Good morning, world. Things are looking pretty good from the front porch of my farm in Virginia today. It’s destined to be a hot day today with temperatures to scorch and humidity to choke. As I sat in the Presence of the Author and Perfecter of my Faith, I thought about how the scorching temperatures and choking humidity feels a lot like America today. Tempers are rising and the Truth is being choked from one end of America to the other. A Country founded by God and FOR God isn’t even recognizable today. The Living God can lower the temperature and remove the humidity with just one little Whisper from Heaven…but He can also bring hurricanes and tornadoes in His allotted time too. If there is one prayer heavy on my Heart today, it’s for God’s people to set aside their own versions of truth and their own agendas to Trust the Hand of God…the God who allows temperatures to rise and humidity to choke for a season…no matter what tomorrow brings.

The Bible is filled with accounts of wars I think most people like to overlook. All wars were brought on by God and for God because people had turned away from Him and He was being replaced by idolatry. “Idolatry” isn’t just about bizarre statues built in the image of a powerless “god”, “idolatry” is about trusting in something – ANYTHING or ANYONE- other than the Living God. God won’t tolerate idolatry forever, and when He’s had enough, He is ready, willing, and able to bring calamity upon any land…including America. America is guilty of idolatry. We idolize our money and our security, and we’re willing to roll over and play dead – to go against the Living God – just to keep it. We idolize the body as we are consumed by fear of sickness and death. We idolize our agendas that most of the time have little (or nothing) to do with the Living God. We idolize leaders who speak the language we want to hear. We idolize our hidden source of “knowledge” and our own version of “truth.” We idolize our “choice” to distort creation while we spit in the face of the Creator. We idolize sex and we defend our perversions. We idolize our freedom and we’re willing to fight for it AS IF the Living God guarantees freedom in this life – while the only Freedom that matters in the eyes of God is the Freedom that comes by way of Jesus Christ. When you look at it that way, no wonder God is displeased with a country once founded BY Him and for Him.

It’s not possible to be a humble Servant of the Living God and an idolater all at the same time. While so many of us are praying for God to heal our land – so few of us are humble enough to examine our own hearts and to turn away from ANYTHING and ANYONE that isn’t God Almighty Himself. Once upon a time, in a nation filled with idolatry – from idol worship to sexual perversion – God took matters into His own hands the same as He can in America today – “Therefore this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I am going to bring such disaster on Jerusalem and Judah that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle. I will stretch out over Jerusalem the measuring line used against Samaria and the plumb line used against the house of Ahab. I will wipe out Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down” (2 Kings 21:12-13). When God has had enough, He’s had enough!

If we sincerely want God to heal our land, then we must be willing to turn away from our idolatry – our versions of the truth – and turn to Him instead. He isn’t obliged to tell us what He’s doing but He expects us to accept what He’s doing no matter what it looks like to us! When Habakkuk asked God to fill him in on the plans – God responded with “Look at the nations and observe— be utterly astounded! For I am doing a work in your days that you would never believe even if someone told you. For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans—that ruthless and impetuous nation which marches through the breadth of the earth to seize dwellings not their own.” God rose up a “ruthless and impetuous nation” for a Purpose all His own and it doesn’t have to make sense to us! Our job is to Share the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to Trust God no matter what this world looks like from where we sit AND NOT to obsess over the agenda we’re idolizing. God is still on the Throne and the end of the Story is Spectacular…on the other side of this life, that is. Are you as prepared for that part as much as you believe you’re prepared to fight over the political condition of America today?

If we want the Hand of God to heal this land, we must be willing to humble ourselves in ways we never have before. We must be willing to Trust the Hand of God even IF/when it gets ugly. We must be willing to stand up for God MORE than we stand up for our idols. When you look at it that way, we’ve got a LOT of Spiritual awakening of our own to do before God can (or will?) turn things around…IF THAT’S HIS PLAN. America is just a temporary address for God’s people – if/when we understand that part, we talk a whole lot more about our New Address (and our ONLY Leader) than we do about a broken land filled with broken leaders…a land God may OR may not be willing to heal.

My Heart is heavy for so many of my brothers and sisters much more focused on their idolatry and their own version of the truth than they are on the Living God and HIS Truth….the God who brings the temperatures to scorch and the humidity to choke. I hurt for the ones more passionate about speaking words of defeat and discourse than they are to Speak up about Jesus Christ…the ONLY Hope any of us ever have. It’s a Spiritual War and we’re still fighting with weapons of the flesh. It’s a nation riddled with idolatry and we’re refusing to let go. Humility goes a LONG way with the Living God and it is the FIRST STEP for a land in need of healing by the touch of the Master’s Hand.

“Because your heart was responsive and you humbled yourself before God when you heard what He spoke against this place and its people and because you humbled yourself before Me and tore your robes and wept in My presence, I have heard you, declares the Lord. Now I will gather you to your fathers, and you will be buried in peace. Your eyes will not see all the disaster I am going to bring on this place and on those who live here.” (2 Chronicles 34:27-28)

God bless America.