Christians, elections and the God of miracles — Hannah Viviers

A monthly column on purpose, passion and power in Jesus.

Every night, before we go to bed my daughter and I ask each other what our favourite part of the day was and which was the worst.

Last night when she asked me, I, of course, wailed about the frustrating blackouts. My 6-year-old then looked at me and said: “Mommy if that’s going to be the worst part of your day then all your days are going to be miserable.”

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I gasped at those profound words — especially from a 6-year-old child.

She’s heard of people moving from South Africa to favourites such as New Zealand and Australia. One of her best friends just moved to Germany and another one is leaving for Australia at the end of the year.

After her profound statement to me she added: “If God can bless Australia then He can bless South Africa too.”

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There have been times when what is going on in South Africa has weakened every cell in my body, so that I couldn’t be bothered to pray, because it had become so exhausting.

Faith and courage
But I hear the courage and absolute faith in my daughter’s voice that we are not alone in this mess, God is for us and this country is groaning and travailing, waiting for us, as children of God to show up.

I bless God for people who are standing up in the Church calling us to pray; for believers who are standing up in the political arena and leading with integrity; for business owners and leaders who are doing incredible things to uplift economies.

The news would have us believe it’s all doom and gloom but that’s not the whole picture. This quote by Sandi Krakowski is one of my all-time favourites and I believe it speaks to where we are right now.

While the upcoming elections are huge, they alone will not determine what happens to this country. There is so much rot that needs to be uprooted that if we think it can be removed by mere mortals we are hugely mistaken.

The reality of it is, we need supernatural intervention in South Africa. A miracle has to happen for things to change.

I could list all the giants that face us but as many of them as have been made public so far, we hear of more on a regular basis from various news sources.

Talking about all that’s wrong will only cause us misery. Allowing what we see happening to determine how we feel only drives us into despair. But we can pray. And we can declare what we want to see in this country.

We can vote
We can also vote. I’m constantly amazed at how many  Christians refuse to vote, as though that decision exempts them from what results from the elections.

Many have used the excuse of their vote being “meaningless” as the ruling party would “win anyway”. That excuse was debunked in the last elections.

Pray for your home and pray for your fellow South Africans.

May we pray for integrity to prevail in these upcoming elections and integrity to prevail in every sphere of our country, from how individuals operate on a daily basis to how the government and businesses govern.

I have said many of these things in my column before but I repeat them because even I forget. It took my 6-year-old to remind me that we have a God who has a track record of showing Himself strong for His children. We can trust Him to show up for us too.