationship for the sake of this thing/person. Do not be deceived, check ourselves and see if this started to penetrate our heart. If so, surrender it to God and ask for forgiveness and be reconciled with these people. At the end of this election, no matter what the result is, these people you have relationship with remains and we don’t want to lose them.
Let love always be our motivation, even in our simple posts in social media. Let the love of God and the likeness of Christ be seen in us as we express our freedom of speech and let our conversation be full of grace and seasoned with salt (Col. 4:6).
3. Do Our Part.
Whoever will be put into leadership will not be successful if in our own we are not doing our part to make a change.
Each one of us has his part to build a nation. It doesn’t matter how small it is, when these small things are gathered together, this will have a big impact to our country.
Don’t rely for the government to change your life, to change the situation of our country. This is our nation and each one of us owns it and should take care of it.
Let’s stand up together to have a nation whose God is the Lord and truly, God will bless our nation!
Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people he chose for his inheritance – Psalm 33:12