II Chronicles 7:14 “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.”
Proverbs 14:34 “Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.”
During World War II, Dean Wickes of Princeton University said the following: “It is well that this crisis should urge us to make the world over, but long before we can do this, we can let this crisis make us over into the sort of people the world is going to need.”
Similarly, in 1942 Pastor Joseph Ewing recounted the following story in “Strength for Service”:
“A father and mother were having some difficulty in interesting their little daughter in the study of geography. They schemed to help her by purchasing for her a jigsaw puzzle map of the United States. They were sure that this would require so much effort on her part in piecing it together that it would be a valuable geographical project. To their amazement she was able to assemble the map in a remarkably short time. They asked her how she did it, and she explained that on the opposite side of the map was a picture puzzle of the face of George Washington. This further word from her was especially thought-provoking: ‘When you get the man put together right, the United States comes out all right.’”
The whole is made up of its pieces. Notably, the character of a nation will never be greater than the character of its most righteous, Christ-like parts. Are today’s Christians setting the standard for the rest of society, or are we converging with society’s standard of worldliness and godlessness?
We live in perilous times. Sin is elevated and its natural consequences yields death, destruction, and depravity. Our society’s collective character is a reproach to a world in chaos and a culture in crisis. Christians must be the sort of people the world needs today, and that it will need in our progressive dystopian future.
Are American Christians put together right? If we are, then there is hope for this sin-stained world. If we are not, then today’s crisis will never make the world over into something better than it is today.
As much as we like to focus on the external, it is time to shift that focus to the internal. If we are righteous, then this nation can be exalted. If we humble ourselves, and pray, and seek His face, and turn from our wicked ways, then we can see widespread revival. After all, when you get the man put together right, the United States will come out alright.
PLEASE PRAY FOR AMERICAN CHRISTIANS TO SEEK INWARD RIGHTEOUSNESS SO THAT ONE DAY WE CAN EXPERIENCE NATIONWIDE REVIVAL. May we let our current crisis make us over into the sort of people that the world is going to need.
ADMIN NOTE: My next PLUS post will be in two weeks. In the meanwhile, please continue to pray for our nation, for our leaders, and for national revival in 2022!
