A Way In The Desert

"This is what the LORD says— he who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters, "Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland." Isaiah 43:16, 18-19

Last night as I lay in bed not sleeping, I was thinking and praying on a few things. I'd had a few troubling dreams the past few nights about specific people, and when that happens, I usually just spend time praying for those people. I spent a lot of time yesterday praying for someone who I haven't even seen or heard from in about six years, but all day long, I just felt compelled to pray for this person. Crazy, but true.

One of the things that I was thinking about last night as I wasn't sleeping was the current state our country is in. I was thinking about how the kids and I will start school back up next week, and for the next month or so we will be immersed in the realities of the Revolutionary War. I was almost crying as I lay there last night, as I thought about where this country began. I just... last night I just was weeping for the country that seems to be fading. When we read the accounts and the stories of how the US started as a country of freedom... I just don't understand how we got where we are today. People fled Europe and England because King James was telling them where and how to worship- and it extended further than that. The King was trying to dictate every area of their lives- there was no freedom. And these precious people risked their lives to try and start over, to try and find a life where they could worship God as they pleased. The Revolutionary War was fought because these settlers and landowners in the colonies saw that King James was trying to make America a new England. He was taxing them and imposing his laws from across the ocean.

The patriots fought for freedom from tyranny and rules. And look how far we've fallen. The American people have forgotten where we began. The American people have forgotten what it looks like to live in a country where the government has control of everything. We want our government to give us jobs, money, health care, housing, food, insurance...we think we're entitled, and we want our government to give it to us while we sit on the sofa and give ourselves diabetes and heart disease.

May God forgive us for our apathy and for our sense of entitlement! I think if some of those patriots of old saw us today, they would not know that they were looking at the United States of America. I've been reading biographies of George Washington- now there was a man who was favored by God! He was a great man, full of ideas and ideals, and he thanked God for his successes. He didn't think he was entitled to his land or to being a leader in a new country. He worked hard in his youth to get to where he got in his adult life. He worked hard, and he talked to God. Nothing was assumed, and nothing was taken for granted. Freedom was so, so incredibly precious to President Washington. As was fairness, and a concern for all people.

I realize I did my Warfare Wednesday post yesterday, but as we close on 2009 and look ahead to 2010, I just feel so deeply that anyone and everyone who has a relationship with God needs to spend some time on their knees, thanking God for this beautiful country we are blessed to live in, and we need to ask forgiveness for our current state of mind. If the people would only pray, I believe a way will be made in the desert. If the people would pray, I believe that God would show His favor on this country once again, and would make a path where there seems to be no path. If the people would pray, I believe that we will see this new thing that God is doing. If the people will pray, we will see the streams in the wasteland- and know that those streams are full of living water.

If the people would pray, God would make a way.