Psalm 81:11-12 “But my people would not hearken to my voice; and Israel would none of me.  So I gave them up unto their own hearts’ lust:  and they walked in their own counsels.”

James 4:8 “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.”

Newton’s Law of Gravitation: “Every particle of matter in the universe attracts every other particle with a force that is directly proportional to the product of the masses of the particles and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.” (aka F=GmM/R2)

Psalm 81 and James 4 illustrate two sides of the same gravitational coin.  Psalm 81 is the case that I would call the vicious cycle.  When our faithfulness decreases, our distance from the Lord increases.  As a result, we become less attracted to Him and our distance continues to grow at an accelerating rate.  In fact, the increasing distance apart from the Lord causes His restraining force to diminish quickly to the point that we begin to walk in our own counsels completely apart from Him.  In many ways, America has reached this point where we have willfully escaped from the Lord’s influence on our nation and He has given us up.  It is at this point of escape velocity that the national perils are numerous.

James 4 is the case that I would call the virtuous cycle.  When our faithfulness increases and we draw nigh to God, then we decrease the distance between us and the Lord.  As a result, we become more attracted to Him and our distance continues to shrink at an accelerating rate.  While the vicious cycle gives us a reason to despair, the ability to rapidly increase God’s force on our nation by taking a single step towards Him should give us a reason for hopefulness.  This is the power of a virtuous cycle.

PLEASE PRAY THAT AMERICAN CHRISTIANS WOULD HARNESS THE HOPEFULNESS OF THE VIRTUOUS CYCLE TO REGAIN GOD’S INFLUENTIAL FORCE ON OUR NATION.  A small national step towards him, prompted by the faithfulness of Christian citizens, may remedy the decades of deviating distance from our deity.