Join the Save Our Nation Movement

SAVE OUR NATION MOVEMENT

Purpose:
The purpose of the Save Our Nation movement is to stop American’s downward ethical and moral spiral and begin reversing this trend by recognizing that our hope lies in God’s good intentions toward His children. One of these good intentions is detailed in II Chronicles 7:14: “If my people, which 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 will heal their land.”

Positions:
1. I believe that God’s promise to heal our land stated in II Chronicles 7:14 is relevant for today.
2. I believe that we can realize this promise by humbling ourselves, praying, seeking His face, and turning from our wicked ways.
3. I believe that if we join forces with other Christians to fulfill the conditions of this promise, God will withhold the judgment our nation deserves.
4. I also believe that if we fulfill these conditions, God will restore our country to moral and spiritual health and save our nation.

Description:
Over the years, I have sadly watched our nation retreat from many of the positive values that were commonly accepted only a few decades ago, values that made this nation great, and to which I pray we will return. I sometimes wonder what has happened to the country that I knew as a young man and loved. We, as Christians, know that all is not right with America. We deeply need a moral and spiritual renewal to help us meet the many problems that we face.
I was recently reading in the eighteenth and nineteenth chapters of Genesis about the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and was struck by some of the striking similarities between the depravity of these cities and the current moral condition of the United States. The point of this story is that God sometimes withholds judgment on a nation that is openly wicked in its ways if there are righteous men in residence. If there are not, He will eventually destroy it. The question is do we have enough righteous people in the United States to cause Him to spare us our deserved judgment?
I know that the God that I believe in is mighty and in control of everything that happens on Earth. Proverbs 21:1 says, “The King’s heart is in the hand of the Lord; He directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases.” This suggests that God is in control of the lives and actions of our national leaders – our President, Senators, Congressmen, Governors, etc. - directing them to do whatever He pleases, even if they do not acknowledge Him. If He so chooses, He can change the hearts of these individuals, causing them to do a complete about-face and make decisions based on what is best for the citizens of our country rather than on what is the most politically expedient for themselves.
I believe that we can stop our country’s downward spiral and begin a reverse trend by recognizing that our hope lies in God’s good intentions toward His children. One of these good intentions is detailed in II Chronicles 7:14: “If my people, which 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 will heal their land.” By “my people,” I believe God means people who know Him, who enjoy a relationship with Him. I think that He is saying that if we Christians humble ourselves and pray and seek His face and abandon habits and ways which are evil, then He will forgive us and RESTORE OUR LAND! What surprises me here is that He doesn’t talk about what nonbelievers should do – just those of us who call ourselves “Christians.” To me, this means if we – we Christians – obey this command, God will restore our land, benefiting both Christians and non-Christians.
If we do indeed believe that God’s promise to heal our land is relevant for today, how do we go about realizing it? As I mentioned earlier, II Chronicles 7:14 states that we can receive this promise if we (personally and as a group) do the following: humble ourselves, pray, seek His face, and turn from our wicked ways.
To humble ourselves before God, I believe that we need to follow Jesus’ example of humility. In Philippians 2:7-9, it says, “But [Jesus] made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross.” This scripture describes how Jesus came into the world without regard to having His personal rights (as the Son of God) recognized, focused instead on hearing from God and subsequently responding to the needs of people around Him. He lived a life of genuine humility – knowing who He was, but giving up the rights that were attached to being that person. We too have position with God – we are the “apple of His eye” and are “precious in His sight,” but we can choose to put aside our obsession with self-fulfillment and self-satisfaction to seek and do the will of our God.
We all have sin in our lives and need to go to God in prayer daily with a contrite heart to ask for forgiveness, not only of our iniquities but also of that despicable part of ourselves that causes us to commit those iniquities. How do we determine what things in our lives are displeasing to God? We can do this through prayer and reading the Bible, asking the Holy Spirit to reveal those things that we need to deal with. We need to honestly determine exactly what lies hidden in our own hearts and compare that to what God requires of us. After we pray for forgiveness of our personal transgressions, I believe it is appropriate for us to pray specifically for our nation.
After we humble ourselves before God and pray, the next step is to “seek God’s face.” As a child, I used to wonder exactly what our pastor meant when he talked about this. Later in life, I have come to believe that it means being passionate about knowing God’s heart and mind. We should desire to hear from Him related to how we should conduct our lives. I believe that God wants a heart-to-heart relationship with every believer. He desires intimacy with us. With this in mind, I think that we should seek fellowship with Him through reading the Bible, through prayer, and in worship.
The final step in the healing-our-land process is to “turn from our wicked ways.” I believe “turning from our wicked ways” means that after humbling ourselves before God, admitting that we are sinners, confessing our sins, and asking for forgiveness of them, we must actually turn from our sins. I think that God is asking us not to return to the sins that He has forgiven us.
What does God mean in II Chronicles 7:14 when he says he will heal our land? I can’t say that I know exactly what a “healed land” would look like. I do, however, believe that God will somehow diminish spiritual apathy and opposition, stirring up an awakening among both believers and ultimately nonbelievers and restoring His favor on our nation. I believe that if we, as believers, will fulfill the conditions of the promise that He has set forth in II Chronicles 7:14, He will provide these blessings and unimaginable others to our United States. I believe that despite the unbelievable moral and ethical downslide that our nation has chosen, God will keep His promise. I think that He is waiting for us – for Christians – to humble ourselves, pray, seek His face, and abandon our wicked ways. I believe that God is willing to withhold the judgment on our nation (much like He was willing to do for Sodom and Gomorrah) if we prove to have an element of sincerely righteous people. I feel that we do indeed at this point have a significant number of righteous people in the United States and that if we join together in appropriating His conditional promise, He will respond. I challenge believers – including myself – to join forces with other Christians in a movement to fulfill the conditions of this promise from God. The future of our nation may depend on our willingness to do so.

Commitment:
I agree as a Christian to join this cause and signify that I am in agreement with the following:
• I believe that God’s promise to heal our land stated in II Chronicles 7:14 is relevant for today.
• I believe that we can realize this promise by humbling ourselves, praying, seeking His face, and turning from our wicked ways.
• I believe that if I join forces with other Christians to fulfill the conditions of this promise, God will withhold the judgment that our nation deserves, restore our country to moral and spiritual health, and save our nation.

The significance of the number forty in the Bible:
The number forty holds a particular significance in the Bible. It is associated with a period of time spent searching, wondering, listening, and receiving new revelations. There are a least ten instances in the Old Testament and New Testament were the number forty is mentioned, either in terms of days or years. For example, Jesus fasted in the wilderness for forty days, and was seen on the earth for forty days after His crucifixion. Noah warned the city of Nineveh that they had forty days until God would overthrow the city. The people repented during those forty days and God spared the city. Goliath taunted the Israelite army for forty days before being killed by David. With the significance of this number in mind, I would like to challenge you to commit to examining yourself on a daily basis (for a minimum of forty days) to determine if you are humbling yourself before God, acknowledging that you are a sinner, confessing your sins, asking for forgiveness, seeking God’s face, and turning from your wicked ways.

Are you willing to take the forty-day challenge?
If you are willing to join forces with other Christians in accepting the forty-day challenge to humble yourself, pray, seek God’s face, and turn from your wicked ways, I would appreciate it if you would let me know via this blog. If not, I would be interested in hearing your thoughts concerning this matter. I also will be glad to answer any questions that you may have related to this movement.