Take Heart, Believer. There is Hope for America.
A cloud of despair and gloom settles over our nation even as we prepare to set off another round of fireworks. As a whole, our nation is as pessimistic as I can recall it being, and for good reason. It must be the economy! We are befuddled by inflation, beaten down by gas prices and broken by the stock market. We would feel much better about ourselves if we were not headed into a recession. At least that is what we think.
The economy may be a symptom but it is not the disease. Every thinking believer must know that there is a principle of cause and effect. Our nation is not prospering. That is the effect, not the cause. The cause is that we have rejected righteousness and have forgotten God.
“Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.” (Proverbs 14:34)
More and more earnest, sincere people find no cause for optimism. In doing so we discredit God. Can there be a reason for optimism? Can America experience a mighty moving of God again? Can a nation turn around? Is there any hope?
In Joseph Tracy’s wonderful accounting of revival, “The Great Awakening” published in 1842, he writes of the incredible low spiritual tide in the the northeastern colonies prior to a mighty move of God. He describes 1739 as a time of drunkenness, immortality, murder and lawlessness. Then God began to move.
Jonathan Edwards gave this accounting of the movement of God in Northampton, Massachusetts.
In the year 1740, in the spring, before Mr Whitfield came to town, there was a visible alteration. There was more seriousness and religious conversation, especially among young people. Those things that were of ill tendency among them were more forborne, and it was a more frequent thing for persons to visit their minister upon soul accounts. In some particular persons, there appeared a great alteration about that time. And thus it continued until Mr Whitfield came to town which was about the middle of October following.
The language may be a little archaic but the divine intervention is not. In a very dark time, light broke through. God began to move. George Whitfield and Jonathan Edwards did not cause the revival. God moved in response to desperation and sent revival.
We have every reason to be desperate. The moral condition of America is so dark that it is hard to imagine it being much darker. Our churches are cold. Our families are broken. Our hopes fade. We cannot fix our brokenness but God can.
Oh people of God, where is your faith? God sent His Son into a broken world. There is still hope for America. God is still on His throne and He does not wring His hands. Ultimately we face revival or ruin but we cannot continue as we are.
May God, who moved to send revival shortly before the American revolution, do it again. He is our only hope.
