As His people...

I frequent a diaper bag forum and there is a little corner of it for spiritual discussion and prayer requests. (How cool is that, eh??!) Well, we have started taking turns posting a devotion on Mondays. Today was my day. I posted this and then felt convicted to post it here as well...so here it is:

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There is something that God has laid heavy on my heart over the last few months. As I sat down to seek God's face about what to write here, that same conviction gripped my gut. So...this will be a little about Nehemiah, a little about America and mostly about what God has called His people to do....what OUR role is in all of this. I don't write this lightly and I want you to all understand up front that everything typed within this is meant to be read with an understanding that all things that motivate believers should be based upon the unconditional love of our Savior living within us...and also with the understanding that unconditional love doesn't mean unconditional acceptance of all viewpoints. I believe every person God created has the right to think/believe/not believe whatever they want, but I also believe in God's absolute Truth, which He reveals to us through His Word. That Truth has been abused and people have done horrific things throughout history in "God's name" motivated purely by greed or the hunger for power.

This devotion is written only out of love for our country, love for other people and a deep seated consuming love for our Father and His Truth.

A little historical background on Nehemiah. He was the king's cupbearer. Nehemiah was an Israelite but had never been to Jerusalem. This was during the Jew's captivity and the Persian Empire had control over what is known as the Near Eastern world. The walls of Jerusalem had not been rebuilt from when it was originally defeated years before.

Nehemiah 1:1-4: 1 The words of Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah.
It came to pass in the month of Chislev, in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan the citadel, 2 that Hanani one of my brethren came with men from Judah; and I asked them concerning the Jews who had escaped, who had survived the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem. 3 And they said to me, “The survivors who are left from the captivity in the province are there in great distress and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem is also broken down, and its gates are burned with fire.”
4 So it was, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned for many days; I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven.

He goes on to pray and essentially takes the sins of the nation upon himself and confesses them before God in repentance.

Nehemiah's response to his question about a city he had never been to floors me. He mourns and repents on behalf of his nation. When I first read that a few weeks ago my heart was heavy for America. I see things accepted in our culture that are in direct opposition to God's Word and God's Truth. And honestly up til recently I was of the mindset that you cannot legislate morality or Truth, that both of those things are "heart issues" and governmental laws won't change the heart so the laws of our country didn't need to be linked to God's laws necessarily.

I still believe that governmental laws won't change a person's heart. But God showed me something through another study (The Truth Project) that I was taking at this same time. Every aspect of life on earth from the rain patterns to the set up for government to the set up for the family unit are all designed by God with His imprint on them. The government/governing authority was set up to protect people, keep the order and they were given the authority to carry out judgment. The key to all of this was with the understanding that God is the ultimate authority behind the laws and the judgment. Problems arise when governing authorities think they don't answer to God. Through all of this, God opened my eyes to the fact that laws don't change hearts, BUT in order for a nation to be a godly nation, their laws and judgments need to line up with God's laws and judgments. There is much about the laws in our country that do not line up with God's Word. We have all been trained to accept all moral codes and be "politically correct" because "religion has it's place, but not in government". The thing is, God is involved in all aspects of life and He should be involved in all aspects of OUR lives and we cannot compartmentalize God into a nice box we open on Sunday or open in our houses alone as a family but close up when it comes to politics or government.

People act out what they TRULY believe. They can say whatever they want....they can say they hold to God's moral code and His Truth, but unless they ACT upon those things, it means nothing. When a believer says in front of other believers that they believe swearing is wrong....yet swear like a sailor at work, people roll their eyes and can see through the hypocrisy. When a government official says they believe God's laws and then vote in direct opposition we all overlook that because we don't want to offend other schools of thought and thus we live out the lie that God is not involved in government.

Until recently I had believed a lie about my role in politics. Now I'm not suggesting anyone go out and jump in on picket lines or start stalking government authority or sleeping on the lawns of government buildings or beating anyone with God's Word. Or even standing on street corners on a box with a microphone preaching repentance or acceptance of God's Word. (But I suppose if that's how God convicts you to act, then go for it...just not my cup of tea nor what I'm suggesting in this devotion )

All I am saying is this:

2 Chronicles 7:14: 14 if 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 will forgive their sin and heal their land.

Our role is to stand on what we REALLY believe. We need to examine our own hearts and seek God's Truth in every belief we hold and align ourselves with His Truth, not our personal relative truth, which is a series of lies. The ONLY Truth is God's Truth and His Truth is the plumb-line to be applied to ALL aspects of our lives. And through that personal evaluation and prayer and seeking God's face we will allow God to prune our lives and align our behavior and that will accomplish two things....we will unite as one body in Christ, people will SEE God's love and Truth in action, and He will hear our prayers for our nation, forgive the sins of our nation and heal our country.

I realize this can be a hot topic and I did not set out in here to offend anyone and I really talked with God about this and would have rather done a different subject matter but He said no. So I read and prayed and re-read what I wrote and I am going to click the submission button and continue praying that this is received in the manner in which it was written.