I can't help but wonder if that's happening to us, with all our evil ways.

God can withdraw His protection from any nation that continually turns its back on Him. It happened with ancient Israel, and it can happen to us. The Bible says, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil. … (the Lord’s) hand is raised and he strikes them down” (Isaiah 5:20, 25).

But that doesn’t mean we should stop praying for our nation, or quit standing up for what is right and opposing what is wrong. After all, we don’t know the future — and God may intervene in unexpected ways and bring spiritual revival in our midst. How different would our nation be if God’s people prayed for it every day? We also need to pray for our leaders, because they bear a very heavy burden and need God’s wisdom.

Do you remember Jonah? God told him to go to Nineveh, the capital city of one of the most pagan nations on earth. At first, Jonah refused to go (which is why he fled and was swallowed by a great fish). But when he finally preached the message God had given him, the people of Nineveh repented of their evil ways. The Bible says that God “had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened” (Jonah 3:10). They were spared — and the same could happen in our generation.

Make sure of your own commitment to Christ. Then make it your goal to live a life that honors him. Pray too for those around you who do not know Christ, that they will turn to Him and help reverse the evil trends we see around us.

A few passages for direct application to the United States of America today...

2 Chronicles 7:

quote:
The Lord Appears to Solomon

11When Solomon had finished the temple of the Lord and the royal palace, and had succeeded in carrying out all he had in mind to do in the temple of the Lord and in his own palace, 12the Lord appeared to him at night and said:

“I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a temple for sacrifices.

13“When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, 14if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

Jeremiah 18:

quote:
At the Potter’s House

1This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2“Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message.” 3So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. 4But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.

5Then the word of the Lord came to me. 6He said, “Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel. 7If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, 8and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned. 9And if at another time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be built up and planted, 10and if it does evil in my sight and does not obey me, then I will reconsider the good I had intended to do for it.

Many people actually do blame God for our state of affairs. Political parties blame each other. No one, of course, blames the deceiver himself. Why? Because Satan cleverly performs his devious acts through mankind. He dances and drinks in the adulation of his worshippers as he glimmers and shimmers, displaying all that glitters and all that attracts the shallowness of man. Then suddenly the stinging whip wraps them around the waist; they fall to the ground. The deceiver reigns victorious—for a moment—as other followers, aghast and bewildered, blame God for their plight.

The Bible teaches that Satan is actually “the prince of this world” (John 12:31, NIV) and “the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient” (Ephesians 2:2, NIV). As long as he is still roaming the earth, in constant conflict with God and pursuing his deadly plan, evil will remain.

But Jesus in His all-knowing will has declared, “Take heed that no one deceives you. … See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass” (Matthew 24:4, 6). If the human race would turn from its evil ways and return to God, putting behind its sins, He would deliver us from evil.