Dear Friends,
Unless a “chad” got hung-up someplace, today we may have a new president with a new vision for America or the same president with a renewed sense of purpose for our country. Only one thing’s for certain. Nothing has changed. Today America is in crisis. Billy Graham recently said, “When America’s leaders actively promote and legislate immorality, restrict the religious freedoms that our country was founded on, and are openly hostile to men and women of faith, then I believe we are ripe for God’s judgement.”
Today there are forces of evil that are stalking us domestically and internationally, we are in a moral free-fall and we have just gone through the most divisive presidential campaign in memory. Foreign countries that once recognized the United States as the world’s super power are beginning to see us as the “Disunited States of America.”
Last night I was reading a book on spiritual formation written by a Catholic priest. (Nearly all books on spiritual formation are written by priests or monastics which should give us Evangelicals some pause for thought...) And I came across a sentence that just stunned me in its directness, succinctness, simplicity and truth. The author wrote: “Our modern prophets begin to tell us that we cannot be fully American and fully Christian much longer.” Take a moment and digest that. Think about where we are today and how close to the truth that is.
I couldn’t help but to think that this prophecy should not be a discouraged acquiescence to the morally and spiritually bankrupt state of our nation but a call to action. If we American Christians love our nation, then we need to start acting like Christians. If our nation is to become the Reunited States of America, Christians need to first be united in prayer. We need to engage in deep intercessory prayer on our knees: “Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence.” (1 Timothy 2:1-2)
Too many of the men and women who are politically positioned to make decisions for our country have arrogantly refused to acknowledge God, and have rejected any dependency on His guidance and security for America. We must ask God for His forgiveness for this nation’s transgressions. If Billy Graham is correct, we need to pray that God will stay His hand of judgement. We need to ask for God’s mercy and grace. We need to pray that this country turns back to the God of our fathers.
This is a crucial hour in America and Christians of every tradition and denomination need to be joined in prayer. We have elected new leaders or reelected those who will either continue the nation’s moral and spiritual free-fall, or who will return to this country’s founding Christian principles where we can once again be a nation that stands together and proclaims, “In God We Trust.”
The election is over and if you find yourself either ecstatically happy or deeply discouraged with America’s choice for president, then you may have placed too much faith in a political “savior”. We need to realize that no matter who we place on the throne in the White House, God is still in control. And He’s listening to your prayers. Amen?
