Whatever the results

Today I had to share a devotion with my Bible study group. I decided to post my devotion here since I haven't posted a blog in forever. Enjoy!


When the list was passed around to sign up for devotions, I didn’t pay much attention to the date I chose. I just knew that as a new addition to the leadership team, I didn’t want to go too early! I wanted to see several others go first, so I could get an idea of what I was supposed to do. However, when I saw that I had chosen today- Election Day- for my turn, I had to laugh. For those of you who know me well, you know that this is all too fitting. I love all things involving government and politics. A self-diagnosed “Fox News Junkie”, I live for the political season with its excitement, pundits and debates. I feel sure that this is a direct result of my up bringing. I was raised in the kind of home where we received a voter registration card attached to our 18^th birthday present in lieu of a birthday card. My father taught me to love this great nation, to respect and revere the genius of our founding fathers, and to consider it a privilege, and even more so, a responsibility to take part in the political process.

But before anyone panics and thinks that I am going to break the cardinal rule not to talk about politics, let me reassure you that is not the case. But I can’t help but think that as we sit here in this room today, that we can all feel the weight of the fact that our nation’s future hangs in the balance. And regardless of which side of the aisle we sit on, as Christians when we look at our nation, it is hard not to see that something has gone terribly wrong.

Ronald Reagan once famously said, “If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a nation gone under.” I wonder if he knew when he made that statement just how prophetic those words would prove to be. In the past 30 plus years since Reagan was elected President, we have seen a steady decline of Christian values in our country. God has been banned from just about every public arena, and some have even tried to remove that very phrase from the pledge of allegiance. And what is the state of our union today as a result? We are on the brink of financial collapse, tens of millions of innocent lives have been taken due to the legalization of abortion, Christians are fighting to preserve the definition of marriage, and many fear for the future of a free America.

When the leaders of CBS chose the books of Isaiah and Amos for this year’s study, I have to wonder if they realized how very relevant they would be to this time in our nation’s history. Very often have I a caught a glimpse of our own country in these pages of scripture. As I have read the descriptions of Israel’s people and its leaders, I have I found them to be eerily similar to that of our own country. They lived in luxury and indulgence, they worshipped gods built with their own hands, they were negligent toward the needy, their youth were insolent and rebellious, they were prideful, boastful, lovers of themselves and of their sin. Sound at all familiar? I personally often find myself shamefully resembling the Israelites-prone to wander into the dangerous waters of pride and idolatry despite God’s faithfulness and provision.  And while, these books are very much about a specific time period, there is much that we can learn from the history of the Israelites.  

Even with all these similarities, the thing that I have found to be most striking is whom these prophetic books address. While Amos and Isaiah both condemn Israel’s pagan neighbors and assure that they will indeed face justice, their primary warnings are directed at Israel and Judah, God’s very own people. These were the same people that God had miraculously rescued from the bonds of slavery in Egypt. The same people that God had provided for, cared for, and called to be set apart for Himself. And yet they chose to rebel, to be influenced by the Godless nations around them and to forsake the Lord their God. As I think about this in regards to our own country, it is very easy for us to think of the problems we face as a result of someone else’s mistakes. We want to blame “the other guy” or that other party or even that president. But the truth is, we, God’s people are the ones who are to blame. We as believers in Christ are God’s chosen people today. We are the very same people that God has miraculously rescued from the bonds of slavery to our sin. The same people that God has provided for, cared for and called to be set apart for Himself. And yet, we have chosen to rebel, to be influenced by the Godless culture around us, just like the Israelites. We, like them, are guilty.

The church today has reacted primarily in one of two ways. The first is apathy. We stick our heads in the sand and pretend that somehow all this political stuff doesn’t really matter or affect us. We make lofty statements about Christians not being involved in earthly affairs and excuse ourselves from taking action. We complain about declining morality and the atrocities we witness in our society, but are unwilling to get our hands dirty or to take a stand for truth. But this approach leaves us equally as guilty as those advocating the removal of God from our society.  I am reminded and convicted by the words of Dietrich Bonheoffer, a German pastor who spoke out and fought against the horrific acts committed by the Nazis in WW2. He said, “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.”

The second way we respond is with a “if you can’t beat them, join them” attitude. When finding ourselves surrounded by a culture that doesn’t understand our principles or convictions, we make little concessions rather than cause disharmony. After all, we don’t want to be accused of being intolerant. And so we compromise a little here and a little there until there is virtually no difference between us and those around us who do not know Lord. We allow our enemy to slowly and deceitfully overcome our thinking and our actions. Like a frog swimming in water that is gradually being warmed, we don’t even realize we are in trouble until the water is boiling around us and it is too late.

So what then should we do? How are we as God’s people to respond in such a time as this? Acts Chapter 17 tells us that God has determined the times set for us and determined the places where we should live. He has placed each and every one of us in this generation for a reason. The answer to what we are to do is also seen within the pages of these two prophetic books. In Isaiah’s very own calling we see the answer conveyed in his humble outcry before the Holy Lord of Hosts. “Woe is me! For I am lost: for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips…” We, like Isaiah, must recognize our own sin and fall humbly before the Lord, confessing our own iniquities as well as those of our nation. We must cry out to the Lord, we must “seek the Lord and live” as Amos entreats the people of Israel. We also, like Isaiah, must have a heart yielded to the Lord, ready to obey and serve Him in the midst of a depraved generation. We must be ready to say, “Here I am, send me”. And we too, like Isaiah, must be willing to relinquish the outcome to the Lord and be willing to trust in His Sovereign will.

Regardless of what happens today, whether or not “this guy” or “that guy” is put into office, we know as believers that no matter who is in control of our government, Jesus is our King. We serve a God who sets up earthly kings and deposes them, who alone is God over all the kingdoms of the earth. And while nations rise and fall, we serve a God who is unchanging and whose kingdom is without end. And it is this hope that we cling to, recognizing that as much as we love America, our citizenship is, in fact, in Heaven and that we are merely pilgrims passing through.  And so we become Christ’s ambassadors here on earth, willing to go wherever He may lead, ready to serve however He may ask and trusting to obey whatever the results.