We are a nation under siege facing a host of opposing forces which threaten the very foundations of our society. No true believer would really question this assessment. The greater question would be, “Who is it that presents the most opposition to us as a nation?” Without a doubt, there are numerous forces around the world that would like to destroy America. However, may I present to you that neither ISIL, Hamas, the Taliban, Al Qaeda, nor any other militant group pose the greatest danger to us. Rather, our focus and greater concern is searching for answers to America’s problems ought to be centered on ourselves and the Almighty God who is displeased with us.

      The Word of God clearly identifies the basis of a nation’s demise. Psalm 9:17 states, “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.” Proverbs 14:34 cautions, “Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.” Psalm 33:12 predetermines a nation’s strong foundations with, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people who he hath chosen for his own inheritance.” Further, Almighty God can fight against a people or nation He has chosen for Himself as evidenced in Jeremiah 21:4-5.  Certainly, America was a nation founded upon God’s Word and chosen to experience His blessings since it’s inception but now has turned away from God thus suffering His wrath.

      What then, can God’s people do to help restore America to their former standing with Him? One thing we can do is to move away from all the rhetoric and ridiculous speculation about its future. Talk is cheap, and when all is said and done, more, oftentimes is said than done. God’s remedy for restoring a relationship with Himself is always to repent and return as He commands in Scripture. II Chronicles 7:14 illustrates God’s program for revival and restoration of a nation with the following admonition, “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.” 

      The trouble is that most of us, we preachers included, have relegated II Chronicles 7:14 to cliché status instead of a diligent practice and pursuit. This verse is far more than preaching fodder or a quick fix intended to address a nation’s ills. It is a painful and honest, yet blessed four-step approached to return a nation and people to a place of blessing with their Maker. And, may I say that the first surgical incision necessary to cut out the cancer of iniquity is to humble ourselves, and pray.

      What’s happened to soul searching and sin confessing corporate prayer in our churches? Do we even know what is means to humble ourselves? Dr. Tom Malone is quoted as saying that “We’ve changed the upper room into the supper room’ and the fasting room into the feasting room’ in our local churches.” Can we really preach God’s people into submission, program them into godliness, and pry them away from worldliness with Christian entertainment?

      Before I give myself over to vain rhetoric, I’ll refer to President Abraham Lincoln’s speech given during one of our nation’s gravest hours, the Civil War. He stated, “We have been recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven and have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.  Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us! It behooves us, then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.” Therein lies the antidote for our nation’s ills. May God have mercy on America.