God Is In Control: Comfort or Fear?

   I imagine that every generation living in the US, as they come to an election time, feels that this particular one coming up is the most important. There have always been major issues, from wars to cultural problems, that need the intervention of God to take care of. Probably every 4 years, as the citizens go to vote, the prayer of many is that God will take care of the problem of the moment so that the country can continue to grow and prosper.

   It seems no different this election cycle. The morality issues hit us from every angle. There is the violence, the abortion mess, the degeneration of high standards all through our entertainment and media culture, the elevation of deviant behavior and the ridicule of anything Christian. Then there is the economic situation, high unemployment, deficit spending, increasing national debt, loss of competitive advantage, and the entitlement culture. All of the above sap us of our collective moral and economic strength.

   As I hear our national leaders and want-to-be leaders, as well as the national parties that they represent, talk about how they will "fix" the problems and return this land to its former prosperous state, I wonder how we can make it as a people. How can we return this land to its former glory so that our children and grandchildren can have it as good or better than we have? How can the US be the light to the world that it has represented before, when darkness is crowding out that light?

   So many questions, so few answers coming out of the mouths of our national speakers. Have we lost our way, never to find it again?

   Then the thought hits me "God is in Control", and, for a moment I am comforted. Then I think farther and wonder if I should be happy or fearful of that fact.

   God is in control, no doubt about that, but does that statement imply that our country will rise up from its desperate situation and regain its glory, or does it mean that God will allow us to sink into an also ran nation, one whose glory days are in the past, dooming our children and theirs to a life of mediocrity and fear? We yearn for peace and prosperity, and we may be getting war and suffering. Has God put up with us long enough?

   A lot of the time when I pray, "Thy will be done", I envision good things, good things from my viewpoint, but His will can be for the things that might draw us back to Him, where we belong. These might not be so good in our eyes.

   Yes, God is in control, but I don't need to use it in such a flippant manner. We may want his blessings, but deserving them is another thing altogether.

   The one comfort I get from realizing that He knows and cares is that He is working in the hearts of men to cause them to seek and find Him. His control is for ultimate good, for me individually and for the country and its people as well.

  His words are  "Trust Me", and I will.

   The last verse of The National Anthem:

   Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

   We need that Trust again and in a big way.