Utterly dependent

Fireworks still echo outside, both from the seemingly infinite city-sponsored shows surrounding my neighborhood and from the many people who have taken the liberty of shooting off their own.  It's fun, and certainly there are few other American freedoms that can be enjoyed more viscerally than blowing crap up.  The reason is certainly a good one as well: the establishing in words of the founding principles of this nation, principles worth fighting for to be sure.  God blessed this nation with founders who were able to take a collection of loosely affiliated states that had plenty of their own squabbles and problems with each other, and found a nation based upon those ideals.  Founded and further forged in the fire of war, God has done mighty works in this country for His glory. 

But this is not a "And it's all going downhill because of those dang liberals!" speech.  If you look a couple posts down, you'll see something much longer I've written on the same general subject, but I felt this deserved revisiting on this, the day we celebrate our independence from England: our nation is one established by God, for His purposes and glory, subject to His will, and nothing will disrupt that.  Last night I flipped on the radio and heard a host earnestly addressing his audience that it is utterly imperative that we defeat Barack Obama in the general election--and in general, I agree that I would prefer this outcome.  I think his policies are bad and that they've had a measurably destructive effect on the country, economically and otherwise. 

But he insisted that Obama will "destroy this country" if he's reelected, that there is little to no chance of recovery if he does.  Is he right?  Maybe, in the sense that this country may tend towards socialist ideals and a notion that one may as well just accept the handout, rather than fight the growing machine.  But this country's destiny is in the hands of God.  It his the common grace of law and order that He has extended us that has maintained it, and God willing continue us into the future.  He has appointed our leaders for His purposes and it is his nation to give and take away.  I will vote, I will discuss and debate, but my desire for those opportunities, and especially for the words I speak is that they point to Jesus as the real hope of the world.  There is no ultimate political solution, no government that will perfectly rule, no politician or despot or king that will organize a society into perfection except for the King of Kings. 

I do pray for God's mercy on this nation, but that mercy may look like difficulty and struggle as God goes after hearts and removes comforts from our lives so that we cannot shut Him out.  Friends of mine who have been working on mission in nations that actively persecute Christians report that believers there will sometimes pray that we here will undergo more persecution ourselves, that we might become more active and less complacent about our walks.  I don't know if I'd care to ask for that myself, though I do ask that God would begin to transform many hearts across this land and historically, that has not happened during times of great wealth and comfort. 

My hope is in no elected or unelected man.  It is in Jesus, and in God's grand design to transform men's hearts from rebellious and sinful into obedient and loving, to break the bonds of sin for all of us by showing us the cross of Christ and letting us know the immense price paid for our salvation.  I pray that I would love the Lord more and that I would shed sins that hold me back from displaying that love, things like selfishness and greed, and a lust for earthly things.  We are a free land, but we are utterly dependent on a God that loves us and calls us to live as adopted and redeemed children, heirs of the greatest treasure in the universe.