{"id":65,"date":"2016-10-04T06:00:27","date_gmt":"2016-10-04T06:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/?p=65"},"modified":"2016-10-03T14:12:08","modified_gmt":"2016-10-03T14:12:08","slug":"3-reasons-not-freak-presidential-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2016\/10\/3-reasons-not-freak-presidential-election.html","title":{"rendered":"3 Reasons Not to Freak Out About the Presidential Election"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-66\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/403\/2016\/10\/clinton_trump_split-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"clinton_trump_split\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" \/>You may be worried about the direction of our country, but you don&#8217;t need to freak out. You may or may not like either candidate, but that&#8217;s not a sign of an impending doomsday. You might have heard that this election could send the entire country into the gutter, that the fate of the free world depends on the right person getting elected. Let&#8217;s walk back from that ledge for a moment. For those hitting the panic button in anticipation of their candidate or party losing, here are three big reasons not to freak out:<\/p>\n<p><strong>1). God is Sovereign. Ask the Israelites in Egypt.<\/strong> Just for a refresher, take a moment and reread the first half of the book of Exodus. The Israelites were slaves under an oppressed regime with seemingly no hope of salvation. But God is sovereign. He can do what no one else can do. Even the most powerful ruler in that part of the world was unable to thwart the plans of God. God remains sovereign. So stop freaking out.<\/p>\n<p><strong>2). God is in Control. Ask the Jews in Babylon.<\/strong> If you need more proof, go read the first half of the book of Daniel. The Jews were again oppressed, this time by the mighty king Nebuchadnezzar. Without their preferred candidate on the throne, all seemed lost. But God is in control, and He can bend even the most powerful ruler to His will whenever He chooses. God is in control. So stop freaking out.<\/p>\n<p><strong>3). Nothing Can Stop the Plans of God. Ask Pontius Pilate.<\/strong> The author and pioneer of our faith, Jesus of Nazareth, was falsely accused and killed almost 2000 years ago. The Romans won, Jesus lost. Or did he? Even the greatest triumph <em>over<\/em> Jesus was turned into the greatest triumph <em>for<\/em> Jesus through his resurrection from\u00a0the dead. Some of God&#8217;s greatest works were done when there was an unsympathetic ruler in power. So stop freaking out.<\/p>\n<p>So, if Clinton or Trump get elected, that does not signal the end of the world. God is still on His throne. God is still sovereign. Nothing can stop His plans. Take comfort in that, dear Christian, and please stop freaking out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You may be worried about the direction of our country, but you don&#8217;t need to freak out. You may or may not like either candidate, but that&#8217;s not a sign of an impending doomsday. You might have heard that this election could send the entire country into the gutter, that the fate of the free&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":607,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[35,27,37,36],"class_list":["post-65","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-next-steps","tag-clinton","tag-god","tag-sovereignty","tag-trump"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>3 Reasons Not to Freak Out About the Presidential Election - Next Steps<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"You may be worried about the direction of our country, but you don&#039;t need to freak out. Here are three big reasons why.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"3 Reasons Not to Freak Out About the Presidential Election - Next Steps\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"You may be worried about the direction of our country, but you don&#039;t need to freak out. Here are three big reasons why.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2016\/10\/3-reasons-not-freak-presidential-election.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Next Steps\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"facebook.com\/drjoshdaffern\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-10-04T06:00:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-10-03T14:12:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/files\/2016\/10\/clinton_trump_split-300x169.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Josh Daffern\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@joshdaffern\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"3 Reasons Not to Freak Out About the Presidential Election - Next Steps","description":"You may be worried about the direction of our country, but you don't need to freak out. 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Josh graduated from New Orleans Seminary with a Masters of Divinity and a Doctor of Ministry. Josh has been involved in full-time ministry for over twenty years. He enjoys hiking, beach volleyball, reading, playing anything competitive, and rough-housing with his kids. Josh, his gorgeous wife Robin, his outrageously handsome boys Zeke, Shepherd and Lincoln and his princess Elle, live in northern Virginia. Josh also blogs on Patheos as New Wineskins: an Apologist for the Modern Church and you can find links to all his content on joshdaffern.com. 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