From the Archive: 113: The Most Important Thing for Christians to Remember This Election Year with Rebekah Hargraves (Solo Episode 6)

As we find ourselves in the middle of yet another election year, I felt it to be the right time to re-visit a podcast episode I first recorded and released 4 years ago during our last presidential election year. Today we will be addressing again the topic of the most important thing for Christians to remember this election year. I pray this episode will prove to be helpful and encouraging to you.

What I Chat about in Today’s Episode:

~A post (“The Most Important Thing for Christians to Remember This Election Year”) I wrote back in 2016 during the last presidential election

~What our name-calling, personal attacks, hand-wringing, and political anxiety reveal about our hearts and the true condition of our faith

~The emphasis we as believers are too often placing on debate over love; how this is very different from the call we are given in the Word

~A survey of Scripture to see what our ultimate call is and what the most important thing is for us to remember and live out this election year

~How our love for America is crowding out the most important thing - love for God and love for others

~The reality that our ultimate goal is not first and foremost to ‘save America’, but to fulfill the Great Commission; that our ultimate goal is not to make patriotic Americans, but to make disciples of Christ

~The way our lambasting our fellow believers in Christ over political differences is hindering our witness and our ability to live out the Great Commission

~It being love - and not being our political viewpoints- that proves we are Christ’s disciples

~How Paul tells us that truth without love is worthless

~The sobering, convicting words spoken by Christ to the church at Ephesus in the book of Revelation and what His message to them says to us today

~How grace and truth, mercy and truth, love and truth, are always paired together in the Scriptures when describing the character of God - it is never one without the other - and neither should it be with us

~The importance of being slow to speak and quick to listen, seeking to understand where the other person is coming from

~The impossibility of our wrath, anger, and hatred ever producing the righteousness of Christ in the lives of others

~The politicide going around today emulated by a Twitter thread hoping for destruction to come to Trump voters; the importance of asking ourselves as conservative Christians if we are guilty of the same thing towards Biden voters

~And more!

Resources Mentioned

Offer for a free audiobook and 30 day trial membership from Audible: www.audibletrial.com/HomeandHearth

Previous Solo Podcast Episodes

Rebekah’s blog post from 2016, The Most Important Thing for Christians to Remember This Election Year

Rebekah’s blog post, The Nationalization of Christianity

Rebekah’s Solo Podcast Episode, Patriotism and the Christian

Rebekah’s Solo Podcast Episode, What is Biblical Womanhood?

Quotes to Remember:

“We are operating as functional atheists when we act as if the future of this country is fully dependent upon us and we therefore view the ‘other side’ as the great enemy.”

“‘Saving’ America is not the most important thing we could do.”

“Even though I love this country and don’t want to see it go the way of certain other countries in the world, I love my God more. And America is not my god or my idol. Being kingdom-minded is my ultimate aim and goal.”

“The way we are lambasting our fellow believers in Christ over political differences is a grave hindrance to our witness and our ability to live out the Great Commission.”

“Our ultimate goal is not first and foremost to ‘save America’. It is to fulfill the Great Commission. Our ultimate goal is not to make patriotic Americans. It is to make disciples of Christ.”

“Our love for America is not the most important thing to remember this election year. Our love for God and love for others is. And that should influence our behavior, both on and off social media.”

“Our love for God and love for others are the single-most important things to God - they are what constitute as the greatest commandment.”

“It is by love that the world will know we are Christ’s disciples - it is not by our political viewpoints, voting choices, our patriotism, or which political party we hail from.”

“God is the very embodiment of love; love is His nature. So, if we are to faithfully live out the ambassadorship we are called to, we must be loving, kind, tenderhearted, and compassionate to those with whom we come into contact.”

“Voting for or against Trump is not what makes us good and faithful Christians. Being Christ-like does.”

“To love one another first and foremost is not negated by your fears over the potential outcome of the election.”

“First Corinthians 13:2 makes it clear that truth without love is worthless.” “It isn’t enough to speak the truth as if that were the ‘most loving thing you could ever do’. No, you actually have to be operating from a loving, kind, gracious place or else Paul says the truth you are spouting is worthless.”

“According to Christ’s words in Revelation, the church at Ephesus was well-known for being discerning, for calling out false teaching, for having a hatred of sin, for being great defenders and proclaimers of truth. But none of this was enough to please God or to bring blessing upon their church. Because they had left their first love, because they were no longer living out the first and greatest commandment, Christ was ready to spew them out of His mouth.”

“Grace and truth, mercy and truth, love and truth, are always paired together when describing the character of God. It is never one without the other - and either should it be with us.”

“Instead of calling others fools and viewing them as being ‘the problem with America today’, may we love them as Christ has commanded and as Paul has instructed.”

“Our fellow image bearers are not our enemy here. There is, however, a real enemy who is bent on sowing discord. May we not be his assistants in this mission.”

Where You Can Find Rebekah Online:

Websites - Hargraves Home and Hearth

Instagram –@rebekahhargraves

Facebook - Hargraves Home and Hearth

Twitter - @hhomeandhearth

Podcast - Home and Hearth Podcast

To Leave a Rating and Review on iTunes

Have you been encouraged or inspired by today’s episode? If so, could I ask a little favor? If you could leave the podcast a rating and review in iTunes, that would be amazing! The more ratings and reviews a podcast receives, the more iTunes shows that podcast to other folks searching for shows to listen to, so by leaving me a rating and review, you truly are partnering with me in this podcast ministry to encourage and help as many women as we possibly can. Thank you so much for taking the time to do that! Here’s how:

If you’re on your computer:

Access iTunes on your desktop and type Home and Hearth in the search box on the upper right hand corner.
Click on the podcast photo when it comes up
Click on “Ratings and Reviews” beneath the podcast title
Under “Customer Reviews”, click on “Write a Review”
Click on how many stars you want to rate the podcast and then write out your review and click submit
You’re done! Thank you so much!!

If you’re on your phone:

Open the podcasts app
Click the search button on the bottom righthand corner (the magnifying glass) and type in Home and Hearth in the search box that will appear at the top of your screen
Click on the podcast photo when it pops up
Click on the reviews button near the top middle of the screen
Scroll down a bit, if needed, until you see “Write a Review” and click on that
Click on how many starts your want to rate the podcast, write out your review, and click “send” when finished
You’re done! Thank you so much!!