In God We Trust

I’ve been trying to write this essay for a week, and nothing will come together.  When that happens – like when it’s 10:00 on a Saturday night and the sermon isn’t going anywhere – I have a simple strategy: I copy whatever I have into another document, take out a blank sheet of paper, and start over.  When I do that, I often find that a lot of the old stuff works in the new – it just needed a fresh approach.

I wanted to give a grand history lesson.  I love American history as much as I love Biblical history, and one thing they have in common is that nothing is new under the sun.  People are people.  The tools and consequences of evil in Israel of 2,800 years ago are the same as in the Gilded Age of late-19^th century America.  Following hard after Jesus was just as difficult in 1^st Century Corinth as it is in 21^st Century Corinth, Georgia.   The world was, and is, hostile territory.  

But no matter what I put together, it kept stalling out, like a few cars I’ve owned.  And here’s what I think is blocking me: it wasn’t encouraging enough.  True, challenging, but not encouraging.  And I want you to be encouraged, not because of some rosy pie-in-the-sky vision of the future, but because the trendline of the past tells me that God is faithful, merciful, and patient.  In God we trust, right?

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What a Mighty God We Serve

Let’s think about how faithful, merciful, and patient God has been with our country:

• We are the country that gave birth to great revivals, from George Whitfield to Cane Ridge to Billy Graham’s crusades.  We are also the country that saw Christian denominations split into northern and southern editions over slavery – hence the Southern Baptist Convention.  Through all this, God has been faithful, merciful, and patient with our country.
• We are the country that welcomed millions of immigrants over the years. And we also imported millions against their will.  Through all this, God has been faithful, merciful, and patient with our country.
• In the decade that witnessed the 16^th Street Church bombing in Birmingham, we lost a president, a presidential candidate, and a major political leader to assassination. And we developed rockets that sent us to the moon.  Through all this, God was faithful, merciful, and patient.
• The leaders of our War of Independence and designers of our Constitution performed world-changing work.  They also kicked a few cans down the road – forcing future generations to solve (or pay the price for) issues those founders would not touch. Through all this, God has been faithful, merciful, and patient with our country.

Did you catch the theme? God has been faithful, merciful, and patient with our country, often in spite of our indifference – even rebellion - against His desire for people to seek justice, love mercy, and walk humbly before Him. What grace He has!  What generosity toward us!  America’s story could just as easily have ended like Israel’s and Judah’s.  And it still could!  But history plainly shows that the present moment is not unique.   

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Seeing God’s Glory

This understanding feeds how I pray for my country, and pray for its future, in at least three ways:

First, as I’ve already stated, God’s patience and mercy have often come in spite of America being full of people who were decidedly not Christians or Christlike.

Second, remember that God gives patience and mercy for His Own Glory and not for our own.  America can come or go, and it makes no difference to God’s core mission. He wants to redeem the world, full stop.

And third, this means that we cannot prevail upon His mercy – meaning, we cannot live as though His mercy is a given.  Even Israel found this out: they assumed that because God had chosen them, they could live however they wanted with no repercussions. Kind of like telling God: “Nah-nah, you can’t catch me.”  

God’s people – those of us who believe that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and that no one comes to the Father except through Him – have a duty to God and our country to seek justice, love mercy, and walk humbly before Him.  To God, out of gratitude and obedience; to our country, because we seek its welfare, and we know how much He delights in those who seek Him with their whole heart.

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What Would Satan Do?

When I look at troubling events, whether in a personal life or on a grand scale, I like to ask: “What would Satan want out of this? What is he hoping for?”   Satan is neither all-powerful nor very creative, but he is not stupid.  Satan has a plan.  

So, in an event like Charlie Kirk’s murder, what would play into Satan’s hands?  

• Despair: That everything is falling apart.
• Anger: That perceived “enemies” are fracturing our nation.
• Confusion: Over whether “God” or “Country” are equally important.
• Distraction: Away from our primary mission to make disciples of Jesus Christ.

So I run away from these things, and toward the encouragement of history.   We run away from these things, and toward the encouragement of history.  Deliberately.  We don’t run away from despair, anger, confusion and distraction because they are unnatural, but because they are too natural.  They are what Satan wants.  And we focus our minds like precision lasers onto Jesus Christ, His glory, His mission.   

My hope is built
on nothing less
than Jesus’ blood
 and righteousness.  

That’s encouraging.

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Questions? Comments?  Please submit a comment On the Intro Page.  I want to hear from you!