Although I have not been overly-enthusiastic about the Presidential candidates this year, I did find some measure of excitement when John McCain didn’t pick yet another white man as his running mate and instead chose a woman!  This insures that whether the Democrats or Republicans win in November, history will be made. We will either have our first black President or our first woman Vice President.  I do find that rather exciting.

So, yeah, I was excited that McCain chose a woman for his VP. I admit to not having read tons about Sarah Palin, but I have read a few things on the web and heard others talk of her.  I like that she practices what she preaches in regards to being pro-life.  It is easy to say you are for the unborn until you are hit with an unplanned pregnancy or your unborn child is diagnosed with something that will make life more challenging.

That said, I was dismayed this week when I read about a speech Governor Palin gave to her former church last year calling America’s role in Iraq a “task from God.”

Yahoo has this from her:

Palin asked the students to pray for the troops in Iraq, and noted that her eldest son, Track, was expected to be deployed there.

“Our national leaders are sending them out on a task that is from God,” she said. “That’s what we have to make sure that we’re praying for, that there is a plan and that plan is God’s plan.”

I wonder in what context this was said and what exactly she believes is the “task that is from God.”  Stopping terrorists?  Getting rid of Saddam Hussein?  Ridding the world of WMDs?  Hmmm.  I wish, too, I understood what that is we are supposed to be praying for.  “That there is a plan and that plan is God’s plan”?  Does this mean that we hope that what we are doing lines up with God’s will so we pray that He will bend His will to bless what we have already done?  It kind of sounds that way to me, but maybe I am misreading what she is saying.  Still that is my perception.  Does anyone else see it the same way or do you know in what context this was said?

I just know my pastor always teaches us that we should not do our own thing (which may be a “good thing”) and then pray for that to be God’s will and for Him to bless it.  Instead we should see where God is working, where He is blessing and yield ourselves so HE can use us in whatever way He wishes.  I am afraid my politicians want to do their own things and then pray God will bless it.  Instead why don’t we let God be God and seek His face and allow Him to guide us in all we do … especially when it is something as drastic as destroying another country and killing thousands of their innocent civilians!

Proverbs 16:7 When a man’s ways are pleasing to the LORD,
he makes even his enemies live at peace with him.

Do you reckon this applies to countries as well?  Let’s seek God’s will and yield to Him to work through us.  Let’s not go out on OUR missions to “save the world” and then pray for Him to bless us.  Let’s seek to please God and HE will make us live peacefully with our enemies.   We are working for peace in the wrong way.  We need to seek God and please Him first.  After all, America is not the Savior, He is.