In the previous post, we discussed God’s instructions for us from Romans chapter 13 about living as Christians under human governments. In today’s post, we’ll explore six ways to live in this temporary world as followers of Jesus while retaining our eternal citizenship in heaven with Him.

I want to assure you again: these recommendations are coming from the heart of a pastor who loves you – a shepherd whose charge is to lead you to green pastures, and to life-giving waters – and to defend you from predators and pitfalls by teaching you the truth of God’s Word and of God’s loving heart for you.

#1 – 20 minutes of news per day is enough.

There isn’t more than 20 minutes worth of news happening around the world each day. I promise you.

Unless you’re digging deep into sports, or cooking, or inventions, or science, or animals, or cars, or something – I’m talking about geo-politics – nationally and internationally – 20 minutes of that each day is plenty.

After 20 minutes, you stop getting news, and you start getting opinions and commentary, which is almost never beneficial.

If the news is on 24 hours a day at your house, please turn it off. I’m telling you this out of love – the 24-hour news cycle of taking a two-minute news story and then dissecting it from every angle and with everyone’s opinion about how it’s either the best thing that’s ever happened, or the worse thing ever – 24 hours a day – day-after-day – it’s killing you! Turn it off.

Whatever you’re flavor: MSNBC, Fox News, CNN, News Nation – 20 minutes is more than enough.

And if you’re looking for a Christian news source that doesn’t promote opinionated biases, I recommend The World and Everything In It. It’s a free daily news podcast. The first 10-15 minutes are the headlines and top news stories from around the world for that day – and that’s it. That’s all the news I need in one day.

#2 – Submit your passionate points-of-view and your deeply-held beliefs to God and His Word.

Listen, it’s not wrong to have opinions about things. It’s not wrong to feel passionately about a topic, or a political position, or a political candidate.

But – as followers of Jesus – we submit our passions and our opinions about things to the Lord and to His Word.

If you find yourself disagreeing with something the Bible says – that’s significant. That’s something to really pay attention to, and to pray about.

Because if I come across something in Scripture that opposes one of my passionate points-of-view or one of my deeply-held beliefs – listen: I love you – I’m saying this in love: if my opinion and God’s Word are not in agreement… it is not God’s Word that needs to change to conform to my way of thinking.

God’s call upon us – from Romans 12:2 – is to not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds in Christ Jesus and His Word.

So let’s submit our passionate points-of-view and deeply-held beliefs to God and His Word.

#3 – Share a meal with a Christian you disagree with.

It’s easy to start seeing those with political positions that differ from yours as enemies when you never take the time to get to know them as people.

If you lean to the left – there is a fellow believer in your life who leans to the right – with whom you could sit down to a calm and peaceful cup of coffee or lunch one day – just to get to know each other as fellow humans and Christians.

If you lean to the right – there is a Christian close to you who leans to the left that could become a dear and trusted friend as a fellow person and a fellow follower of Jesus with you.

Pastor Jonathan Moore told me a about a gentleman in his life – he’s pretty sure they have almost completely opposite political views. But they meet for lunch about once per month just to be friends. They share about their lives as husbands and as fathers. They talk about sports and movies and the Bible together. And, this man has become one of Jonathan’s best friends!

Share a meal with a Christian you disagree with – and not with the purpose to persuade them of anything – but just to seek to get to know them as people and to understand them.

#4 – Pray for those in authority over you.

This one comes straight out of Scripture. 1 Timothy 2:1-4 says, 1 “I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people— 2 for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. 3 This is good, and pleases God our Savior, 4 who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.”

I first felt God’s conviction to start practicing these verses in my 20s, when George W. Bush was president. And then I continued to practice these verses in my 30s, when Obama became president. I prayed for his leadership, his decision-making, his officials, his cabinet…

I continued praying like this when Donald Trump was elected, and then again when Joe Biden became president. And then again when Trump took office for the second time.

I pray for our leaders – whoever they are. Whether I like them or not. Whether I agree with their policies or not.

I pray for their marriages, their health, their souls – I pray for wisdom, for them to be surrounded by Godly counsel. But not just them – I also pray for our Congresspeople and our Supreme Court justices.

I pray for our State governors and members of the State Legislature. I’ve prayed for our mayors through the years, and our City Counselors.

This has nothing to do with agreeing or disagreeing with their politics – or whether I voted for them or not – or whether I even like them or not. It is a simple, clear, direct command from Scripture to pray for those in authority over you. And I think part of the reason for that is this:

#5 – Seek the good of the place where you dwell.

This is another spiritual principle that comes straight out of Scripture. Jeremiah 29:4-7 says, “4 This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 ‘Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. 6 Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. 7 Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.’ ”

Babylon was the worst possible place you could ever live as a Jew in the 5th-Century B.C. – which is saying something! For God’s chosen people, life under the Babylonians was worse than under any of the other oppressors they had endured before then: worse than the Assyrians, worse than the Philistines, worse than the Canaanites – even worse than the Egyptians!

And yet God says to His people, living in Babylon: “Seek the good of the city where you live in exile – for its good will be your good.”

As Christians, our permanent citizenship as followers of Jesus is in heaven. And so our mortal lives here on our earth are a sort of exile: our lives here on earth are a temporary displacement from our permanent home with God in heaven.

But God is not calling us to disown and abandon our earthly cities in which we now dwell – but to seek their good – to work for the good of the places where we live now, for God’s glory.

#6 – Keep your gaze focused on Jesus.

Keep your gaze focused on Jesus.

No politician, or political party, or political action group, should ever have the gaze and the attention from us that should belong to Jesus alone.

That doesn’t mean we don’t engage in the political process, or that we can’t endorse particular candidates or policy positions. But keep your focus – keep your gaze – keep as first place in your heart – the Lordship of Jesus.

That is how we live in this temporary world as followers of Jesus whose eternal citizenship is in heaven with Him.