Revival or Ruin
The other day I discovered that one of the boards in my deck had rotted. This formerly solid piece of wood had simply disintegrated into nothingness in spots. A thin layer of paint and wood fibers on the surface disguised the dangerous emptiness below. A quick glance could not reveal the problem. Only by putting stress on the board was the weakness revealed.
This is an accurate illustration of the state of America in 2021. I believe America is headed for one of two destinies. Revival or ruin. By revival I do not mean something political or economic. I mean something spiritual.
Perhaps complacency becomes the natural state of human existence. As long as things are somewhat tolerable we tolerate them. Apart from some major crisis we generally move through our days with little thought to the state of our lives or the state of the world around us. However chaotic our lives are we tend to grow comfortable. This was the case with God’s people in the Old Testament.
The people of God rebelled against the Lord and rejected him repeated until eventually God brought judgment on the nation in the form of a divided nation, then later military defeat and deportation. One might assume that living through such distressing events would capture the attention of God’s people. Sadly this was not the case. In fact, the opposite happened. Complacency only seemed to increase. Two words about spiritual complacency among God’s people have been occupying my thinking lately.
The first is from Jeremiah and it deals with the cause of spiritual complacency. In Jeremiah 2:11 the prophet lamented the spiritual condition of his nation: “Has a nation changed gods when they were not gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit.” The people had forsaken the Lord for other pursuits. They had looked to other things to satisfy them and bring them fulfillment. But those things couldn’t fulfill. It was a trading of the glory. They forfeited God’s glory for a counterfeit. Yet instead of returning to the Lord, the people kept trying to find something else to fulfill them.
Could it be that Jeremiah’s description of Israel in his day accurately reflects many Christians today? I think it does. What if the greatest problem in America is not the embarrassingly self-serving and dangerously naive political leaders we have? As bad as Washington is today, what if the greater problem today is in the hearts of God’s people? It starts with you and me. Am I seeking God like I should? This is not the time to keep hitting the spiritual snooze button.
The second thought is from the prophet Ezekiel. He provides a challenge of what to do about our spiritual complacency. The Lord spoke through Ezekiel saying: “I have searched for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand in the gap before Me for the land, so that I would not destroy it; but I found no one” (Ezekiel 22:30). In the case of a nation gone astray, God desired people to seek him on behalf his people and yet there was no one. How tragic! Yet, we can understand how that we would be the case. What is subnormal becomes normal given enough time. Therefore, this thinking creeps into our hearts: "Why stand in the gap? This is just the way things are.” This is the way things are but that does not mean God, in his grace cannot intervene. If God should send revival I don’t want it to happen in spite of me. I want revival to happen with me. This is the time to stand in the gap. This is the time to pray. This is the time to seek the Lord.
Revival or ruin. It isn’t up to me, but I am going to pray like it is.