Our nation is ready for healing...are you?
What’s next, America?
Whether you were on the right or left side of this election, this is the question everyone should be asking right now. One of our biggest challenges this week will be to close our ears to the rhetoric of the media that is still out in full force using sweeping statements to try to stir up our fears, abuse our emotions, and convince us November 5th’s outcome was all about winners and losers.
The truth is the outcome of this election tells a very significant story about the will of the American people, the tenacity of a brilliant man who loves this country, and the merciful grace of God, a story that has great implications for all of us—if we’re willing to see it.
God asked me a probing question on Election Night: Do you want healing, or do you just want to pick at your wounds?
This is similar to the question Jesus asked of several people when He walked the earth, and it should echo in all of our spirits right now.
DO YOU WANT TO BE HEALED?
It’s there for the taking, but it’s also a choice.
One of the ways we can reach out and embrace healing is by choosing to think again and reject the lies we’ve been sold for so long. They’re deeply ingrained into the fabric of society by now, so we will have to dig deep to uproot them, but it’s truly a matter of life and death for our culture. While most of our degeneration as a society stems from rejection of biblical principles, there are three lies in particular that have been poisoning our drive to do better. They go something like this:
- If you love America, you automatically hate other nations and are justifying your nation’s past sins.
- If you want to protect, secure, enrich, and educate your country, you’re a bigot who hates immigrants and poor people.
- And sadly, there’s a Christian version: if you are proud of America, thankful for her, and want to take definitive action to ensure her welfare, you’re worshipping your nation and putting it above God.
There is a very good reason why the enemy has tried so hard to shove these lies down our throats.
If you fall for them long enough, living in continual resentment, you lose touch with responsibility, and rather than taking ownership of anything, you are reduced to complaining, blame-shifting, and cursing the very foundations under your own feet even as they support you. What arrogance!
Though it may sound like humility, resenting our nation is NOT a godly position, and it’s a ploy of the enemy to make us vulnerable to even greater deception, at which point we end up sacrificing things to him that he should not be able to steal otherwise. Hence, the distortion we have been seeing in every sector of our society.
But we don’t have to continue like this! Empowered by the Grace of God, the Church can turn the tide.
All throughout Scripture, God commands and encourages His people to be intentional about seeking the welfare of where we live and becoming a blessing to the land with our prayers and skills and the open proclamation of the Gospel (2 Chronicles 7:14, Jeremiah 29:7, Romans 12:10, Proverbs 22:29, Exodus 31:6, 2 Timothy 3:17). That was always our mandate as Christian Americans regardless of who sat in the White House, but now that God has given us a president who actually loves this country, let’s not waste this opportunity to take responsibility for our land again.
We owe it to our fathers, to our children, and we owe it to the Lord who has graciously withheld judgment and allowed us to steward the massive gift of a country built on liberty.
What are some ways we can do this as believers right now and in the days to come?
We can rewrite the enemy’s narrative by being a witness for Christ and persistently loving those who choose to hate or misunderstand us.
We can spend more time in the secret place with God, listening diligently for His Heart and purposing to be led by Him in our words and actions.
We can be willing to let God’s Spirit prune us wherever necessary so we may bear even more fruit and remain above reproach.
We can educate ourselves on current issues of our day, approaching everything with a biblical worldview that seeks the Lord for wisdom, insight, and direction.
We can fortify ourselves in the kindness and character of God and allow our faith to grow because of the miracles we’ve witnessed while trusting Him for more.
Buckle up, people. Things are not going to improve overnight. The lies won’t just stop. The enemy hates the Truth, common sense, and everything else God created, including freedom.
The task ahead of us is nothing less than relearning what freedom looks like. And that starts with going back to the Book our ancestors brought over the ocean to these shores—the Bible.
The Truth therein was not just meant to govern America but every heart, connecting us with our Creator who is blessed forever and has a plan and purpose for every person and every nation.
If we want to connect with that purpose personally and on America’s behalf, we must begin by reconnecting with Jesus Himself. It is for freedom that Christ set us free, but do not fall back into slavery or use your freedom as a platform for evil; instead, set fellow believers an example and reach out to the world by maturing to look more like Christ (Galatians 5:1 & 13, James 1:25, 1 Timothy 4:12, Ephesians 4:15-16). That’s our mandate.
That’s the only way we will be able to do as Trump said and, “unlock America’s glorious future.” We don't have one apart from God.
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope!” (Romans 15:13).
God bless America!
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