Have you ever wondered why America has changed? As an example, going back to my parent’s generation divorce was rare, and sex outside of marriage was taboo.
Decades ago I can remember my mom telling me about her youth and saying, “I wasn’t that type of girl.” Now we live in a day and age where if you do not have sex by the third or fourth date the relationship is going nowhere, living together without marriage is commonplace, and sex with the same gender is championed instead of shunned.
The sexual revolution is only one example. We used to trust our politicians. “I like Ike!” was more than a campaign slogan, people honestly did like Eisenhower.
We used not to think twice about seeing pickup trucks with gun racks in the window parked in the student parking lot of the local high school, but now a first-grader with a toy gun faces suspension from school.
We can all think of dozens of ways America is not how it used to be. Because of many of these changes, Christians will make a call for prayer. In general, we pray for the nation to turn around, to stop the moral decline and get back on track. My next sentence may offend some Christians, but please don’t stop reading; prayerfully consider the whole column.
Maybe it is time to stop praying for America and start looking into our own souls.
Going back to my original question, “Have you ever wondered why America has changed?” Christians will admit, things have changed, sin is more rampant than in previous decades, and we will tend to blame the world around us. Christians, have you ever consider it all may be our fault?
2 Chronicles 7:14 is often used as a rallying cry for the healing of the nation, “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”
Read the verse carefully, look at what it says.
Does not the fact that the country is not healed, or at least on the road to recovery, imply that we as Christians have not done these things?
“Humble themselves” – Have you ever read the Bible then explained to God how that passage did not apply to you? Have you ever given Him excuses, “I know what the scripture says, but …”? Have you ever thought to yourself that in this particular day and age in which we live that a specific passage of Scripture is no longer applicable? If you have said yes to any of these, it sounds like you are telling God what the rules are. This is not God’s definition of humility.
“Seek my face” — To seek God’s face is attempting to know Him better. We all know hundreds, probably thousands of people, but we all have our inner circle. The handful (maybe only one) of people that are closest to us. The inner circle is people you know so well; you understand their thoughts almost before they think them. Seeking God’s face is striving to know Him that closely.
“Turn from their wicked ways” — It is funny how many Christians will look at sin. The evil sins, the wicked stuff, are the things they don’t do. I reckon God looks at sin the same way; the wicked stuff is all the sins He does not do, and since He commits no sin – all sin is wicked. James 2:10 says as much, “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” No matter how large or how small, sin is sin, and we need to turn from all of it. All of us as individual Christians need to repent.
“Pray” — I left this for last because God said, “then will I hear from heaven and heal their land.” He will not hear our prayers until the other criteria are met.
Why has America changed? God is telling us that over the last fifty years or more, Christians have not been humble, we have not sought the knowledge of God as we should, and we have not repented of sins large and small. If doing these things will heal the land, then not doing this stuff has made the land spiritually unhealthy.
Christians need a time of humility, seeking God’s face, prayer, and repentance.
