Out of the Flame into the Fire

With the current political situation I have started to fear that America will never be the nation that it once was. That even if there are up swings we are headed in an overall downward trajectory. With freedoms of some protected while others are exploited. With people doing whatever they want whenever they want, giving no regard to who it hurts. Even within the church seeing people who are disillusioned and self centered. Then I wonder why am I surprised.

Often I believe that I subconsciously think that God Bless America is in the Bible, but God never promises that the nation we live in will prosper. The one nation state that God interacts with and favors in the Bible had a really rough go of it. All through history the people of God have faced pain and persecution, they have been conquered and put into captivity. Where did we get the idea that we, as Americans, are divinely chosen to be the most prosperous country in the world? And that even if we are blessed to be prosperous that it won't be a difficult, painful process that will separate those truly seeking the heart of God from those who aren't.

Though I don't like the potential political landscape of the United States, every time that the nation of Israel went through terrible circumstances in the bible it sparked a renewed devotion to God. The people who lived through it gained renewed vision and were very usable for God's will.

For most of my life I have braced myself for the next bad thing that was going to happen. Dreading the idea of going through another painful situation that could take any amount of time to resolve itself. This week I was challenged to focus less on the situation itself and instead focus on the result. After processing a while I realized that after the hard times I was in a place where God could work most easily. I was brought low so then I could be rebuilt into more of the image of Christ.

Although my flesh cries for comfort and ease in life, I know that getting that would cause me to stop growing. I need the challenges and the upheaval in my life to really spur my growth and more importantly bring me to a place where I am ready to grow.  So regardless of what happens in November God will still be good, Jesus will have still died for our sins, and it might just bring us to a place where the church can grow.