God’s Purpose for Nations

I started a series on American history more months ago than I want to admit. Perhaps the timing is even better now. The election is imminent. Groans for our country roll beneath the surface of communication.

Carrying my bucket of rags through the formal dining room, I stopped to talk to the home owner. Our discussion turned to politics. Fear expressed. Hope beaten. My voice cracked, “God is merciful.” I felt foolish crying when I came to clean. Thinking of God’s dream for America overwhelmed my emotions.

I keep hearing hard times are coming to this country. I don’t pretend to know the future, but no matter what happens, I want to be ready. Is that possible? How can I prepare for the unknown?

• Should I stock my pantry like I did at the end of 2000? We had enough beans to last seven years.
• Should I research how to thrive in economic turmoil? My grandmother used to stash cash in her sock drawer.

Gathering provisions isn’t wasteful, unless buckets of wheat become home to weevils. But food and money cannot sustain the hope we need to survive.

Can we live abundantly in the midst of hardships? My friend in Tanzania attempts to. In spite of dry, dusty, and devastating conditions, she continues to love the neighbors God asked her to serve.

As she refreshes her little garden with water, her heart cries for a nation scratching its existence in a harsh climate where corruption and poverty consume. She gazes at majestic Kilimanjaro and wonders if she can make a difference. Can she teach souls whose hopes are buried in the sand? By her life, she reveals her faith in Providence, who is active in Africa as well as America.

When I pray it is not just for my country. God has dreams for every individual and every nation. Paul explains in his sermon on Mars Hill while preaching to the Romans:

And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us. (Acts 17: 26-27)

Nations are God’s idea. He uses the successes and failures of men’s attempts to govern to point mankind back to him, the only one worthy of worship.

Government is not big enough or good enough to be my god and my hope. In perilous times, my peace is found by gazing upward and putting my trust in the author of history. He sees my tears, wipes them away with his mercy, and promises to sustain me with joy for eternity.