ARE WE MAKING PROGRESS?

Or, as our friend of another generation put it:
Walking backwards down the stairs, trying to get higher
(Larry Norman).

Not news to you, is it? You watch the TV news, maybe read a paper or two, right? While doing that for a few weeks, if you know a little of last-days prophecy, you might agree with the late Judge Robert H. Bork—a major burr under the liberal saddle: In 1996 he wrote a book about America titled “Slouching Towards Gomorrah.”

There he stated that “Modern liberalism has corrupted our culture across the board.” He believed we are in moral and political decline. Hard to deny that if one is paying attention and is really a bible believer.

Author Richard Rhoades, in “The Babylon Code” decries “the Supreme Court’s sterilization of the great moral and spiritual values on which this nation was founded.”

I won’t bore you with pictures of gross “Pride Parades” and Spring Break orgies…with little or no interference from the law…you’ve already seen those.

They are modern examples of free speech. Everybody understands that except for a few of us old prudes.

But how did we get to this place and where might we be going? 

Here is the way it happens, according to the legendary Lord Byron:
“Civilization goes like this: First freedom, and then glory, and then wealth, and then vice, and then corruption, and then barbarism, and then collapse.”

The saddest thing is to see the vice and corruption in our national leaders. But, you know what? Maybe, with their temptations so easy to attain, so in-your-face, it’s not surprising that Lord Byron’s perceptive list would fall right into place.

We have to remember that the devil is actually there, throwing every possibility for under-the-table wealth, available-on-demand sex, and the possibilities of serious power right in the faces of these men and women.

Are they ready for that? Do they have a solid spiritual and moral foundation under them, and a heavenly air cover above them? If not, they’re easy prey. And we’ve seen it over and over. They become too arrogant to believe in retribution.

But then, when we look at our own weaknesses and consider how we might fare in what we have not been called upon to test—those positions of real power and privilege— we might drop our stones and get serious about intercession for these others.

Only when we call on the resources of Heaven is there power to overcome this open abyss of sin that can come with political power.

So, my premise is, that while we cry out in public forums for reform and repentance in our leadership, we need to be building that prayer foundation under them and providing an “air cover” over them, even though they will probably be totally unaware.

The spiritual world will be aware. And in the long run, that’s where it counts.

Only God’s people can do that; those who belong to the Lord Jesus Christ and so have open access to the throne of God.

Father, bless and move upon all our national leaders. Stir and transform their minds and make them righteous and wise.

Pull down from power all inflexible hearts that set their faces against you.
Replace them with those who will rule with godly wisdom and grace.

Provide every material need for them and their families. Protect them from every ungodly influence and attack.

Lord, we ask you to give us those who will govern on a righteous foundation that will find blessing in your eyes. Then provide them with the supernatural covering of the Holy Spirit and the constant protection of your heavenly host.

In Jesus’ Name.