America needs help. This isn't just a funny one-liner like "Oh America, you need help," but it's literally "SOS America is in destruction and we need help." I've had a lot of conversations with people who just have no more hope for America. They have basically given up on this nation. It's hard not to feel that way sometimes seeing as the way things are going right now, but I was woken up at four in the morning the other day and took the short time of quietness in the world to get in the word. Let me tell ya, I got some good out of it for sure.
I was reading through Micah because Micah 7:7 has been my life's verse for the past week or so. I kind of wanted some background on it so I read the entirety of the book, and did I see some similarities to today or what. The entire book of Micah is just proof that stories of the Bible are still relevant today.
Basically, Israel has not been the nation that God wanted it to be. There has been idolatry, iniquity, evil practices in business, dishonesty, ingenuity and corruption throughout the nation. The biggest problem, however, is the leaders who have led their nation to destruction. The leaders are bribed, priests "teach for a price" and prophets are telling fortunes for money. Everything has become ruled by profit. Sound familiar? Now, these leaders claim to be all for God and doing what He asks and praising Him always, but it's not about what you claim to be, it's what you are. And these leaders seemed to think that they needed to buy God's forgiveness and mercy.
In Micah 6:6-8 the people of Israel have just been charged by God for their sins and transgressions. God asks them to remember the good He has done for them so that they may remember and know the "righteous acts of the Lord" (6:5). After having been told of their charges, the leaders of Israel try to buy their way out with calves and thousands of rams, ten thousand rivers of oil and their firstborn (6:6-7). This is where they have the entire concept of God all wrong, you cannot buy out His mercy. What physical objects can YOU give God that He cannot already obtain himself? Nothing. What God asks is that Israel as a nation acts justly and loves mercilessly, and to walk humbly with God (6:8).
God's promise was that Israel was going to be brought to total destruction, but that it will rise again. God always keeps His promises and that is exactly what happened. Israel was filled with triumph and it was said that "even the best of [Israel's people] and the most upright were worse than a thorn hedge" (7:4). But as the rest of the nation sighs and complains about how things are going, Micah remains in the hope of the Lord.
"As for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me"
Micah 7:7
Should we not do exactly what Micah has done. Our nation is in great destruction because this "Nation under God" has lost sight of the "God" part of that statement. We have gone astray from the ways of the Lord and we have seem to put all of our hope in our political leaders. This is why elections have become so personal because every last drop of our hope for the nation has been placed in faulty leaders. We are idolizing these people instead of idolizing God. Have we forgotten the Lord's promise? We will rise with Him and ONLY with Him. America may be in misery now but one day we will rise, but only if we start walking towards God and with God.
The fact that this is supposedly a "Christian nation" means nothing anymore if we aren't participating. Someone else's faith will not get you into Heaven and it won't get you very far on earth either. We need to act with genuine faith, not superficial faith. Get in the word and get to know God and walk in His ways and He will set you path straight. If your neighbors get in the word and walk in His ways, He will set their paths straight. If we all walk with Him, He will set all of our paths straight and thus, making America's path straight.
So go out and vote for whoever you will vote for. Neither of them is the one who's gonna put this nation back on it's feet. Neither of them are going to be able to fully lead us to where we need to be. It is only if we look at the word of God and walk humbly with Him that things are going to change. God changes people's hearts and with God, deceitful and violent hearts can become pure hearts that beam with light. That is the only way that America is going to get to where it is supposed to be. God is the ONLY way.