We need to find the right expectations for the nation.
Psalm 42:5 – Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God.
Does your mind argue with itself about the coming election? Certainly, it is still months away, and much can happen, but too many in America are already downcast and dispirited.
Richard Sibbes, one of the great old Puritan preachers of Cambridge, England, who died in 1635, wrote in his book The Soul’s Conflict With Itself about that very problem. Things seem out of sorts and frighteningly discouraging. When that comes upon you, it is important to retrain your brain to think of the times in your past when you’ve held onto God—because there was no one else to turn to.
Remember how the Lord brought you through…because He has done it before, He will do it again! Those recollections can be the reservoir of strength you need for the day. It has been said that Biblical hope not only desires something good for the future—it expects it to happen!
Put your full faith and trust in God to work through the coming months, and to secure that hope in you so that you are not discouraged.
Pray With Us
Holy God, it is so easy to be discouraged, even depressed, when I look around and see all that is going on in this world, and worse, that it is going on in this nation that I love, America. Remind me to keep my focus on You. Fill the reservoir of my memories to overflowing and bring recollection to me of the many ways You have blessed me. Teach me again that the object of my hope—an election that goes “my way”—is not where I need to look. Instead, let me look to You, the Source of all hope. Instill in me that confident expectation that everything will work according to Your plan and to fulfill Your purposes. I trust You, Heavenly Father. In Jesus’ Name,
Amen.
