If The Gospel Is The Power Of God Unto Salvation, Then Why Are We So Powerless Today?

I was reading this morning the story of when Solomon died and his son Rehoboam took over his reign. Rehoboam was an unwise man. He sought counsel from those who gave counsel to Solomon, and asked how he should treat the people. The wise counselors told him that if he were to treat the people with kindness and servitude, he would have their allegiance forever. Instead of following this advice however, Rehoboam chose to treat the people with a heavy hand. Many decided to leave Israel and live without a king over them, at least for a while. The ones who stayed faithful to Rehoboam were the ones who lived in Judea.

I was thinking of how we as Americans might respond to the evil that is now being manifest in our country's top leaders. We live in a country where there still are people who want to do what is right. I remember the incident a couple of years ago when the owner of Chick Fil A wrote a letter saying that he believed marriage was made of one man and one woman. The uproar was amazing. Those who stood on the right side decided to encourage those who believe marriage is made up of one man and one woman to support Chick Fil A by visiting this restaurant. The Chick Fil As were flooded the next day. But the other side also was angry. They decided to protest Chick Fil A by going there the next day and showing support from their side (not by ordering food, but by being on the property and causing a rukus). The next day, there were very few who turned out.

But why do the righteous seem so powerless? Why do the evil seem so strong? Why does a judge who has the 10 Commandments on his courtroom wall get removed from the bench? Why do florists and bakers who will not bake a wedding cake or provide flowers for a gay wedding be penalized? Why do companies like Target continue their aggressive pursuit of providing restrooms where people can choose to go into, based upon their sexual preference instead of their genitals, without relenting their stand while losing an enormous amount of money and customers?

There are probably a lot of answers to this question, and we cannot tackle them all here, but, regardless of the reasons why evil is so successful, is primarily due to the fact that we have not been fighting well in the spiritual battle we are involved in.

Many professing Christians come to Christ by asking Jesus into their hearts. They think it is ok to continue to live selfish lives and have not been told that they need to repent and turn to the Lord, as well as trusting in Him for salvation. Many aren't really trusting in Jesus as their Savior from sin because they don't really know what sin is and how it affects their relationship with God. Their trust is in the fact that they have asked Jesus into their hearts, and now they think they are good to go, or at least they think they will be in heaven one day. Many do not realize that they are in a real spiritual battle, and they need the power of God to fight the Enemy with. If we don't get this right, we will lose. The Enemy is too powerful for us to fight against on our own. We must be empowered by the Holy Spirit and use the weapons God has given us to fight with. One of those weapons we can use is prayer.

We think, many times, that we really are praying. But what are we praying for? Do we look at God as some kind of Genie in the Bottle? Can we push the right buttons and make Him do what we want? Or, is there a bigger picture of our lives that we are missing, which includes prayer as a spiritual defense? There's nothing wrong with praying for our needs, as long as we are abiding in Christ. God promises to take care of us, and we should ask for what we need. But if we are living for ourselves instead of for Him, then how can we pray and expect God to hear our prayers?

We need to pray that God will unravel the network of evil-doers who are planted in our government. We need to stand up for what is right and true, and defend those who are standing up for the truth. New laws are being written and the basic laws that our country was founded upon are being rewritten. We need to promote God's word and do the work of evangelism, so our country can be saved, and so we can continue the work of the ministry here in our country, to serve us, but also to serve those in other countries around the world.