I love how President Abraham Lincoln pointed out to Americans that our pride can cause our nation to suffer:

We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven, we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity, we have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.²

When something bad happens in our world, I have heard people use that as an excuse as to why they do not believe in God. But until people are willing to see the root of the problem, they will never understand. You see, it is we who stepped away from God and disobeyed. We are the ones who lack compassion, although great compassion has been given to us. We were so caught up in sin, without hope, and in desperate need of salvation. It was because of us that Jesus died on the cross. When we step out of the protection of God by disobeying His Word, there are natural consequences to our disobedience.

However, instead of us realizing our fault, we allow pride to sink in and we fail to take responsibility for our part in the chaos in our lives and in the world. God’s blessings are always available to His children when we choose to submit to His will and walk in obedience to His Word. We should be the first ones falling on our knees in humility and crying out to God for forgiveness, both for ourselves and for our nation. Jesus asked his Father to forgive those who were crucifying him because they didn’t know what they were doing (Luke 23:34). We have the certainty that Jesus will come again, so we should daily be seeking God’s face, praying for our land, and asking God to use us to reach as many as possible with the gift of His Salvation.

Suggested prayer: Dear God, our world needs You. Until you come again, please use me to share the Good News with others and live in such a way that will bring honor and glory to you. Forgive me for acting in disobedience to Your Word. Restore our hearts and our land we pray. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

1.    2 Chronicles 7:14 (NLT).

2.    A. Lincoln, Proclamation of a day of National Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer, 1863.

The Encounter for today was written by: Crystal B.