Burdens, Anger, Sorrow, and Prayer

As I sit down and write in this blog today, I’m not really sure where my thoughts are going to end up. All I know is that I am terribly burdened for the future of this nation. Christians sometimes talk about feeling a burden for a specific person or problem; well, that’s where I am today.

Where is the line between anger and sorrow? I reach a point where I don’t want to hear the same old lies over and over as I listen to the political debate. An anger stirs within me that wants to be released in a shout or a prophetic utterance of some kind. How I wish at times I could be Jeremiah, and point to certain individuals and say, “You want to know what evil is? Here, look at this person. This is evil.”

Yet I cannot allow the anger to take over. There is such a thing as righteous anger, and when you feel it, you have not sinned. What it should lead to, though, is a deep sorrow–sorrow over the deceptive practices, sorrow over the blindness of the people who are led astray, sorrow over what this portends for the country as a whole.

Too many Christians, I’m afraid, retreat into a well-worn phrase: “God is still in control.” While I agree that ultimately all people will answer to Him, I am also quite aware that not everything that happens is His will. He has given us the ability to choose, and more often than not, people choose sin. We cannot simply rest on the idea that God is in control. What we do in this life has consequences. Can God overrule some decisions? Of course. Can He bring good out of evil? He has done so many times. But that doesn’t mean the evil is not real; it doesn’t mean that there won’t be disastrous results emanating from our sinful choices.

So that’s where I am today. This burden I feel should lead to prayer. That is where we find the presence of God; that is where He gives us direction; that is where He offers His peace; and only through prayer will anything change.