Christians are, rightly, dismayed as we see God’s principles and plans not thriving in this country. So the question is, should we be involved in trying to stop the precipitous drop in Christian influence in America. A lot of people call us a post-Christian nation, is this experiment we call America a lost cause?

There’s a perennial debate: Should evangelicals be involved in the public square? Some Christians see political involvement as a misguided attempt to place Jesus’ stamp of approval on the American dream. Others, myself included, believe Christians should shrewdly and wisely work within the systemthat exists in this country to cause biblical principles to be influential in our laws and policy.

Christians don’t serve a political party. We serve the Lord. We can use politics to bring our faith to bear on the culture.   We must do this in the areas of social justice, life, marriage, protecting religious liberty. Political power is not an end in itself for Christians. Politics is a tool. We neglect to use that tool at our peril.

The news is discouraging. Lately we seem to lose more battles than we win. Still, we Christians are the very people who should be fighting for the heart and soul of the nation. If not us, who?

Since there’s no longer a Christian consensus on many moral issues, our job is getting harder. The Bible no longer contains the defining mores of the culture. Christians are definitely counter-cultural. We are strangers and aliens. We still hold the majority views on issues like the sanctity of human life, and marriage, and freedom. But cultural elites — and certainly those who hold the power in DC seem to be winning and solidifying control. They are creating a dependent class of people who care more about what government will provide for them than for what it is removing, which is our freedom.

Do we turn the other cheek as our religious liberties are chipped away? As the moral fiber of our nation degrades? As the rule of law is weakened by the very public officials who are supposed to enforce it? As elected and appointed officials accede to demands to change and weaken God’s institution: the family? We must not.

Believing saint, if you make efforts to influence policy in a biblical direction, God may grant you success. Or, things could get a lot worse. But, remember, God has not left His throne. He is seated there. He rules. As a democracy, our country is struggling. But, as my pastor said last Sunday, we the Church live in a Resurrection Monarchy. In vain, says Psalm 2, do “kings and rulers strive ….against the Lord of earth and heaven.”

When we’re discouraged at the direction things are taking in the country, we should remember we are citizens of that monarchy. But we should never stop trying to make the country we live in better.