As President-elect Donald Trump assembles his new Cupboard, Pastor Robert Jeffress of First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas, has a message not simply of hope and therapeutic because the nation strikes ahead after the presidential election but additionally for Thanksgiving and your entire vacation season.
“We did have a really contentious election,” Jeffress instructed Fox Information Digital in an unique on-camera video. (See the video on the prime of this text.)
“We have had many contentious elections all through historical past. However I feel now that the election is over, now that President Trump has been re-elected, I actually sense on each side of the aisle there is a want to come back collectively and get one thing optimistic finished for the nation,” mentioned the religion chief who is understood nationwide.
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“And I sense a really upbeat spirit with President Trump,” mentioned Jeffress.
“I talked to him a number of days in the past, and he’s targeted, little question about it, on his agenda that he ran on.”
And “he is extraordinarily upbeat and optimistic about the way forward for the nation.”
Added Jeffress, “You understand, I feel individuals who fearful or [even] heard that, if he is elected, he will create this dystopian theocracy that is going to oppress individuals — I do not assume any of that’s true.”
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“I’ve seen and I’ve identified the president for 10 years,” he continued. “And I feel he is ready to transcend political variations and in a position to work on what’s greatest for America. So I hope all People will pray for him and provides him an opportunity to do what he promised to do.”
“That is the important thing to having that coronary heart of gratitude — discovering the great issues to focus on.”
Will Jeffress advise Trump in any formal manner on religion or prayer issues as the brand new administration prepares to take workplace?
The pastor responded, “Again in 2016, when President Trump ran for the primary time, his marketing campaign created a non secular advisers committee. As soon as he received that 2016 election, that ended and it morphed right into a extra casual group of people that talked with the president when he requested that.”
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Added Jeffress, “So I feel that can proceed. I’ve identified President Trump, as I mentioned, for 10 years, and we have been associates. And we keep in frequent contact both via textual content or telephone calls.
“And I sit up for that friendship persevering with for a few years,” he mentioned.
This Thanksgiving, the pastor mentioned his message for all “would actually be God’s message from Scripture. It is present in I Thessalonians 5:18, wherein Paul mentioned, ‘In every little thing we should always give thanks.’”
Jeffress went on, “Most individuals do not know that the primary proclamation for Thanksgiving was issued by Abraham Lincoln in 1863, proper in the midst of the Civil Battle when our nation was being torn aside.
“Lincoln mentioned, ‘There are some issues we should always be pleased about.’ And I feel that is the important thing to having that coronary heart of gratitude — discovering the great issues to focus on.”
The pastor famous that regardless that the nation has gone via a tense and divisive election season, “we ought to be grateful that we had the chance to decide on our leaders.”
Sure, “there are financial hardships that many households are going through” — little question about that, he famous.
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“However the reality is the common household of 4 making $50,000 a yr is wealthier than 89% of the remainder of the world.”
And sure, whereas “there are hurricanes and floods, these are the exceptions more often than not,” he mentioned.
“There are such a lot of issues we are able to be grateful for. And I do know individuals generally say to me, ‘Pastor, I do not really feel grateful.’ Properly, I’ve discovered that it is rather a lot simpler to ‘act your self’ into a sense than to ‘really feel your self’ into an motion.”
In spite of everything, he added, “there is a motive this vacation is known as Thanksgiving — and never Thanks-feeling.”
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He additionally mentioned, “God is in command of every little thing that occurs, and we are able to belief in that. And I might additionally simply remind Christians, particularly, that the Bible teaches that authorities’s accountability is to depart us alone as we apply our religion.”
“God is in command of every little thing that occurs, and we are able to belief in that.”
He added, “We’re by no means going to result in non secular change via authorities. It isn’t authorities’s job or skill to alter the hearts of individuals. Solely the Gospel of Jesus Christ can do this. And that is one thing now we have to apply.”
Jeffress is senior pastor of his 16,000-member church in Dallas and is a Fox Information contributor.
His each day radio program, “Pathway to Victory,” is heard on greater than 1,400 stations nationwide.
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His weekly tv program is seen in 195 nations world wide, together with Fox Nation.
He’s the writer of almost 30 books.
Sydney Borchers and Brooke Singman, each of Fox Information Digital, contributed reporting.