Is this not a picture of America? We are stricken. We are sick and faint. Mental disease and depression are at an all time high. Many are considering suicide. Heart disease is at the top of the list of killers. People kill and steal and wound. Our nation experiences diseases which are overwhelming to the medical profession, including wounds that cannot be cured. Sexually transmitted diseases abound.
And w the solution? We are looking to man for the solution. We try creams and ointments and medications and vaccines to prevent disease so that people can have “safe sex” and “enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season” when God says, “Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled:” and “For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh.” (See Hebrews 11:25; 13:4; and Matthew 19:5)
Our land is full of abominations - murder of unborn babies, homosexuality and lesbianism, feminism, and many others. God could well say to America as He did to Israel, “Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts? Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them. And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.” (Isaiah 1:10-15)
God starts in right away with declaring the wickedness of His own people, of those who are called by His name, and those who pretend to worship Him but deny Him in works. Our churches in America are just like this. There are large churches which are nothing more than entertainment centers. People can go in and play basketball and hear loud music and do whatever their heart desires as long as they pay their tithe. In our churches we have begun to use the music of the world and the methods of the world to attract crowds. Our church libraries have books that can lead young people and young Christians astray or get them confused spiritually. Some churches have ordained homosexual or lesbian ministers, ministers who are committing sins that God says are an abomination to Him.
And the result is that God does not hear us when we pray. We tithe and pray and do many good works, but God does not hear us because we do not repent of our sins. America likes her sin and is getting deeper and deeper into sin each day. We have feasts and celebrations to commemorate events told about in the Bible, but God does not care for these when we do not care to worship Him in truth, when we draw nigh to Him with our lips but our heart is far from Him. God does not hear us when we pray. Our iniquities have separated between us and our God, and our sins have hid His face from us, and He will not hear. (See Isaiah 59:2) “For our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us: for our transgressions are with us; and as for our iniquities, we know them.” (Isaiah 59:12)
Since God will not hear us, what have we done? We have looked to man to be our god. Many churches are caught up in government aid programs. Some are in favor of and even pushing for the new health care reform, a reform in which the government guarantees that every American will have access to health care. We are looking to a new god to heal our diseases and save our land and fix all our troubles and provide all our needs. I read the description for one website, “Nobody wants the government to give them everything.” No, just a little more and a little more.
But if God will not hear us when we pray, what can we do? God is a good God and full of mercy. He extended His mercy to Israel. God’s character has not changed. No doubt He still holds out His wide open hands in love, to us, a disobedient and gainsaying people. Hear His wonderful words of hope. “Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.” (Isaiah 1:16-20)
“Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.” (James 1:27)
May God help us!