A Drop in the Bucket

Do we live in a great country, or what??  Where else can young people aspire to be anything they wish – and achieve it?!  Where else on this big, blue planet can someone be born with the freedoms we have, including the choice to not only BELIEVE in our God, but to speak about Him freely to anyone who will listen?  So why in this election cycle are so many followers of Christ discouraged about the future of this great nation?  Let me explain why we shouldn’t be concerned.  Or better still, let me simply quote the words of the prophet, Isaiah:

Behold, the nations are as a drop in a bucket, and are counted as the small dust on the scales; Look, He lifts up the isles as a very little thing…All nations before Him are as nothing, and they are counted by Him less than nothing and worthless…     (Isaiah 40:15-17)

Now admit it; you didn’t see that coming, did you?  The reason we disciples of Jesus Christ need not be concerned about the future of America is quite simply because God’s purposes are not thwarted by any president or king or dictator.  The fact that God says nations are “less than nothing and worthless” doesn’t mean that God doesn’t care about you.  It means He cares about you REGARDLESS of the country of your residence.  Regardless of the freedoms your government allows you.  Regardless of the color of your skin, whether you live in a red state or a blue state, and regardless of whether you carry a Glock, or believe you shouldn’t be allowed to do so. 

God was in the business of setting people free thousands of years before America was even a dream.  And He’ll be doing it for millennia after America has ceased to exist.  I’m not talking about political freedom, but the freedom that comes from being ransomed from the slavery of sin and being adopted into an eternal, loving relationship by the God who created you.  Are you listening??

Have you not known?  Have you not heard?  Has it not been told you from the beginning?  Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?  It is He who sits above the circle of the earth…Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.  He brings the princes to nothing; He makes the judges of the earth useless.  Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these things…by the greatness of His might and the strength of His power; not one is missing.   (Isaiah 40:21-26)

The Christian faith doesn’t require the freedoms of America to function.  In fact, the ease with which we can practice our faith may be undermining our commitment to it.  Early Christians maintained holiness in pagan cultures filled with sensual temptations much worse than ours.  Many 1st-century believers were slaves who worshipped alongside their masters knowing that their circumstance was only temporary when compared with eternity.  I understand your angst over the next four-year term, but what if it’s 48 years and not just four?  Are you up to the challenge?  God told Isaiah to tell you this:

Have you not known?  Have you not heard?  The everlasting God, the Lord, The Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary.  His understanding is unsearchable.  He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength.  Even the children shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, but those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles.  They shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.   (Isaiah 40:28-31)

Jacob