America sits in rough shape. 

 

We watch our government act like a third-world dictatorship. It levies criminal case after criminal case against the candidate leading the opposing party. It goes after parents who speak up at school board meetings. It attacks people who pray in front of abortion clinics. It forgets the 5th Amendment as it brutalizes the opposition. 

 

Then our government turns around and allows chaos in the form of riots, destruction, murder, theft, and assault. Political points of view, organizations, and associations all matter as to whether the full weight of the law will come down on a person or not. After all, a prosecutor charging a former president of lying, corruption, etc. has been granted clearance after being found guilty of committing the same things. 

 

Our borders are completely open, allowing in Venezuelan gangs, Haitians (they’re coming), Chinese nationals, and more all in the supposed name of “progress.” Our cities need military personnel to try and stem the destruction and danger on public transport. 

 

The debt continues to climb as we fund foreign wars and throw money into the wind like the flow will never stop. 

 

We export abortion on a mass scale, we import floods of sex trafficking and turn a blind eye to the mountains of children being destroyed day in and day out by our insatiable wickedness. We have fallen as a sex-crazed, saturated culture that invests ourselves so deeply into entertaining our pleasures that we’ve forgotten that virtue even exists. 

 

Our church tears itself apart by pointing the finger, claiming everyone is a false prophet, and throwing words of prophecy all day every day in hopes of a few new viewers and clicks. 

 

We are drunk and reeling. 

 

Why? 

We all carry our opinions on how it happened. Some even believe we still follow a good course. Some think we may be just around the corner to the good ol’ days.  

 

I hope so, though I cannot say I have the same hope as those people. 

 

Unfortunately, we think we have the solution to all the problems figured out. In our self-righteous cause, we throw out 14 different solutions. A 14-step program to get America holy and righteous again. And if America would only follow those steps, then everything would be glorious. 

 

In reality, I can’t help but think of the biblical process for something like this. I think of prophets like Habakkuk who laments for his nation. He pleads that the Lord might stay His hand yet cries out over the wickedness and injustice. Abraham pleads that the Lord might stay his hand if there is but one man found righteous in Sodom and Gomorrah. 

 

At the same time, the prophets and leaders whose hearts broke for their people desired to see wickedness punished. They lament the injustice and the wickedness.  

 

I almost find solace in knowing that this is not the first time a nation has become truly corrupt as we have. 

 

This isn’t meant as a bashing of America or its people. It’s just a clear look at reality. We as Americans are in a mess of a situation, and something needs to change. It cannot stay like this forever. 

 

I share those biblical greats’ hearts. Not because I’m somehow akin to anything that these men were in God, but because I feel the pain. My heart breaks for our nation. It breaks for the injustice and wickedness. I sit, watching mounds of injustice pile up like snow on the cusp of becoming an avalanche that races down the mountain and crushes us. I long to see the wicked truly punished, yet my heart breaks for the sweeping up of the people in the nets of justice and wrath. 

  

My heart breaks because I know that when this nation finally teeters over the edge, chaos will reign supreme. 

 

So, what’s the hope? 

My prayers for this nation are simple. 

 

“Lord, please. Have mercy on us. But refashion us to become what you want us to be. Lead the hearts of your people first. Cleanse us and cleanse the nation of wickedness. But Lord, please…have mercy upon us.” 

 

Plenty of prophecies are getting bandied about concerning judgment on America and how God will sweep away the wickedness. Other prophecies give comfort that those who are truly in Christ will be spared from the coming “flood”. That should force us to look inward. It should drive us to repent for our own heart’s positions. 

  

I think the most dangerous position to be in at this moment is, “Everyone else is wicked. I’m righteous and clean.” Perhaps you are. But when God talks about righteous men, He rarely talks about a large group of righteous people. He tends to say that no one is righteous. Not even one. 

 

In the days of Noah, there was a single family considered righteous. Instead of placing our hope in what we believe ourselves to be, I think a sober-minded introspection is in order. I know it starts with me, and it is taking place as we speak. 

 

And I get it: we are absolutely righteous in Christ. We as His faithful servants are covered in His purity and gift of grace. However, how truly obedient are we to that process? Or are we double-minded in our hearts? At least a little…? 

  

The hope is that God is good. He is merciful. He is loving. He is forgiving. 

 

In the letter to the church of Laodicea, Christ tells the lukewarm church, “I advise you to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.” (Revelation 3:18) 

 

In other words, He offers us the solution to our own ailments. We don’t fix them ourselves. We go to Him to get our gold, our clothes, our covering, our healing, and our vision. We ask Him to cleanse us and renew us.  

 

But that takes a true prostration. A true repentance. A TRUE accounting of where our hearts are with the Lord. Remember, Christ’s letter was directed at a CHURCH that thought it was good, righteous, and doing well. They thought they had nothing to worry about. He told them He was about to spit them out of His mouth! 

 

This means that we as the church must be the first ones down on our knees. We see the wickedness and injustice in this world, but not only have we allowed it: but we’ve either passively or actively participated in it. 

  

How can we be angry with the sex industry when we’ve eaten its fruits? How can we complain of injustice when we look the other way at small wickedness in our daily lives? How can we complain of compromise when we ourselves compromise to save face or save ourselves? How can we complain that this nation has lost God and needs to return to Him when we built idols of our own gods?  

 

It begins with us. You cannot change what happens at the top levels of government. But as a single man or woman, you can begin the process of going to the healer in Christ and putting down at His feet those things that have kept you from being closer to Him.  

 

Lean in and know that He is good.