Return to God

The 2012 elections are coming up and the believers in my church are pressing in and praying urgently about the upcoming elections: who we should vote for, for God to raise up Godly representation in all areas of government, that the body of Christ would humble themselves and pray for the future of our great nation. We pray for city officials, state officials, and national officials.  Our agenda? We want, we hope, we proclaim the Christian Foundation that our nation was founded on.  We want the God of Heaven and Earth to be the very core of our existence in this great nation.  We want to bring back the Godly morals and principles that this nation was formed upon. We want our Christian values and heritage to stand--not to be stripped away from us one amendment to the constitution at a time.

I am studying the book of Daniel.  Daniel 2:21 says, "God removes kings and raises up kings." Daniel 1:1-2 states that God delivered the King of Judah into the hand of the King of Babylon. And Jeremiah 27:5-6 says, "By My power and by My outstretched arms, I give to whom it seems proper to Me. I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the King of Babylon, My servant."  God used a gentile King to deal with the sin of the Israelites by raising him up to conquer and suppress the Iraelites.  God was looking forward to the day when the Israelites would recognize their blatant sins, repent and turn back to the God who had delivered them into the promised land. He was waiting for the day when they would recognize that the God of the Israelites was not one God among many other Gods, but to recognize that He alone was God and there was no other. He was waiting for the day when they would recognize not only their need of Him, but their love for Him as well.

I am thinking that God still uses Kings, or Presidents, to bring a sinful nation into repentance. To bring a nation to an understanding that this life we are living is not all about us, but is instead all about a life in relationship with the Creator God of the Universe. God is calling us to humble ourselves and pray for this nation. To recognize that this nation did not reach the situation it is in overnight.  We have been complacent when laws were changed; when we did not step forward and fight because that particular law did not affect us; when we allowed our freedoms and rights to be stripped away because we were only paying attention to our own little world.

Now is the time to rise up: to pray and intercede for our nation. Now is the time to stand firm: to do what is right  no matter the consequences. Now is the time to return to God: repent, and live a life fully committed to Christ.

God loves us and wants only the best for us.  I am reminded that God corrects His children because of his great love for them (Proverbs 3:11). Jeremiah 29:11-13 says,  "I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me, and you will find Me, when  you search for Me with all your heart."