“Has God lifted His hand from the United States?” Some people wonder.

Birthed through a deep desire for religious liberty and the impact of Divine Providence on very diverse founders, America has given help, hope, freedom and opportunity to more people and nations than any other. Throughout history, we have assisted the suffering and fought to protect not only our interests, but those of others. American Christians have supported extensively the proclamation of the transforming gospel of Jesus Christ with more people than any other nation.

Despite this historical fact, I am amazed that many Americans with common sense who may not even claim a relationship with our Lord seem to care more about the future of freedom than do the people who claim to know the truth that sets us free and is essential to keep us free.

How tragic that those who really know Christ have kept him so well-hidden under the covering of their own religious traditions, comfort, compromise and complacency. Whatever happened to a broken heart for a broken nation, and the zeal to stand courageously for freedom? Many shepherds and church leaders have been silent when it comes to the bold proclamation of God’s Word and lifting high freedom’s standards for fear of losing their tax exemptions. As a result we now face the loss of religious freedom to share the gospel in the public square;  definitions of marriage — and even sex — seemingly shift by the hour.

“For freedom Christ set us free.” (Galatians 5:1)

And the venomous assaults by one Christian leader or church member on others smother the transforming power of the gospel in our own day.

Yet despite the nation’s turn from Truth, and the sad apathy of much of the Church, let me state:

For anyone to question whether God cares about the future freedom of a nation that has received and freely shared His blessings is one of the most outlandishly preposterous things I have ever heard in my life.

Jesus Weeps for Our Nation

Wake up, church! You can rest assured, the Lord who wept at the grave of Lazarus because others were weeping is weeping over this nation as it approaches the grave. How sad that the family of God is not weeping with Him, knowing that He is the one who has the power to raise a dying nation from any potential grave.

With the same obvious compassion revealed at the tomb of Lazarus, Jesus wept over Jerusalem and extended the most glorious, grace-filled invitation possible to a rebellious people. The desolation of the city was as clear in Christ’s mind as the reality of the eternal Kingdom. Yet He had compassion on those who had rejected and stoned the prophets, and turned their backs on God’s Word and His commandments, and turned toward religious traditions and idolatry. As He looked down over the city, expressing the desire for these foolish, rebellious people to rush to the shelter and shadow of the Almighty as “chicks to the wings of a hen.”

God longs for each of us to experience the best of all the blessings He offers in Christ — to receive the full impact of freedom and share its effect around the world.

A few years ago in a very serious time of prayer, I felt the passion and compassion of Christ overwhelm me. I was experiencing what Paul and many of the apostles lived. It was “Christ in a man,” and a man in Christ for that special moment.

Somehow my mind’s eye allowed me to see those chicks rushing to a hen as I saw when I was a boy in the farmyard of my uncle. I saw Americans running rapidly and in great numbers to the shadow and shelter of the only true Shepherd who can lead any people from storm-tossed waters to still waters and from barren land to green pastures. I saw them coming with broken hearts and repentance to discover the fullness of God’s forgiveness and its effect.

In His love and mercy God declares He will make up for “the years the locusts have eaten” — those forces that devour the productivity, fruitfulness and prosperity that He offers in Promised Land living. Remember the promise of Hosea to those who were perishing for lack of understanding and knowledge, and who had turned their backs on God? In response to the glorious invitation, He announces in the final verses, “You will again grow grain.”

Our Father in heaven and our loving Savior is surely looking at our nation with compassion and extending that same glorious invitation to come back to the shelter and shadow of the Almighty like chicks to the wings of a hen.

The Lord Still Extends His Grace-Filled Invitation

God longs for each of us to experience the best of all the blessings He offers in Christ — to receive the full impact of freedom and share its effect around the world. As misguided and misdirected as many Americans are, and as foolishly as we have trampled underfoot the sacred and exchanged the truth of God for a lie, our Lord still extends that grace-filled invitation calling for a return to Him.

If we respond in repentance, He will heal our land, beginning with the healing of our hearts, relationships and understanding, and freely pour out wisdom, enabling us to “hear truth lift its voice at the head of every street, shouting to all of us,” and offering what only God can make possible.

Join me in praying that the American people will respond to the grace-filled invitation of the Lord, who is the trustworthy Shepherd anxious to meet every need, while leading us in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake and the sake of the freedom He gave His life to make possible.

“For freedom Christ set us free.” (Galatians 5:1)